Taichung is spending big money to haul away leftover school lunches, and councillors say the cash would work better as prize money for classes that clean their plates.

• The city budgets about NT$82.5 million a year to collect and dispose of food waste from school lunches.
• Councillors say that figure is shocking and that waste is going up, not down, despite a reduction plan.
• The budget assumes 150 grams of waste per student per meal, though the education department says the real figure is now around 80 grams.
• An earlier scheme paying schools NT$50,000 each for composting or black soldier fly setups drew only 17 schools and weak results.
• The suggested fix: turn the disposal money into class rewards so students have a reason to finish their food, paired with food education.

Outlook: The education department is sticking with its current grants of NT$5,000 to NT$20,000 per school for waste-cutting contests, so any shift to class prize money would need a budget rethink.