Tainan has partnered with fast food chain McDonald’s Taiwan and launched three new service stations for cup-sharing platform Good to Go, which enable users to borrow and return reusable cups free of charge.
The three new Good to Go service stations have been set up outside three McDonald’s branches on Dasyue Road (大學路), Simen Road (西門路) and Dongmen Road Sec 2 (東門路), the city said.
The cup-sharing platform is part of the city government’s efforts to promote the circular economy while helping to protect the environment, Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) said on Sept. 14.
Photo courtesy of McDonald’s
Although the service is operated by a private company, it is free and fully funded by the city government.
He thanked the fast-food company and other partnered businesses for launching special promotions to encourage their customers to use the reusable cups provided by the platform.
McDonald’s customers who buy a drink or soup at any of its branches in Tainan with a Good to Go cup would be rewarded with three points on their point-accumulation card, the company said.
Five points can be exchanged for a free drink worth NT$33, it added.
The company is pleased to collaborate with the platform, Lin Li-wen (林麗文), vice president of McDonald’s supply chain management, said in a statement.
She said she hopes the use of reusable cups will become ubiquitous in the city.
McDonald’s has a huge customer base and setting up the cup-sharing stations outside its branches would introduce more people to the sharing platform, said Hsieh Shih-chieh (謝世傑), director-general of the city’s Environmental Protection Bureau.
Tainan recycled 4.78 million kilograms of disposable tableware in the first half of this year, an annual increase of nearly 400,000kg compared with last year, Hsieh said.
In addition to providing drinks to Good to Go users, McDonald’s would also pay the electricity bills of the three new service stations, Hsieh said.
The Last Longer Project, which developed and operates the cup-sharing platform, opened its first service station in 2019 and now has six stations across Tainan, with financial support from the city government, McDonald’s said.
To use the cup-sharing service, users have to sign up at a service station, after which they can use up to six reusable cups at a time at either a station or a partnered beverage shop in the city, the company said.
Users are required to return the cups within six days of their use at one of the six stations or 50 partnered shops, the company said, otherwise, their membership would be suspended until the cups are returned, it added.
The cups, which come in two sizes, and their lids are made of polypropylene, and each cup can be used 300 to 500 times before being discarded, McDonald’s said.
The cleaning service it works with cleans and disinfects used cups in line with Taiwan Food and Drug Administration standards, the company added.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
RSS