Hotels that meet targets to reduce plastic water bottles in guest rooms from next year are to be eligible for a cash incentive of NT$30,000 (US$914), a senior Ministry of Environment official told a news conference in Taipei on Tuesday.
The incentive is part of government efforts to reduce single-use plastics in the lodging industry, the ministry said.
The ministry would launch two incentives to help cut plastic waste in the hotel industry after separate regulations restricting the use of disposable toiletries in hotel rooms take effect on Jan. 1 next year, Resource Circulation Administration Director-General Lai Ying-ying (賴瑩瑩) said.
Photo: Chen Chia-yi, Taipei Times
Hotels that do not supply bottled water in more than 50 percent of their rooms would be eligible for a NT$30,000 subsidy from their local government, Lai said, adding that the payments would be limited to five establishments per administrative region.
Hotel operators that establish a bottle refilling system would be eligible for subsidies of up to NT$5 million, with funding limited to five establishments per region, Lai said.
Eliminating single-use supplies and water in plastic bottles in hotels would reduce plastic waste by about 2,300 tonnes and carbon emissions by about 3,000 tonnes annually, the ministry said.
The restrictions on disposable toiletries would apply to liquid products such as shampoo, conditioner, body wash and body lotion, requiring them to be provided in large bottles, not single-use packaging, the ministry said.
In addition, personal hygiene items such as combs, toothbrushes, toothpaste, razors, shaving foam and shower caps must not be openly displayed, it said.
However, facilities outside guest rooms, including swimming pools and business centers, would not be subject to the restrictions, it said.
ACCESS DENIAL: Beijing would likely take formation in the Philippine Sea, outside Taipei’s missile range, while its forces on the east would be a deterrent to foreign aid China is increasingly likely to employ a strategy of anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) around Taiwan, which would use three carrier groups, a report from the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. When China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, is completed next year, China would have three carriers, which would likely be used to surround Taiwan and implement an A2/AD strategy, it said, adding that efforts to strengthen China’s two other carriers — the Liaoning and the Shandong — appear to corroborate this. In the quarterly report, the council cited declassified documents from the Ministry of National Defense that categorized China’s carriers as
Two German warships are awaiting orders from Berlin to determine whether they would be the first German naval vessels in decades to pass through the Taiwan Strait next month, at the risk of stoking tensions with Beijing, a German commander said. While the US and other nations, including Canada, have sent warships through the narrow strait in recent weeks, it would be the German navy’s first passage through the Strait since 2002. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, and says it has jurisdiction over the nearly 180km waterway that divides the two sides. Taiwan strongly objects to these claims, saying only its people
Former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley yesterday called for more international backing for Taiwan and a coordinated pushback against China’s claims over the nation. “The United States should elevate Taiwan on the world stage. You should no longer be silenced in global affairs,” Haley told an audience at the Ketagalan Forum, a Taipei conference focused on security issues in the Asia-Pacific region. She called for Taiwan to become a full member of the UN, even though it is being blocked by China from representation in international bodies. While the US does not formally recognize Taiwan, it is the nation's strongest
China sent 50 military planes and vessels to the vicinity of Taiwan in the 24 hours starting at 6am on Friday, while President William Lai (賴清德) was visiting Kinmen for the first time since taking office in May to mark the 66th anniversary of the 823 Artillery Bombardment. Flight paths released yesterday by the Ministry of National Defense showed that 38 military aircraft were detected in Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), the highest number recorded in recent weeks. The figure included 32 that crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or its extension. Of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft