Taipei, Taiwan — As illegal advertisements continue to clutter Taipei’s public spaces—from electric poles and street lamps to transformer boxes and building walls—City Councilor Chen Chongwen is urging the Environmental Protection Bureau to reinstate a citizen participation program to help combat the persistent issue.
Chen’s proposal follows Hsinchu City’s successful “Everyone Tear Off Advertisements for Gift Coupons” campaign, which encouraged residents to remove illegal ads in exchange for small incentives like gift certificates and household goods. The Taipei Environmental Protection Bureau had previously run a similar campaign from 2019 to 2022, rewarding citizens with items such as toilet paper and dishwashing liquid. At its peak, nearly 2,000 redemptions were recorded in a year. However, declining participation led the bureau to discontinue the program, citing that its educational objectives had been met.
Despite the program’s end, Councilor Chen argues that Taipei continues to suffer from illegal ad clutter and that the city’s limited manpower makes enforcement difficult. He advocates for reviving a reward-based system, possibly through a pilot program coordinated with district offices. He also recommends a comprehensive plan that includes weighing ad removal by category, integrating digital tools for hotspot monitoring, and enhancing penalty enforcement.
In response, Deng Songjun, Director of the Environmental Cleanliness Management Division, confirmed that the bureau is open to evaluating the proposal’s feasibility. He also highlighted the current three-pronged strategy for handling illegal postings:
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Manual Removal – Cleaning teams actively remove visible advertisements and patrol hotspots reported via the 1999 citizen hotline. In 2023 alone, over 230,000 illegal ads were taken down.
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Phone Suspension – If contact numbers are found on the advertisements, teams document the violation and request telecom providers to suspend the lines. This tactic led to over 1,000 call suspensions last year.
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Fines and Enforcement – On-the-spot violators caught posting illegal ads can be fined NT$3,600 or more under the Waste Disposal Act. Enforcement resulted in hundreds of fines issued in recent years.
Deng also noted that while street-level advertising is still visible—particularly near housing developments—the trend has shifted toward digital platforms, such as social media. Nonetheless, the Environmental Protection Bureau remains committed to keeping the city’s public spaces clean and said it would seriously consider enhancements that involve citizen collaboration.
As Taipei grapples with maintaining urban aesthetics and enforcing city regulations, the call for public engagement might offer a sustainable way to amplify city cleanup efforts and build civic responsibility.
