The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) yesterday invited electronic component manufacturers to participate in its “industrial plastic recycling network,” to encourage businesses to recycle at least 75 percent of their plastic waste, up from 65 percent currently.
Taiwan’s industrial sector produces more than 240,000 tonnes of plastic waste per year, but only 67,200 tonnes — or 28 percent — is recycled, it said.
Whereas past efforts have focused on reducing plastic waste generated from daily consumption and supermarket packaging, the efforts should extend into industry so that they stretch from production to distribution, Department of Waste Management Director Lai Ying-ying (賴瑩瑩) said.
Photo: Lo Chi, Taipei Times
Hoping to introduce a “circular recycling” concept at source, the agency asked industries to begin sorting plastic waste into singular types to resolve the difficulty of recycling composite plastic waste, Lai said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) said it has issued a supplier packaging white paper mandating what kinds of materials its suppliers can use.
With the help of in-house recyclers to help separate materials and its creation of 20 products made from recycled goods, TSMC said it reutilizes 66 percent of its plastic waste.
TSMC deputy director Chen Kuo-ching (陳國清) said the company’s plastic reduction policies seek not only to cut down on plastic waste at the source, but also to encourage employees to recycle.
The 8,000 tonnes of reutilized plastic waste are reprocessed into trash bags, aluminum bars or solid recovered fuel, Chen said.
TSMC’s Logistics and Warehouse Management Department Materials and Resource Provision Division manager Yang Hung-long (楊宏隆) said that the company hopes to achieve 95 percent reutilization by 2025.
Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE) said it is establishing recycling centers to collect plastic waste generated from other factories and plants.
ASE’s recycling centers reutilized 4,300 tonnes of plastic waste last year, a reutilization rate of 68 percent, the company said.
ASE Environmental Engineering Department senior manager Tu Hsiu-mei (涂秀妹) said that the company aims to achieve 100 percent waste-to-resource utilization by 2024.
Separately, the EPA is also encouraging industries to increase their reutilization rate by adopting innovative technologies, such as a technique used by Chieh An Environmental Engineering that can separate aluminum and plastic from aluminum-plastic composite packaging and reuse both materials.
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
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
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