The "2026 Taoyuan Express E-commerce Waste Reduction and Governance Summit Forum" was held at the Taoyuan Convention and Exhibition Center. (Provided by Environmental Protection Bureau)
[Reporter Zheng Shuting/Taoyuan Report] Taiwan's e-commerce business scale is approaching one trillion yuan, which has also given rise to huge issues of logistics packaging and carbon emission "waste reduction". The "2026 Taoyuan Express Delivery E-commerce Waste Reduction and Management Summit" was held at the Taoyuan Convention and Exhibition Center on the 2nd of this month. Forum", inheriting the urban narrative of Taiwan Design Exhibition "Taoyuan Flow", with "less waste, talent into the flow" as the core proposition, waste reduction, carbon reduction, air pollution reduction, etc., through cross-industry dialogue and policy benefit linkage, promote source reduction and low-carbon logistics to advance simultaneously.
When Taoyuan City Vice Mayor Su Junbin attended the forum, he mentioned that Taiwan’s e-commerce is a very strong arterial industry, but on the other hand, the vein of the circular economy is also very important, so Taoyuan hopes to introduce the energy of design and through dialogue between industry, government and academia, so that different roles can communicate with the waste reduction models designed by individual companies to form another more sustainable consumption model.
He also shared the case of Taoyuan. Twenty years ago, Taoyuan's population was about 1.88 million. Now it has grown to 2.36 million. Its industrial output value has increased from about 2 trillion yuan to 4.5 trillion yuan. With the rapid growth of urban population and industrial scale, the pressure of waste treatment has increased. Taoyuan's annual resource recycling volume is about 660,000 metric tons, with an average of 660,000 metric tons per person per person. About 300 kilograms per year. This is the result of efforts to promote resource recycling, but people often overlook that in the process of recycling, classification, transportation and reuse, resources also need to be invested and carbon emissions are generated. Therefore, urban waste reduction cannot just stop at terminal processing, but should start from source reduction, reuse and recycling design.
Su Junbin pointed out that the Taiwan Design Exhibition was being held in Taoyuan. When planning began two years ago, he and his colleagues had been thinking continuously. "Design" is not only about designing an item to be beautiful and pleasing to the eye, but also about functional optimization. Design thinking is introduced to develop a consumption method or process that is convenient, reusable, waste-reducing and in line with the trend, so as to extend the life cycle of the product.
Su Junbin gave an example. In the past, Taoyuan was the first to introduce recycling cups for use in stadiums, movie theaters and other venues. In the past four years, it has accumulated more than 310,000 cups. It is considered a very successful policy. In the future, it will further connect food delivery, e-commerce, logistics and new entrepreneurs to continue to develop more convenient waste reduction consumption models and reverse logistics recycling. Through a market-competitive business model, waste reduction will gradually become a "mainstream" that most people in society are willing to use, from a "clear stream" that a few people are willing to cooperate with.
Wang Shengyang, dean of the School of Circular Economy Research at National Chung Hsing University, said that the core of circular economy is to reduce resource consumption and carbon emissions. Whether it is biological cycle or industrial cycle, we should not only focus on end-of-life recycling, but should rethink product design and manufacturing from the source to reduce resource investment and increase the possibility of reuse. In the future, cross-field talent cultivation and industry-university cooperation must be combined to truly implement the recycling concept in industrial development and daily life.
The Environmental Protection Bureau stated that Taoyuan has continued to expand the use of recycling cups in recent years, extending from street beverage shops and stadiums to movie theaters and delivery services. Currently, a total of more than 310,000 cups have been used. The city government will continue to integrate corporate and private resources to expand waste reduction application scenarios from recycling containers, logistics and distribution, payment data to citizen participation, etc., so that source reduction and recycling can gradually be integrated into daily life in the city.
