Many Taipei drivers may have noticed that the asphalt surface on Zhishan Road in Shilin District (士林) glitters when reflecting the light, but few may know that the sparkle comes from recycled glass particles, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday.
“Glass is a material that can be reused almost 100 percent, since it contains few impurities,” director of the EPA’s Recycling Fund Management Board, Lin Chien-huei (林建輝), said.
Besides being blended into asphalt, recycled glass particles can also be mixed into bricks and tiles to make lightweight, but strong, building materials, Lin said. It can also be made into decorative mosaic tiles or glass beads.
“In the past year, because prices for raw materials have been on the rise, recycled glass particles are becoming more and more sought after,” Lin said.
Bottles made of recycled glass can be sold for NT$7 each, more than double the price of just a year ago, he said.
In addition to the economical value of the recycled glass, reusing glass also means less carbon emissions, he said.
“A recycled beer bottle saves 0.8 units of electricity, enough to light a 100-watt light bulb for four hours,” Lin said.
Last year, 190,000 tonnes of glass, mostly old lighting fixtures, was collected by recyclers for reuse.
“This saved about 18,800 tonnes of carbon dioxide and enough energy to provide electricity for 950,000 families for an entire month,” he said.
Though the nation’s glass recycling rate is at an impressive 84 percent, Lin said there was still room for improvement.
“Many farmers have complained to us that beer or energy drink bottles are often thrown into their crop fields, which is not only a waste of resources, but is also dangerous as glass shards often cut their hands or legs,” Lin said.
In addition to throwing glass bottles into rice paddies or other public areas, some consumers fail to take their waste glass to recycling stations because they are either not aware of the importance of recycling or do not know where the recycling outlets are, he said.
“Many local garbage trucks collect glass separately and people are encouraged to dispose of their glass there — if not, most supermarkets or convenience stores offer recycling services,” Lin said.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS