The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) will implement a system to recycle polylactic acid (PLA) containers in March in order to cut down on pollution, EPA Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏) said yesterday.
At a question-and-answer session in the legislature, Shen said that the EPA would ask beverage manufacturers to clearly mark bottles and containers made from PLA, so that recyclers would be able to differentiate between PLA and other recyclable items.
Ho Shun-chin (何舜琴), director of the EPA’s Department of Waste Management, said that by the end of next month the EPA would officially list PLA containers as recyclable items and would complete arrangements for a PLA recycling system by March 1.
The officials were responding to comments by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英), who said the EPA had asked supermarkets and hypermarkets to reduce the use of plastic bags and conventional plastic containers, and this had led to a significant increase in the use of the fully biodegradable PLA.
More than 70 percent of containers are made from PLA, but there is no recycling system in place for the material, Huang said.
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