Although environmentalism and consumerism may seem incompatible, consumers can at least alleviate the impact of their shopping by opting for eco-friendly products, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday at a press conference to recognize what it said were the nation’s “greenest” manufacturers and sales outlets.
“The success of green consumerism depends on a smooth flow between environmentally conscious upstream manufacturers, sales outlets and consumers,” said Yang Ching-shi (楊慶熙), director-general of the Department of Supervision, Evaluation and Dispute Resolution.
The EPA had been pushing manufacturers to adopt the Green Mark system since 1993, Yang said, adding that 313 manufacturers had obtained the EPA’s eco-friendly stamp of approval for 4,020 products by meeting the agency’s guidelines.
“For example, a green laptop is defined as a product that conserves energy, contains no heavy metals in the plastic parts, has minimal heavy metals in the metal parts and is packaged in a clearly labeled, recyclable casing,” Yang said.
Appliance manufacturer Tatung Co makes the most Green Mark products in the country, with 245, Yang said, including air conditioners and refrigerators.
Hewlett-Packard Taiwan and Epson Taiwan are in second and third place, with 209 and 163 Green Mark products respectively, he said.
Yang said the administration was surprised by the eagerness of stores to gain Green Store status in the past year, a status which requires them to: “Carry more than three Green Mark products, use energy conserving products in stores, sort and recycle their waste and educate their employees about green consumerism.”
So far, 55 enterprises with a total of 164 sales outlets have obtained Green Store certificates, Yang said, adding that about 700 more were waiting for inspection.
State-owned General Welfare Service Ministry and private companies such as B&Q and Far Eastern Geant now hang the Green Store certificate at the entrance to their outlets, Yang said.
When asked if large companies could rank higher on the list because they produce or sell more products than smaller competitors, Yang said: “The list does not rank companies based on the percentage of green products they make or carry, but ... they should still be lauded for their efforts.”
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
WATCH FOR HITCHHIKERS: The CDC warned those returning home from Japan to be alert for any contagious diseases that might have come back with them People who have returned from Japan following the World Baseball Classic (WBC) games during the weekend are recommended to watch for symptoms of infectious gastroenteritis, flu and measles for two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. Flu viruses remain the most common respiratory pathogen in Taiwan in the past four weeks and the influenza B virus accounted for 55.7 percent of the tested cases, exceeding the percentage of influenza A (H3N2) infections and becoming the local dominant strain, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said at a news conference on Tuesday. There were 82,187 hospital visits for
Alumni from Japan’s Kyoto Tachibana Senior High School marching band, widely known as the “Orange Devils,” staged a flash mob performance at the Grand Hotel in Taipei yesterday to thank Taiwan for its support after the Great East Japan Earthquake. The show, performed on the earthquake’s 15th anniversary, drew more than 100 spectators, some of whom arrived two hours before the show to secure a good viewing spot. The 26-member group played selections from “High School Musical,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and their signature piece “Sing Sing Sing” and shouted “I love
RSS