To mark upcoming environmental events including Earth Day and World Environment Day, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday launched a series of shopping events to encourage people to choose eco-friendly products.
However, some environmentalists criticized the plan for promoting “green purchases” rather than encouraging people to spend only when necessary.
For the first event in the series, EPA Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏) lauded 18 private businesses for making green purchases that exceeded NT$20 million (US$600,000) last year.
“Last year, the EPA expanded green purchases from both the government and the private sector, helping 1,088 businesses and groups choose green products for their offices. Together, the amount spent on green products was NT$2.2 billion, triple the amount in 2007,” Shen said at a press conference yesterday.
Businesses that received awards from the administration for spending more than NT$20 million last year included Formosa Plastics Group, China Steel, Far Eastern Telecom and HSBC.
“Besides lauding these businesses, the events will include an online quiz for Web users on green living tips, online green product sales and various promotional activities,” Shen said.
The online quiz will last from Wednesday to May 10, with Web surfers who correctly answer environmentally related questions rewarded with printable coupons.
From May 11 to June 10, an online game called Green Living and Happy Learning will allow Web surfers to accumulate points, with top-ranking players rewarded with prizes such as laptops, Shen said.
Discount-priced green products including eco-friendly detergents, stationary and clothes will also be sold online between April 22 and June 5.
However, Green Party Taiwan Secretary-General Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said: “Instead of teaching people to buy, the government should lead by example and teach people to save the earth by [buying new things] only when necessary, rather than justifying their purchases by saying that these things are ‘green.’”
In addition, Pan said: “Businesses that purchase a lot of green products do not necessarily need to be praised.
“Whether a business is green or not should be decided by all stages of its production — such as the mining, production, transportation and waste stages — rather than by how many products it buys,” Pan said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
RSS