To promote the reduction of packaging used for consumer products, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday advised the business sector on how to wrap its products in an eco-friendly way.
"Though packaging is an important marketing tool for businesses, it is short-lived and designed to be thrown away," director-general of the EPA's Department of Waste Management Ho Soon-ching (
Ho said that since the enactment of Excessive Product Packaging Restrictions in July, 2005, the administration estimated that 6,900 tonnes of packaging materials have been saved annually.
This year, in addition to reinforcing regulations, the EPA is inviting businesses who are awarded by the EPA for their effective yet eco-friendly packaging to share and inspire other businesses to package their products using "green" -- or eco-friendly -- methods, Ho said.
"Green packaging means you minimize packaging material, reduce the printing area and colors, and use recyclable, eco-friendly materials," Hou Hsiao-pei Packaging Design Studio director Hou Hsiao-pei (
Sustainable Environmental Technology and Management Co. general manager Chen Chih-ku (
He cited the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, published in 1994.
Chen said that since the policy was adopted, the UK, France and the Czech Republic have established compulsory laws for eco-friendly packaging.
"The UK has already penalized six companies whose products were in violation of the packaging laws," he said.
"Once the trend spreads more widely to other EU member states, Taiwan's export products to European countries will be affected," Chen said.
"The EU model will be a good reference point, but I hope that more businesses will make efforts to put their minds together and work out sustainable packaging models for Taiwan." he said.
The donation of offshore patrol vessel Kinmen to the Philippines includes provisions that protect Taiwanese fishers and facilitate security cooperation across the First Island Chain, officials said yesterday. The comment was made during the Cabinet’s comprehensive administrative report at the legislature after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) expressed concerns about the decision to give a ship to a country whose coast guard had in 2013 fired on a Taiwanese trawler and killed its captain without provocation. The Cabinet should lay out the safeguards that have been established to prevent the Philippine government from using the Kinmen to harass, expel
GROWING TIES: The CGA is planning a goodwill mission to the Philippines, in what would be the first time since 1975 a Taiwanese paramilitary vessel has visited the country The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) plans to significantly expand its participation in international security cooperative frameworks and its operational capabilities, a budget proposal for next year showed. The budget indicates a transformation of the CGA from a maritime law enforcement arm into a national defense and intelligence gathering entity capable of tackling larger regional security matters. The proposal showed that personnel from the coast guard’s Intelligence Division and Special Action Support Center are to participate in high-level national security talks with the US. As the CGA has dealt with China’s rising “gray zone” threats around Taiwan, it has become a valuable asset to
A patrol vessel donated by the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) to the Philippines was commissioned into the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Friday, a Philippine non-governmental organization said. The CGA on Sept. 16 confirmed media reports that Taiwan had donated a retired 500-tonne patrol vessel to the Philippines. The Manila-based We Protect Our Seas (WPS) foundation, which served as an intermediary in the transfer, said that the vessel was formerly the CGA’s 500-tonne petrol vessel Kinmen (CG123). The WPS, in a statement issued on Friday, said the vessel, renamed as the BRP Sarangani, had been commissioned into the PCG the
‘GRAY ZONE’ TACTICS: Beijing sent two China Coast Guard vessels to escort a ‘supposedly private research ship,’ a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman said The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday confirmed that it had recently deployed three patrol vessels to waters in Taiwan’s overlapping exclusive economic zone with the Philippines to monitor three Chinese vessels. CGA Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said the agency regularly monitors Chinese vessels around Taiwan, and that the deployment south of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, was carried out in accordance with standard procedures. He added that the waters fall within the overlapping exclusive economic zones of Taiwan and the Philippines, which extend 200 nautical miles (370km) from their coastlines. Hsieh made the comments when asked about a
RSS