Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏) yesterday said he will instruct local cleaning squads to accept and recycle oil bottles that still contain oil.
The recent adulterated oil scandals involving Flavor Full Food, which blended cottonseed oil into 24 of its products and flavoring agents to one of its peanut oil products, and Chang Chi Foodstuff Factory Co, which blended refined cottonseed oil with its Tatung-brand edible oil products, have caused many people to worry about the quality of oil products.
At a meeting of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee yesterday, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) said the public has questions about how to deal with problematic oil products, so his office made calls to several local cleaning squads to make enquiries.
However, it received a few different answers, Chao said.
“Up until Wednesday last week, 186,000 tonnes of Tatung-brand edible oil products have been recalled or returned to the company, but this does not include the products from Flavor Full,” he said. “So, our office did a random survey to ask how individuals can dispose of their oil products.”
He said the answers they received included “make an appointment with the squad, and it will send someone to retrieve it,” “bring the product to the agency for recycling,” “the agency only recycles the container” and “flush the oil down the toilet, or use a plastic bag to hold the oil, because the squad only recycles the container.”
Chao said the differing answers could cause confusion and urged the EPA to set up guidelines for the disposal of oil products.
There are biomass energy plants that can recycle the oil, and it can be used in other industries, such as to make soap or detergents, Shen said, adding that oil products should not be flushed down the toilet.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS