The Ministry of Environment has announced draft amendments to regulations on waste disposal and recycling to promote a circular economy in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Resource circulation is widely considered to be a critical pathway to achieve SDGs and net zero goals, the ministry said.
The EU’s New Circular Economy Action Plan published in 2020 has revealed the importance of incorporating sustainable and circular elements into product designs instead of traditional waste management, it said.
Photo: Chen Chia-yi, Taipei Times
As current laws are not sufficient to respond to circular economy developments and industrial demand, the ministry would revise the Resource Recycling Act (資源回收再利用法), which would be renamed “the resource circulation promotion act,” and the Waste Disposal Act (廢棄物清理法), it said.
The goal is to “maximize resource circulation benefits, minimize final waste disposal” by shifting from waste recycling to resource circulation, and introducing a more comprehensive mechanism to prevent illegal dumping, it said.
GUIDELINES
The resource circulation promotion act would facilitate interagency collaborations in establishing a national resource circulation program, it said.
It would also enable authorities to establish green design guidelines for products and construction projects, set packaging reuse or reduction targets for businesses, and prohibit or restrict the production, import, sale or use of certain products and packaging, the ministry said.
The government would offer rewards or subsidies for companies or organizations purchasing circular products, it said.
The ministry said that amendments to the Waste Disposal Act would focus on clamping down on illegal waste disposal.
Resource Circulation Administration Director-General Lai Ying-ying (賴瑩瑩) on Thursday said the amended Waste Disposal Act would require manufacturers and importers to pay a “clearance and disposal fee” for their business waste.
REGULATION OF FEES
The ministry had been exploring the feasibility of charging a “resource circulation promotion fee” to fund business waste recycling and reuse, but decided on imposing the “clearance and disposal fee,” Lai said.
The ministry made the decision mainly because of business operators’ concerns about inflationary spikes while they are already financially burdened with other environmental charges such as carbon, air pollution, and soil and groundwater pollution remediation fees, she said.
The ministry replaced the “resource circulation promotion fee” with the “clearance and disposal fee,” so that manufacturers or importers can be held responsible if their business generates waste that is difficult to be recycled or illegally dumped, she said.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS