Taiwan urges people to recycle LEDs after the Lantern Festival

TAIPEI:  As Taiwan celebrates Lantern Festival on February 6, 2012, the tourism and environment officials have urged the public to recycle the light emitting diodes and create art objects to promote Taiwan overseas. 

Over  1 million LEDs are used every year in the festival, Taiwan’s LED manufacturing industry is the largest in the world. 

Taiwan Tourism Bureau sends numbers lantern displays made of used LEDs to countires such as Singapore, Malaysia and Canada. 

Yang Yeong-sheng, deputy director of the Tourism Bureau's Planning and Research Division, said the bureau sends numerous lantern displays made of used LEDs to countires such as Singapore, Malaysia and Canada. 

"People from these countries continue to return to Taiwan to study the way we mix art and technology together," Yang Yeong-sheng Deputy Director of the Tourism Bureau’s Planning and Research Division said, adding that previous LED lanterns have depicted Western cartoon characters and animals from the Chinese zodiac. 

To Ma Nien-ho, executive director of the Environmental Protection Administration's (EPA's) Recycling Fund Management Board, the significance of the LED recycling program lies in that it helps promote environmental awareness effectively. 

Although the weight of recycled LED batteries only accounts for around 0.2 percent of the some 3,000 tons of batteries recycled by the EPA every year, Ma said since the LEDs are mostly used in lanterns given to children, a sense of environmental responsibility could be easily established. 

"The earlier children start to care about this planet, the more likely it is that their families will also become aware of the way resources can be used," he said. 

(Courtesy: Focus Taiwan News Channel)