The Ministry of Environment yesterday announced 13 winners of the sixth Environmentally Friendly Design Competition, with first prizes in product design and concept design categories going to a micro hydroelectric power generator and a smart shower system respectively.
The competition has been held biennially by the ministry since 2015 and received a total of 1,262 submissions last year, of which 28 were shortlisted for the awards, including top three prizes for two categories each, five honorable mentions, a carbon reduction special and a plastic reduction special.
The competition’s rate of award-winners was only 2.2 percent, lower than many prestigious international design competitions, said National Taiwan University of Science and Technology design professor Sung Tung-jung (宋同正), who is a representative of the judging panel.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Environment
Winning entries of the product design category included a micro hydroelectric power generator that can run on water flowing through gutters at a water head difference of 1.2m and is easy to apply in rural communities, screw-free glasses made from recycled fishing nets that enable convenient replacement of modularized parts without using tools, and the “Lamp of Eternal Heart,” a biofuel-fired lamp that repurposed ceramic bushings of retired transformers from Taiwan Power Co.
In the concept design category, a smart shower system that can collect up to 6 liters of cool water preceding the flow of hot water in showers won first place, followed by modularized mulching films and growing bags made from pineapple fibers, and wave breaker blocks made from recycled glass that can reflect sunlight and guide baby sea turtles to return to the ocean.
The carbon reduction special award went to an app named “Spirit World Green Passbook,” which helps facilitate centralized paper money incineration for religious temples by replacing phone appointments with registration via the app.
The plastic reduction special award was won by a canele-shaped stool that is 100 percent recyclable and has 50 percent of its components sourced from high-density polyethylene collected from broken toys.
Minister of Environment Peng Chi-ming (彭?明) at the award ceremony said the competition could guide participants to improve their work from expert advice and would help promote their designs to industries.
More funding and resources are expected to be invested in the event to address increasing submissions and to boost the prizes, he said, expressing thanks to the judging panel for reviewing more than 1,000 entries this year.
A meet-up was held yesterday afternoon to connect the concept design category’s entries to interested companies that could help turn their designs into products.
To promote these innovations to the public, traveling exhibitions are to be held at Taipei’s Songshan Cultural and Creative Park from July 4 to 8, at the Ministry of Culture’s Bureau of Cultural Heritage in Taichung from July 10 to 14 and at Kaohsiung’s National Science and Technology Museum from July 17 to 27.
All exhibitions would be free of charge, with a people’s choice award to be given to the exhibit winning the most votes from visitors.
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