The Ministry of Environment yesterday officially set up a Resource Circulation Upgrading Center at the Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab on the UN’s World Environment Day, with the goal of promoting industrial cooperation and innovation in circular economy development.
Minister of Environment Peng Chi-ming (彭?明) told a news conference that the center was established to drive the circular economy by reducing single-use plastics and waste production, echoing the theme of World Environment Day for this year: “Beat plastic pollution.”
The center would focus on circular designs, procurements and marketing, allowing green industry start-ups to use the platform for information exchange and innovation incubation, as well as facilitating the integration of existing industries into circular businesses, he said.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
About NT$20 million to NT$100 million (US$668,405 to US$3.34 million) of the NT$10 billion green growth fund would be invested in promoting the circular economy next month or in August, Peng said
The ministry would adopt solid application and approval procedures to prevent embezzlement, he added.
Resource Circulation Administration official Wang Yao-cheng (王耀晟) said that the center would be a platform for circular business opportunity matching, circular product demonstration and promotion, circular industrial upgrading and circular innovation incubation.
Circular product research and development subsidies would be allocated from the green growth fund to provide talent and resources for emerging entrepreneurs in the circular industry, he said.
The center is aimed at reinforcing the triad of resource circulation — industries, designs and consumers — and would regularly organize exhibitions, workshops and collaboration opportunities to help inspire more innovative circular designs and product plans, Wang said.
The first exhibition at the center revolves around textile products and would run through next month, with other themes, including “plastics,” “inorganic materials and construction” and “electronics,” to follow later this year, he said.
The exhibition was organized in response to the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, which seeks to achieve 100 percent recyclability and free of hazardous substances in textile products sold on the EU market by 2030, Wang said.
Manufacturers participating in the exhibition were required to introduce green designs in textile products and take responsibility for facilitating textile reuse by following the “fiber-to-fiber recycling” principle, Wang said.
For example, used coffee grounds or pineapple leaf fibers were recycled and remanufactured into yarns, textiles and other products, while environmentally friendly workwear was created using 100 percent recycled polyester fibers obtained through circular procurement, he said.
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