Thousands of environmental volunteers in a number of cities and counties yesterday celebrated the Environmental Protection Administration's (EPA) ninth year of low-carbon lifestyle.
"A low-carbon lifestyle means that you walk or bike instead of driving, recycle and reuse instead of disposing, plant more trees and use energy-conserving electric appliances in your home," Environmental Protection Administration Minister Winston Dang (
The low-carbon program was started by the EPA in 1998 to involve community volunteers in cleaning their neighborhoods.
When the program started, there were only a few hundred volunteers.
Their number has since grown to 150,000. Taipei County Bureau of Environmental Protection staffer Lin Yi-chen (林依蓁) said.
In addition to living low-carbon lifestyles, volunteers regularly participate in activities such as street sweeping and garbage sorting, she said.
Yesterday's event included several stalls showcasing greener products, from socks made of recycled PET bottles, children's rocking horses mad with old wooden furniture, to shopping bags made out of banners and flags.
At one stall, Ecomax Textile representative Ko Hsi-che (
"PET bottles permeate the soft drink market today because they are light, cheap and sanitary, but they take hundreds of years to biodegrade," Ko said
"Our company has been working on giving the bottles second lives and turning them into something useful and environmentally friendly," he said.
On the Taipei County Government's recent proposal to lower carbon emission by having some government employees work four days a week instead of five, some volunteers felt it would decrease the efficiency of the government.
"Also, if [government employees] drive their cars somewhere during their extra day off, the carbon emission problem will remain," a volunteer commented.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon this morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan between Friday and Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The storm, which as of 8am was still 1,100km southeast of southern Taiwan, is currently expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, the CWA said. Because of its rapid speed — 28kph as of 8am — a sea warning for the storm could be issued tonight, rather than tomorrow, as previously forecast, the CWA said. In terms of its impact, Usagi is to bring scattered or
An orange gas cloud that leaked from a waste management plant yesterday morning in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) was likely caused by acidic waste, authorities said, adding that it posed no immediate harm. The leak occurred at a plant in the district’s Environmental Science and Technology Park at about 7am, the Taoyuan Fire Department said. Firefighters discovered a cloud of unidentified orange gas leaking from a waste tank when they arrived on the site, it said, adding that they put on Level A chemical protection before entering the building. After finding there was no continuous leak, the department worked with the city’s Department
RSS