A motorist parks his car on a road in Tainan City, gets out and leaves the engine running. A remote-controlled model car with a miniature windmill attached on top sneaks up behind the idling car's exhaust pipe to measure the carbon dioxide emission, while an environmental inspector monitors and records data from a distance with the help of a video camera.
At a separate location in Tainan City, a factory illegally discharges wastewater into a river. A pair of volunteer environmental patrollers take note of the violation, inform city police and prosecutors who arrive to gather proof and arrest the factory owner.
The two scenarios outlined are award-winning environmental protection ideas from Tainan City's Environmental Protection Bureau. Winners of the competition, sponsored by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), were announced yesterday.
The windmill and remote-controlled car is Tainan bureau's award-winning innovation in the “Existing Policies” category to catch drivers who leave their cars idling for more than three minutes but do not turn off their engines, bureau director-general Chang Hwang-jen (張皇珍) said.
“After we introduced the policy that motorists must turn off their engines when they leave their cars idling for three or more minutes, we tried several ways to capture proof of drivers failing to do so,” Chang said.
After several experiments, the city came up with the gadget, Chang said.
With the help of the video camera, the bureau has issued 55 tickets in the past year to environmentally neglectful drivers.
“Many other countries have promoted the idea of turning off car engines when drivers temporarily park their cars, but no measuring equipment had been developed to catch drivers who violate this policy,” Chang said.
“When we used this equipment to issue the first ticket in this category in Asia, Japan's NHK television channel came to interview us,” Chang said
In the “New Ideas” category, Chang's team came up with the idea of combining the bureau's inspectors with the police and the city prosecutor's office to catch illegal waste dumping.
“Factories are generally unintimidated by environmental inspectors; however, they are afraid of police and inspectors,” Chang said. “We persuaded the police and prosecutors to work with us and so far it has improved our success rate in catching illegal dumping.
Other winners include Taipei County, which placed second in the New Ideas category for promoting a low-carbon eco-tour in Pinglin Township (坪林),where tourists walk or bike along the Jingualiau River (金瓜寮) and are offered local and organic foods.
Kinmen County won second place in the Existing Policies category for re-organizing its botanical garden, which has attracted three new types of insects to the park.
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