wfn.org | Catholic Church in Taiwan Successfully Promotes Composting of Kitchen

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Waste
Taiwan Church News 2728, 7 - 13 June 2004
Reported by Gu Hao-jan. Translated and Rewritten by David Alexander

Mr Chang Wen-shian is a tree fruit grower in Wufeng Township of Hsinchu
County. He farms more than two acres.  Three Years ago his pastor, Father
Barry Martinson, SJ, of Holy Cross Catholic Church in Wu-feng, encouraged him
to switch from chemical fertilizers to natural ones derived from recycled
kitchen waste. The result is that he has neither lost harvest nor wasted
money
on chemicals. Each harvest since the change over has been larger than the
past. On June 7th people came from far and near to a demonstration project at
a local elementary school to see the environmental protection and harvest
increasing results of this project.

Things started approximately six years ago when Father Martinson walked about
his parish and saw garbage everywhere. He began a private crusade to "Say the
Mass wherever there was garbage" as a way to encourage his neighbors to
engage
in recycling and cleanup.  Slowly things changed, and the environment of the
village improved.

Two years later Father James Vyathappan, SVD joined with the Wufeng Township
Association for Tayal Cultural Advancement to promote garbage separation,
environmental greening and recycling. Part of that project was "kitchen waste
recycling and composting."

Ms Yeh Jing-juan, who was involved in the project from its inception, says,
"If it pays attention to and promotes kitchen waste recycling, a community
like this can make use of  up to 150 tons a month of waste. By recycling it
we
do not waste the resource or the money to purchase the fertilizer that we
would be using otherwise. We also do not create a knock-on ecological problem
of waste disposal." According to Ms. Yeh there are five tree fruit farmers in
the village who use recycled waste as fertilizer. Mr. Chang Wen-shian
(mentioned above) she says, has the most complete setup.

For More Information: Holy Cross Catholic Church +886 3 5856062
Father Barry Martinson	FAX +886 3 5851180
Father James Vyathappan FAX +886 2 87974131

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