A distinction between ordinary and enterprise waste was made in the Waste Disposal Act for the first time in 1974. A further distinction between ordinary and hazardous enterprise waste was made in 1985 when the Act underwent the second revision. While disposal of ordinary waste (garbage) was the duty of the local government, it was made clear that the enterprises should either dispose their own waste properly or entrust the job of disposal to qualified private agencies. If the ordinary enterprise waste could emerge with other ordinary waste, then the enterprises should pay for the disposal service provided by the government facilities. The Act emphasized that hazardous enterprise waste should not be mixed up with ordinary enterprise waste. According to the revision in 1985, enterprises who violate the Act will receive a fine of NT$2,000-10,000 in regard to ordinary waste and NT$20,000-50,000 in regard to hazardous waste.

      In January 1986 a measure for controlling enterprise waste was drawn by the Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) of the Department of Health under the Executive Yuan. The EPB was then the central authority in charge of environmental affairs before the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) was established in 1987. It was estimated at that time that the amount of enterprise waste was twice that of ordinary waste. (Lien-ho pao, 1986/01/11/3) At a meeting to examine the environmental protection affairs held in March 1986, an EPB official made a warning about the enormous amount of enterprise waste. He said that the amount of enterprise waste was six times ordinary waste, of which one-tenth was hazardous; yet, there was still no regulation to define hazardous chemical components of enterprise waste. Wang Chao-ming, the Chairman of the Council of Economic Planning and Development, suggested that enterprise waste was a problem related to industrial society and he urged the Department of Health to carry out investigations and propose ways to deal with the situation. Thus, the EPB drew up 12 items of countermeasures and proposed to set up a research system. Since the existing research institutes were not sufficient to provide the need in the future, the EPB therefore suggested that a new institute be established to specialize in research and promotion of recovering the waste into a resource. (Ming-tsu-wan-pao, 1986/03/07/2)

   One-step forward, the Executive Yuan approved the "Measurements for Controlling Enterprise Waste" in December 1986. It was decided that 150 items of hazardous and toxic enterprise waste should be taken into control from 1987 to 1991. Four strategies were then adopted to push forward the disposal of enterprise waste. (Chung-kuo shih-pao, 1986/12/14/3)