Environmentalists yesterday called on the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) to give careful consideration to a proposed policy that would cancel rewards for recycling PET bottles.
Reports say the EPA is to announce the cancelation of the reward scheme in early March. The EPA would, however, offer a grace period -- lasting until the end of July -- to PET bottle manufacturers, retailers who recycle the product and consumers to help them adapt to the changes.
Based on conclusions made on Thursday at a public hearing, environmental officials said the cancelation would be announced shortly in order to ease financial losses mounting from the current PET recycling policy.
Last year, the EPA lost NT$500 million on the recycling project.
Over the last ten years the total financial loss from recycling PET bottles has reached NT$2.3 billion.
In 1992, the EPA began promoting the recycling of PET bottles, such as those that contain water, by offering a reward of NT$2 for each PET bottle sent to be recycled.
At that time, the recycling rate was about 80 percent. In 1997, the reward was reduced to NT$1 to offset growing financial losses. In April 2000, the reward was reduced to NT$0.5.
Now that environmental officials want to do away with the reward system entirely, environmentalists are becoming concerned.
"We environmentalists believe that economic incentives still play a key role in promoting the recycling of PET bottles," Mary Chen (陳曼麗), board chairperson of the Homemakers' Union and Foundation (主婦聯盟), told the Taipei Times yesterday.
If the reward system is canceled, Chen said, recycling 1kg of PET material will earn the recycler just NT$15.6. The results would seriously affect those who make a living by recycling materials and displease those who support recycling policies.
Chen said that the EPA should carry out stricter audits of dishonest PET-bottle manufacturers as some companies have understated their production of PET bottles in order to pay less in fees to offset the refund money paid to consumers for handing in the bottles.
"If the EPA cancels the reward system, environmentalists will carefully monitor the future recycling rate to see the impact of this decision," Chen said.
Environmental officials said early this month that losses from recycling PET bottles decreased to just NT$141 million last year, indicating that the situation was improving.
The EPA came up with its strategy to cancel the reward system two months ago, but due to the political turbulence created by the Cabinet reshuffle in early January, policies with major impacts were temporarily shelved.
PET bottle manufacturers early this month asked the EPA to delay until June the announcement that the reward system would be canceled, but they said they received no positive answer from officials.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
KAOHSIUNG CEREMONY: The contract chipmaker is planning to build 5 fabs in the southern city to gradually expand its 2-nanometer chip capacity Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday confirmed that it plans to hold a ceremony on March 31 to unveil a capacity expansion plan for its most advanced 2-nanometer chips in Kaohsiung, demonstrating its commitment to further investment at home. The ceremony is to be hosted by TSMC cochief operating officer Y.P. Chyn (秦永沛). It did not disclose whether Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and high-ranking government officials would attend the ceremony. More details are to be released next week, it said. The chipmaker’s latest move came after its announcement earlier this month of an additional US$100 billion
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
RSS