The Department of Environmental Protection of the Taoyuan City Government’s (TYDEP) first "Tear Down Small Ads for Goodies" campaign, in which the citizens of Taoyuan removed up 12,970 kilograms (about 1.29 million) of illegal ad posters in 2022 met with an enthusiastic response, with a total of about NT$120,000 in gift coupons and NT$210,000 in Taoyuan Citizen Card top-up credits, and 6,482 lucky draw tickets were also distributed. Chen Shih-Wei, Director-General of the TYDEP, also drew the lucky draws for three 65-inch LCD TVs worth more than NT$30,000 and other grand prizes today (15).
The "Tear Down Small Ads for Goodies" campaign encourages the public to join together and tear down small ads from city streets and public spaces. By tearing down 2 kilograms of small ads (approximately 200 sheets of A4 ad paper), participants can redeem a NT$50 convenience store gift card and a lucky draw ticket. According to statistics, about 20.2 million unauthorized ad posters have been removed by volunteers over the past 8 years, redeeming gift cards and Taoyuan Citizen Card top-up credits valued at over NT$4.81 million.
Director-General Chen of the TYDEP pointed out that in addition to violating the Waste Disposal Act and the Telecommunications Act, if unauthorized small ad posters do not state the name of the brokerage business on the real estate advertisement, it is also a violation of the Real Estate Broking Management Act and will be referred to the Department of Land Administration for a fine of NT$60,000 to NT$300,000, which far exceeds the maximum fine of $6,000 under the Waste Disposal Act. In 2022, five incidents were cited and referred to the Department of Land Administration and penalties were imposed on the violators. Real estate agents are urged to make good use of legal channels for advertising and marketing, pay for legal posting of advertisements on public street light poles and public billboards, or face legal consequences.
Director-General Chen explained that Taoyuan City has been rapidly transformed and progressed since its ascension into a direct municipality, and the development of various urban rezoning areas has also led to an increase in illegal small ads on streets and public spaces, which has invariably impacted the tidiness and orderliness in the city. Unscrupulous business owners often choose to post illegal advertisements at night or early in the morning before the city’s cleaning team goes on duty. Even a daily manpower of about 150 staff members working tirelessly to remove illegal ad posters has proven inadequate to curb such behaviors. Therefore, it is hoped that the combined efforts of the public can increase cleaning capacity. In 2022, the Environmental Maintenance and Inspection Division removed about 1.02 million pieces of illegal advertisements on its own, of which 6,597 contact numbers were suspended under the Telecommunications Act and 684 cases were reported under the Waste Disposal Act, with fines of about NT$2.39 million imposed on violators. Volunteers tore down 1.29 million pieces of illegal advertisements, about 1.3 times more than the cleaning team, which is the biggest driving force behind the maintenance of the city’s tidiness and orderliness.
The winners of the "Tear Down Small Ads for Goodies" campaign and the way to claim the prize will be announced on February 16 on the official website of the Environmental Maintenance and Inspection Division of Taoyuan City Government (https://www.tyemid.gov.tw/). Winners are encouraged to note the prize redemption time and present their original lucky draw tickets and ID cards to the Environmental Maintenance and Inspection Division Office of the TYDEP (No. 1, Fazhi Road, Taoyuan District, Taoyuan City) before March 15 to collect prizes.