While candidates running on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ticket in the year-end elections have no strict guidelines on reducing the environmental impact of their elections, DPP Spokesman Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said yesterday that the party has long stressed the importance of reducing and recycling waste.
“Environmental consciousness has long been part of our party culture from the beginning,” Tsai said, adding that the DPP has long advised its candidates to only print and use materials that they need.
Noting that trash and litter often fill streets following election rallies, he said the party had organized teams of volunteers in the past to pick up, recycle and re-use materials wherever possible.
Furthermore, while there are no set regulations using recycled paper for election material, Tsai said candidates almost always do so.
“We have tried diligently to work with candidates to cut waste and litter by giving members of the public pens, pencils, notebooks and other items they can keep and use, rather than the traditional party flags,” Tsai said. “This year, with the A(H1N1) outbreak, we have given out gauze masks with our candidates names on them.”
When reached for comment, representatives of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said such policies were left to KMT candidates and individual election committees rather than party headquarters.
“These policies are decided by the individual candidates … [we] haven’t given any [instructions] to them” said Chen Shu-rong (陳淑容), a spokeswoman for the party.
She said party nominees usually decide unilaterally on their campaign literature, how it was printed and whether to use recycled paper.
Officials at KMT nominee John Wu’s (吳志揚) headquarters in Taoyuan said flags and other campaign material are often thrown away or recycled if not kept by supporters.
“The flags are often dirty after being left on the ground, how can that be reused?” said an official surnamed Cheng (鄭), who had authority to speak on behalf of Wu’s campaign. “We recycle what we can, but then we don’t get much litter, as it is all carried off by our supporters.”
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