TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Responding to photos of garbage in a Taipei City apartment spilling over its balcony, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said on Thursday (March 31) that it would be difficult to find the legal basis for it to tackle the problem.

A netizen posted photos showing garbage spilling from inside an apartment to its balcony to a Facebook whistleblower group, CNA reported. Many netizens commented that it is very unfortunate for neighbors of the apartment; one pointed out that the apartment is located near the Binjiang Market in the city’s Zhongshan District.

According to the DEP’s Environmental Cleaning and Maintenance Division head Huang Kuan-chu (黃寬助), as the property is a private residence, it would not be easy to invoke the Waste Disposal Act to regulate garbage stacked by the homeowner if the garbage does not fall outdoors onto streets.

Additionally, even if the garbage overflowed to public spaces, it would be hard to prove that it actually happened. All the DEP can do is dispatch personnel to the area around the apartment to step up patrols and clean, CNA quoted the department as saying.

The Department of Social Welfare said the apartment is indeed located near the Binjiang Market, and the district office had just received the case report and was in the process of ascertaining the house dwellers living status, per CNA. The city government is currently studying how to curb people's tendency to hoard things on private premises.