The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday set up the first demonstration site for recycling single-use plastic wrapping at a Carrefour Taiwan store, with an eye on inviting more hypermarkets to turn packaging into reusable materials.
The amount of large plastic wrappings used to bind boxes of goods is expected to soar due to the Ghost Festival (中元節), which falls on Aug. 15 this year, when many households prepare food for spirits that are said to have been released from the underworld.
A wholesale store produces nearly 40kg of such wrappings every day, which mostly ends up in garbage incinerators, EPA Department of Waste Management Director-General Lai Ying-ying (賴瑩瑩) told a news conference at the Carrefour store in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area.
Through the demonstration site, the agency aims to nurture a circular economy model in which more plastic wrappings are recycled and sent to reprocessing plants to be turned into other plastic products, she said.
The quantity of recycled materials is key to generating sufficient market scale, Lai said, adding that recycling firms require wrappings without stains or price stickers.
Of Taiwan’s nearly 200 plastics manufacturers, only five to six are capable of turning plastic coverings into other products, she added.
The disposal cost of plastic wrappings mixed with garbage is about NT$5 per kilogram, while cleaner coverings can be sold to recycling firms for NT$10 per kilogram, said National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology environmental engineering professor Fan Kuo-shuh (樊國恕), who helped start the recycling initiative.
The initiative next plans to set up a business alliance for such recycling efforts, while encouraging more stores and high-tech plants to join it, he said.
Eastem Plastic Enterprise Co chairman Chung Ching-chien (鍾清鈐) said that only a few firms in the nation have entered the reprocessing industry due to relatively low profits and high technical thresholds.
Eastem Plastic Enterprise purchases recycled plastics at NT$8 to NT$10 per kilogram, or up to NT$14 if they are imported, but it only makes a profit of NT$2 per kilogram, he said.
The firm, which makes products out of nearly 2,000 tonnes of recycled plastics every month, would import less plastic waste from other nations — currently about 1,200 tonnes per month — if it could secure sufficient materials recycled from domestic stores, he added.
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS