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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Ko underlines importance of reducing plastic waste
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je pauses as he talks to the media after an awards ceremony in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je （柯文哲） yesterday spoke with elementary-school students about reducing the use of plastic materials.
Ko attended the award ceremony of a competition held by the Chi Sing Eco-conservation Foundation, in which the students were informed about the relationship between the reduction of plastic use, food safety and environmental protection
The students were asked to film a video clip or prepare a picture book about the issues.
“According to statistics, an average of more than one truck full of plastic waste is dumped into the ocean every day,” Ko said, adding that the toxic substances can work their way up the food chain and return to the human body through food consumption.
Ko said since he became mayor, the Taipei City Government’s Department of Environmental Protection began pushing for policies to reduce the use of plastic, starting with the Taipei City Hall banning the use of disposable food containers and utensils.
Although the ban was initially inconvenient for about 6,000 city government employees, total paper use has been reduced by 75 percent and plastic waste by about 65 percent, Ko said.
The waste is burned in incinerators, emitting dioxins and other PM2.5 pollutants, he added.
“About 28 percent of people in Taiwan die of cancer and the leading cause of death from cancer is lung cancer,” Ko said.
While 75 percent of lung cancer patients in other nations are smokers, many patients in Taiwan are non-smoking women, because air pollution here is severe and needs to be improved, Ko said.
“Polystyrene does not break down in hundreds of years, so when you want to praise a woman for not aging, you can say: ‘Wow, you are like made of polystyrene,’” Ko joked.
Ko was asked about a remark by General Association of Chinese Culture secretary-general Lin Ching-chang （林錦昌）, who said that while Ko’s approval rating increased significantly after the Taipei Summer Universiade, he is like a “shooting star,” not a “fixed star,” and would need a team if he wants to run for president in 2020.
“I think I still am [a shooting star], but this shooting star has remained for long enough,” Ko said.
“I always call him [Lin] a ‘national master’ because he was an adviser to former president Chen Shui-bian （陳水扁） and helped in many election campaigns, so I think his opinions are often very objective,” Ko added.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
