A Taiwanese contractor is accused of burying tens of thousands of tons of construction waste at an army training ground in Hsinchu while billing it as legitimate road base, earning over NT$1.3 billion illegally.

• Prosecutors in Taoyuan have charged nine people and six companies over waste dumped at the Hukou training ground.
• The army was told the fill was recycled gravel; digging in April turned up broken bricks, plastic pipe, scrap metal, wire, and foam.
• Fake "recycled product" sales contracts made it look like the material was bought legally, while waste producers quietly paid disposal fees disguised as freight charges.
• The main suspect is in custody and prosecutors want to seize more than NT$1 billion in profits.

Outlook: The army center and the six companies have been ordered to submit cleanup plans, so the cost and scale of removing the buried waste will become clearer next.