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.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
RSS