Taiwan tests recycling's limits with bus stops out of bottles

cheap nfl jerseys Media captionArthur Huang shows how the new factory will be built cheap nfl jerseys "It will rise from trash," says wholesale nfl jerseys the smiling young man sporting a white safety helmet, as he points to the bustling construction site behind him, near the raging sea. The man is Arthur Huang, architect, urban designer and one of Taiwan's leading entrepreneurs, and the factory under construction an hour's drive north of Taiwan's capital, Taipei is set to process and recycle the electronic waste generated by the island's consumers and its numerous technology companies. But it aims to do more than that. wholesale jerseys from china "We want to take recycling to the next level," says Mr Huang. "Not only will this factory do the usual e waste recycling, extracting gold and copper from your discarded computers and smartphones, but it will be built completely out of recycled materials. wholesale jerseys from china He shows me a model of the future plant ceilings built out of plastic left over from CDs and DVDs, and walls out of glass fibre from computer motherboards. Mr Huang runs Miniwiz, a start up that develops green approaches to buildings. The e waste plant is Miniwiz's biggest project yet, built wholesale jerseys with one of Taiwan's largest cheap nfl jerseys recycling companies, SDTI. GT Ding, chief technology officer of SDTI, shows me a jar containing 2kg (4.4lb) of gold. "This gold comes from more than 10,000 motherboards," he says. wholesale nfl jerseys E waste recycling is important, he says, because if you dump your computer in your back yard, its components cheap nfl jerseys will leach and poison the environment and people living nearby. wholesale nfl jerseys And that is especially important here in Taiwan. Cheap Jerseys free shipping The island, just 36,190 sq km (13,973 sq miles) and with a population of 23 million, produces more electronics per head than any other country. Cheap Jerseys free shipping It is home to companies such as Foxconn, and a host of electronics firms such as Asus, Acer, Via and HTC, which are a force in the market for mobile phones and computers. Whenever there is cheap nfl jerseys a production issue, electronic components are discarded. Our land is very precious, we can't just dump anything anywhere, we have to have better solutionsProf Hsiao Kang Ma, National cheap nfl jerseys Taiwan University wholesale jerseys from china Then there is consumer e waste people here love gadgets, and love to change them regularly. wholesale jerseys from china All this waste needs to be dealt with. Until a few years ago, it used to be dumped in landfills, but it is tricky to find much space on an island where more than 70% of the land is covered by mountains. In 2010, Taiwan's government adopted a zero landfill policy, encouraging recycling and promoting sustainability, wholesale nfl jerseys says Prof Hsiao Kang Ma, of the National Taiwan University. Cheap Jerseys wholesale nfl jerseys free shipping "Our land is very precious, we can't just dump anything anywhere, we have to have better solutions," he says. Cheap Jerseys free shipping The move has spurred on innovation. Some factories now make furniture out of paper instead of wood, and the island has gained a reputation for making eco clothes. It even made jerseys for nine football teams competing in the World Cup when it was held in South Africa using polyester recycled from plastic bottles. Such clothes are lighter than the usual fabric and absorb sweat better, says Super Textile Corporation, one of the Taiwanese companies weaving shirts and sweaters out of bottles. "The process also uses less water and energy we simply use coloured bottles to avoid using dye," says Alex Lo, the company's managing director. Environmental campaign group Greenpeace warns incinerating rubbish is even worse than dumping it. "Incinerators are not a solution to our waste problems the burnt waste goes into the atmosphere, and it's a shared atmosphere," says the group's spokesman. cheap cheap jerseys nfl jerseys "All it does is increase the level of dioxins dangerous chemicals." cheap nfl jerseys cheap jerseys But while there is room for further improvement, the island's Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) says a lot of progress has been made. cheap jerseys Cheap Jerseys from china Driven by the government's aggressive recycling policy, during the past decade levels rose from about 10% in early 2000s to more than 60%, its says. Cheap Jerseys from china wholesale jerseys Recycling trucks trundle through the streets of Taipei twice a day. You know they are coming when you suddenly hear Beethoven's For Elise blasting out on the street wholesale jerseys.