Although the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has been telling people to flush toilet paper in toilets since 2017, roughly 55 percent of respondents to a survey still dispose of it in trash bins, the EPA said Thursday.
Asked why they continue to dispose of toilet paper in bins instead of flushing it, 44 percent of those responding in that way said they did so due to signage in place in public washrooms telling them not to flush anything in the toilet. Roughly 37 percent said they did so out of concern they would clog the toilet.
Photo: Chang-sheng, Taipei Times
EPA official Shih Sheng-chun (施勝鈞) said that such concerns are unnecessary, as all toilet paper commercially sold in Taiwan is safe to flush, as is indicated on its packaging.
Flushing toilet paper can reduce odor, prevent the growth of bacteria or the spread of infectious diseases, and increase the safety of cleaning staff and other users of public toilets, he said.
However, facial tissue, wet wipes, feminine hygiene products and other items not designed to be flushed should continue to be thrown into trash bins, he said, adding that if an excessive amount of toilet paper is used at once, that should still be thrown into a bin to prevent blockage.
Shih said the EPA would work with businesses operating public washrooms to address their concerns behind leaving signage in place advising against flushing toilet paper.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
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The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
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