The Consumers’ Foundation yesterday said 14 percent of the 109 chain beverage shops and fast food stores it surveyed had not posted signs announcing disposable beverage cup recycling rewards in their stores, and three companies did not provide bring-your-own-cup discounts.
According to statistics provided by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) last year, about 1.5 billion disposable cups are used every year in the nation.
To reduce waste, the EPA announced an “Incentive Payments for Recycled Disposable Cups” policy in January last year, and the regulations were enacted on May 1.
According to the regulations, chain fast food stores, convenience stores and beverage shops must post signs informing customers that discounts are provided to those who bring their own cups, the EPA said,.
The EPA added that stores that do not provide such discounts should give a reward of NT$1 or NT$2 for each disposable cup recycled by customers.
However, the foundation’s latest survey of 109 chain stores, conducted in November and December last year, showed that 16 of them had not clearly informed customers of the disposable cup recycling rewards.
Consumers’ Foundation secretary-general Chen Chih-yi (陳智義) said that although most of the 16 stores did provide discounts to customers, the foundation feared clerks might neglect to inform the customers, since there was no clear written notification in the stores.
“We urge the companies to act in conformity with the regulations, since the government has already enforced them, and violation of the regulations will incur a fine of between NT$60,000 and NT$300,000,” Consumers’ Foundation chairperson Joann Su (蘇錦霞) said.
“We also urge the EPA to remind the companies of the regulation and urge consumers to pay attention to the material and usage instructions for improper use of the containers,” Su said.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
RSS