MORE POLLUTION: The Control Yuan’s Chang Wu-shou said that the Cabinet must improve collaboration among agencies to help tackle waste entering the oceans
Taipei Times
Date: May 11, 2019
By: Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporter
The Control Yuan yesterday said that the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA)
Control Yuan member Chang Wu-shou points to a photograph of a turtle entwined in a fishing net at a news conference at the Control Yuan in Taipei yesterday.Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
has failed to reduce plastic pollution, despite reduction policies since 2002, and asked it to improve its waste disposal scheme.
Marine garbage affects nearly 80 percent of water around the nation, with plastic making up 66.3 percent of the waste, Control Yuan member Chang Wu-shou (張武修) told a news conference in Taipei.
While the EPA in 2002 began implementing policies to limit the use of plastic, in 2006 it loosened regulations for catering businesses, delaying a ban on plastic bags, Chang said.
Recycling of plastic bags has been inadequate due to a lack of firms able to dispose of them and a shortage of incentives to promote a circular economy, he said.
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