Working together in a campaign to reduce carbon emission

In view of the growing problem of global warming and climate change, many countries are proactively reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and cities are planning and promoting carbon reduction. With the name of Formosa, Taiwan is certainly not missing its spot in a joint effort for energy efficiency. 

As all counties and cities have plans and promotions to lower carbon emissions, the government's efforts to reduce plastic materials also calls for cooperation of individuals and private sectors, in order to achieve twice the result with half the effort.

Start from our daily life in reducing carbon emission together

Every time I fly abroad, during take-off and landing, seeing the small houses and roads on the ground, it often makes me feel that the environment is very small. However, as the saying goes that "everything is possible with a collective will”, don't neglect your own strength. If everyone thinks like that, it will bring positive energy to the society.

In fact, as long as we are willing to put efforts into our daily lives such as food, clothing, housing, transportation, education, and entertainment, we can do our part in slowing down the global warming.

● Food: Vegetarian food can effectively reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Taking cattle raising as an example, hydrogen oxides and other greenhouse gases are emitted every day. Because of busy work schedule, commuting workers often suffer from non-normal dieting. Picking a day to have a light diet not only helps with inner body cleansing, but also helps to reduce the creation of greenhouse gases. 

In addition, it is also very helpful for the environment to choose more local food that reduce the energy consumed from transportation. Out-eaters can also bring their own eco-friendly tableware to reduce wasting of disposable utensils.

 Clothing: Some clothes are made from petroleum products, which also represent the consumption of energy and resources. We often see recycling bins on the road for old clothes. In addition to letting everyone do their best, they can also indirectly reduce the production of new clothes that often results in carbon emissions.

● Housing: For home appliances, we can choose those products with energy label or green mark on them. Turn off the water and the lights, and use natural ventilation and lighting to effectively improve individual carbon emissions.

● Transportation: Use public transport. For me personally, since the advent of Ubike, I mainly rely on bicycles for shorter trips (4~5 MRT stations).

● Education: This part involves many aspects, and it requires all of the efforts from executive authorities, educational sector, and civil society. Taking educational institutions as an example, schools at all levels often have awareness events for energy-saving and low-carbon habits. In the middle and late April of this year, Tainan City and New Taipei City also held “low-carbon campus” award ceremony and granting of stamped certificates for campuses including those in Tainan, where the Green Magic School of Green Technologies at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) was chosen as the site for those events, which also echoes to the long-term efforts of the Delta Electronics Foundation on energy conservation and carbon reduction.

● Entertainment: For domestic tourism, it is recommended that we choose public transport. For the popular attractions in Taiwan, such as Sun Moon Lake and Xitou, THSR collaborated with bus carriers or other public transport to provide discount packages. For overseas travel, it is also recommended that we choose direct flights to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.

Ubike can be considered for short-distance round trips, saving energy and reducing carbon and offering convenience

Multi-party efforts to implement eco-friendly reduction of plastics with practical actions

The low-carbon environmental protection mentioned above, in addition to personal efforts, also requires the concerted efforts of private sectors and various units. Taking the recent reduction of plastics in daily life proposed by the government as an example, public sectors, schools, department stores, shopping centers, and fast food chains will join this effort starting July. They can no longer provide "one-time plastic straws" for dine-in users. Although it may be difficult for consumers to adapt, they will gradually get used to, just as the government promoted the replacement of Styrofoam with paper for lunch boxes in the past. Despite the painful period, we still made it through .

For hypermarkets and supermarket chains, PX Mart has not only reduced plastics on packaging, but has also encouraged the public to respond to the call together. Since 2018, both Taipei and New Taipei have promoted dual-use shopping bags, which contributed to a total of 4.5 million plastic shopping bags reduced compared with 2017. In addition, the total number of use of PLA decomposable materials in place of PET by PX Mart in 2018 has exceeded 63 million, showing an increase of more than 15 million from 2017.

According to the statistics of PX Mart, the number of fruits, vegetables and cakes sold without packaging in 2018 has exceeded 50 million items, which is 1.4 
times higher than that in 2017 (Source: PX Mart)

Wellcome has also been using eco-friendly dual-use bags in Taipei and New Taipei since the New Year's Day in 2018, and encourages consumers to bring their own or buy Wellcome's eco shopping bags and shopping carts to reduce the amount of plastics used. For the plastic bags provided for the fresh products sold without packaging, Wellcome said that in order to avoid cross-contamination of food affecting the health of consumers, they provide plastic bags only for fruit, vegetables, meat and seafood sold without packaging, and they're planning to gradually reduce the amount of plastics used in the future.

Wellcome encourages consumers to bring their own or buy eco bags and carts to reduce the amount of plastic used

Regardless of whether you are working hard in the office, leisurely shopping, or enjoying the beauty of nature at this time, we must be grateful for the land we stand on, as well as the air we breathe. As long as we start bit by bit from now on, the change accumulated in long term will amount to a great support to the earth.