New Taipei City is rated the cleanest city in Taiwan for 5th consecutive year
New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu today at the city conference acknowledged Environmental Protection Department for their contribution to a series of environmental policies that helped New Taipei City earn the title of “Cleanest City in Taiwan” for the 5th consecutive year. He also encouraged more people to join the volunteer cleaner group to make living environments in New Taipei City even better in the future.
At today’s city conference, Commissioner Liu of Environmental Protection Department gave a special report on the topic of “environmental education and a clean city”, revealing his vision of creating a “low-carbon, eternally sustainable green municipality”. He mentioned that many past actions done by Environmental Protection Department such as reorganizing unused houses and lands, transforming run-down areas into gardens, cracking down on illegal garbage dumping, removing illegal flyers, etc., have effectively improved the living conditions in the city. The “Picking up after your dog for prizes” campaign was especially successful as it received acknowledgement from environmentalists. It was even nominated as one of the “top creative policies adopting lottery mechanism” by Times Magazine.
Commissioner Liu further reported that Environmental Protection Department would work closely with Education Department in the future to enact a curriculum on environmental protection. They also plan on hosting various energy saving contests which could encourage students to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle.
Mayor Chu at the city conference complimented Environmental Protection Department on its hard work earning New Taipei City the title of “Cleanest City in Taiwan” for the 5th consecutive time. In addition to outsourcing many of the government’s cleaning jobs, Mayor Chu also suggested to utilize more volunteer cleaners for better efficiency. He took the removal of waste transfer stations at Sanchong and Luzhou as a fine example of how volunteer cleaners can be helpful in carrying out city beautification. With the help of local volunteers, waster transfer stations at Sanchong and Luzhou were both successfully converted into public parks.
For citizens’ convenience, Environmental Protection Station also set up many houseware exchange stations in the city for people to exchange furniture and appliances. Extending the idea of the houseware station, Mayor Chu proposed to set up an on-line flea market to provide citizens with an interface to exchange used stuff and make donation.
As to the environmental education, Mayor Chu said it is essential that children could learn to live an environmentally friendly lifestyle. Whether it is to bring their own tableware or to refrain from littering, these children could also help spread environmental awareness to people around them. “To go green, you start by living green,” said Chu.