The Control Yuan yesterday censured the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) for its failure to promote policies to reduce, collect and reuse leftover food over the past decade.
To prove its point, it cited that the amount of daily treated organic compost collected has dropped from 310 tonnes in 1990 to just two tonnes last year. Control Yuan Members Lin Shih-chi (林時機) and Kuo Shih-chi (郭石吉) said that the dramatic drop is due to the EPA's failure to promote uniformity in disposing of the refuse and public awareness of food waste disposal issues.
EPA officials, however, told the Taipei Times yesterday that evaluating the effectiveness of promoting the recycling of leftover food by looking only at the amount of daily treated organic compost was insufficient.
"Treated leftovers can be used as fertilizer or feeding stuffs for pigs," Chang Hoang-jang (
Chang said that food leftovers from several sites had indeed been reused -- as feeding stuffs for pigs.
"We still have many difficulties to conquer, including offering better food waste storage facilities, making special garbage trucks available, building more well-designed leftover treatment facilities and expanding markets for feeding stuffs [for pigs] made from leftovers," Chang said.
EPA officials said that they have worked hard to promote recycling of food waste not only in rural sites but also in urban areas. For example, Taichung City recycles 40 to 50 tonnes of food leftovers each day and use most of it for pig feed.
"Taichung City's success in recycling leftovers can be attributed to the offer of a lottery ticket for each bucket of leftovers to residents who recycle it," said Kao Yi-ming (
Kao said that the EPA would be promoting new strategies in Changhua and Yunlin counties this month and plans are to recycle 60 to 100 tonnes of leftovers in each county per day.
EPA officials said that local governments should have tried harder to increase residents' awareness that food leftovers are an important national resource.
The Countol Yuan also censured the environmental protection departments of several local governments yesterday, including Hsinchu County, Yunlin County, Chiayi City and Chiayi County, for officials' passive attitude toward recycling food waste.
Countol Yuan Members said that some officials blame a lack of money and manpower for the failure to promote the recycling of food leftovers. To prevent dishonest merchants from refining cooking oil from leftovers, some officials only pay attention to cases of the inappropriate recycling of leftovers reported by residents or schools rather than actively tracing food waste.
Control Yuan Members yesterday said that the EPA's failure to unify the way garbage is classified has resulted in confusion on the part of residents over how to recycle food leftovers.
Countrol Yuan Members said some counties classify garbage into recyclable and non-recyclable, while others classify garbage into flammable and nonflammable. Some counties classify recyclable garbage into three categories and others into five. Countrol Yuan members said that even colors on barrels for recyclable garbage had not been unified.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
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