The nation's recycling efforts have attracted international attention, with representatives from other countries coming to learn from Taiwan's experience, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Winston Dang (陳重信) said yesterday.
Dang said the improvements in the trash disposal system were a success story.
Two decades ago, the streets were heavily littered and air and water pollution were significantly worse, he said.
BEGINNINGS
The was EPA quickly established around that time, he said, and immediately set to work drawing up environmental protection measures. Since then, the quality of the environment has steadily improved, while the economy has continued to grow, Dang said.
Dang, who previously worked at the US Environmental Protection Agency, came into office in May when the EPA was engaged in a heated debate over environmental impact assessments for three proposals: a Formosa Plastics Group steel plant in Yunlin County, a Changbin coal-fired power plant and the Suhua Freeway.
"Environmental protection is very difficult work and oftentimes shows very little results," Dang said.
NOTICED
But the nation's success in boosting its recycling rate, which ranks first or second in the world, has captured the attention of many countries that are struggling to improve their recycling programs, he said.
Taiwan's success is a result of taking a different attitude to garbage, Dang said.
While other Asian countries try to figure out what to do with their garbage, Taiwan has learned to see it as "resource." This means recycling as much as possible and creating a multi-stage process that has proven very efficient.
Although it began recycling later than Singapore, where recycling is at 51 percent, Taiwan's overall recycling rate is now 61 percent.
The recycling rate for domestic waste is 36 percent, compared with 32 percent in the US, which also launched its recycling program before Taiwan.
LEARNING
Countries including Germany, Japan, China, the Netherlands and South Africa, as well as South and Central American countries with diplomatic ties with Taiwan, have recognized the nation's achievements and dispatched teams to study its recycling program and legislation.
Japan and China have already implemented recycling programs modeled on Taiwan's system and seen positive results.
Each year, 4.5 billion plastic bottles are recycled in Taiwan, Dang said, adding that the energy saved from this alone was enough to light up all of Taipei City for a month and meant a significant cut in greenhouse gas emissions.
"But this contribution is overlooked by both Taiwan and the rest of the world," he said.
ALLIES
Dang praised NGOs working on the environment, saying they had been highly effective in raising public awareness of the need to protect the environment and to recycle.
He also said that a "Keep Trash off the Ground" campaign had significantly reduced litter on the streets.
"We will keep working to achieve the goal of zero waste," Dang said, adding that the EPA had been tasked with finding more means by which to move society toward sustainability, including encouraging a switch to renewable energy.
Dang said that environmental technology had advanced significantly over the past decade, adding that such technology would help achieve a balance between economic development and environmental protection.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and