Taiwanese People Are Conscious Of Environment -Tautlih Cheung

Mr. Tautlih Cheung, an environmentalist in Taiwan has informed the 2009 Taiwan Culture and Study Tour participants that the people of ROC are very much environmental-conscious.

The Scottish born environmentalist made these remarks on Monday August 10th 2009 during a seminar with the participants at Chien-Tan Overseas Youth Activity Centre in Taipei.

According to him, people in Taiwan are very much active in promoting good environmental practices.

These comments by Professor Cheung, is of course, proven by the neatness of the environment in Taiwan, particularly Taipei city and other major cities in the Island.

He revealed that in Taiwan people recycle wastes into so many things, and as a result, people are always encouraged to separate their waste into different dustbins for the purpose.

"Some people are even employed to stay at the dumping site to help separate the different kind of wastes, including food which is used to make fertiliser. Most companies here do prefer managing the wastes rather than pay fine," he stated.

He applauded the government and people of Taiwan for adopting sound environmental practices. On air quality management, he said, government has taken so many measures to promote the quality of air.

He cited the NT$3000 (new Taiwan dollars) subsidiary for purchasing electric bicycles, and that the country is being divided into seven Zones for the purpose of monitoring air quality. He also made mention of the fixing of a special rate for sources of nitrous oxides in order to give operators an extra incentives to reduce nitrous oxide emissions.

According to him, the country also formulated measures for the management of air pollution, prevention of facilities that go with fugitive particle pollutants from escaping stationary pollution sources.

ROC, he maintained, has also gone further to raise emission standards for new vehicles and other mobile pollution sources.

According to the environmentalist, Taiwan has adopted a zero waste management policy by maximising generation of wastes and maximising recycling and re-use.

Mr. Cheung further added that China has the highest greenhouse gas emissions, but refuses to set clear reduction goals.

Taiwan, he said, is willing to offer assistance to reduce these problems and join in international efforts to help China combat its environment problems.