The Ministry of Environment on Tuesday opened a six-day exposition featuring circular economy innovations, saying that Taiwan is recycling a majority of its industrial and household waste.
Taiwanese industries and households produce 21 million tonnes and 11 million tonnes of refuse while recycling 85 percent and 60 percent respectively, Deputy Minister of Environment Shen Chih-hsiu (沈志修) said at the expo’s launch at the National Taiwan Science Education Center (NTSEC) in Taipei.
The nation’s enterprises created NT$70 billion (US$2.17 billion) of value thanks to circular economy innovations that reclaimed waste, he said, adding that Taiwan aims to implement sustainable development at the point of origin.
Photo: Chen Chia-yi, Taipei Times
Industrial design that utilizes sustainable materials is crucial to reducing natural resource extraction toward achieving economic sustainability, Shen said.
Dachun Soap brand supervisor Lee Kuo-jung (李國榮), whose company’s products are featured at the expo, said that Taiwan’s hotel industry each year creates several tonnes of soap only lightly used by guests.
In collaboration with hotels, the soapmaker collects, melts, sterilizes and remolds used soap into new bars, which it then donates to charities, including the Homeless Taiwan Association and the Ark Association, he said.
A spokesperson of toymaker MiToy, another business showcased at the event, said the group makes use of upcycled rice fragments from processing factories and food-grade plastic packaging to make products ranging from building blocks to pet chew toys.
Bentex Textile Industrial Co’s use of banana leaf fibers to make cloth products is also featured.
Writer and television host Hsieh Che-ching (謝哲青), the ministry’s circular economy ambassador, urged Taiwanese to help the growth of the circular economy by choosing sustainable goods and services.
Waste generated by the modern economy poses a huge danger to humanity, Hsieh said.
He said that he has seen discarded television screens in mountain heaps that threaten to overrun the Democratic Republis of the Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, and detritus from the world’s largest shipbreaking yard that ringed Chittagong in Bangladesh.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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