An environmental-award-winning rural township in Tainan County is working with agriculture experts to recycle leftovers, officials said yesterday.
Hsinhua, which is home to about 45,000 people, was chosen by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) last year as the best performer in a nationwide contest promoting a neat environment.
Over the past three years, the township office has aggressively promoted community-based environmental protection tasks, such as cleaning roads, regular disinfection of the community and removing ugly advertising banners and shop signs. Township officials have punished polluters by repeatedly ticketing them.
According to Lee Mun-she (李穆生), director-general of the county's Environmental Protection Bureau, Hsinhua has outperformed the other 30 townships in the county for years.
Township head Hsu Mao-chiao (
"On weekends, more than 40,000 tourists visit Hsinhua," Hsu told at a press conference yesterday.
Officials have preserved old trees along Route 168, one of the township's main roads, and named one section of the route the "Green Tunnel."
Su Ming-hung (蘇明宏), head of Hsinhua's public sanitation team, said residents are encouraged to recycle usable materials.
The recycling rate in Hsinhua reached 30 percent last year, up from 25 percent in 2002. The average national recycling rate is less than 15 percent.
To boost its recycling rate, Lee said the township wants to build a treatment plan that would recycle household leftovers into fertilizer. About 30 percent to 40 percent of the township's household waste is leftovers.
The plan was given technical support by experts from the Council of Agriculture's Livestock Research Institute, which is located in Hsinhua. In the 600-resident community where staff from the institute and their families live, a small machine turns 100kg of leftovers a day into fertilizer.
According to Sheen Shao-yi (
"We will use similar technologies to help the township office to build a larger machine, which can treat up to 15 tonnes of leftovers daily," Sheen said.
Hsu said that the township office had received NT$9 million from the county government to build the treatment plant but it needs NT$2 million more.
"We hope both the EPA and the Council of Agriculture can help us," Hsu said.
Council officials said yesterday they had been supportive of recycling agricultural waste.
At the eco-community in Hsinhua, institute director Wang Cheng-taung (王政騰) displayed environmentally friendly flowerpots, manufactured from compressed, dried sludge collected from animal-waste treatment facilities. Wang said that organic materials should not be regarded simply as waste.
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