State-run Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar, 台糖), food supplier Vedan Enterprise Corp (味丹) and meat supplier Great Wall Enterprise Co (大成長城企業) were among the nation’s top water polluters last year, the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance said yesterday.
The group is developing a mobile application so that people can see companies’ pollution records, it added.
The alliance sifted through Environmental Protection Administration data to identify the top 20 water polluters last year and gave four companies its “Golden Pollution Award” at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Lo Chi, Taipei Times
Yuan Tai Industrial Co (沅泰工業), an electroplating factory built on farmland with a temporary permit, incurred the largest fine — NT$11.49 million (US$379,509) — for three pollution incidents, alliance member Ko Chien-yung (柯乾庸) said.
Yuan Tai was ordered to suspend operations in January last year, he said.
It was caught discharging contaminated water through concealed pipes, with the effluent having a pH of 0.1 and nickel levels 330 times higher than legal standards, Ko said, adding that it had been doing so for at least five years.
The company was allowed to resume operations at the same location in October, showing that the Factory Management Act (工廠管理輔導法) fails to regulate plants with temporary permits and exposes agricultural areas to industrial pollution, he said.
Taisugar, the nation’s biggest agricultural enterprise, last year received fines totaling more than NT$1.39 million for 13 incidents, the highest number of incidents on the list, Ko said.
The state-run utility has contravened water pollution control regulations more than 40 times since 2016, he said.
Great Wall was fined more than NT$1.27 million for six incidents last year, alliance deputy secretary-general Tseng Hung-wen (曾虹文) said.
While the company promotes environmental protection on some hog farms, its farm in Changhua County last year was fined NT$1.05 million for discharging polluted water, she said, adding that it has “double standards.”
Vedan, known for its bottled water brand “More Water” (多喝水), last year was fined NT$3.32 million for six contraventions, including discharging polluted water without proper treatment or permits, she said.
Taisugar, Great Wall and Vedan, which earn billions of New Taiwan dollars every year, are unable to properly manage their effluent, she said, adding that they might think consumers are ignorant of their records.
To encourage people to purchase brands that are more environmentally friendly, the alliance is developing a mobile app that can show product manufacturers’ pollution records, she said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
MORE RETALIATION: China would adopt a long-term pressure strategy to prevent other countries or future prime ministers following in Sanae Takaichi’s steps, an academic said Taiwan should maintain communications with Japan, as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is to lead a revision of security documents, Taiwanese academics said yesterday. Tensions have risen between Japan and China over remarks by Takaichi earlier this month that the use of force against Taiwan would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan. Prospect Foundation president Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) yesterday said Takaichi’s stance regarding Taiwan is the same as past Japanese prime ministers, but her position is clearer than that of her predecessors Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba. Although Japan views a “Taiwan contingency” as a “survival-threatening situation,” which would allow its military to
RSS