The Taoyuan Department of Environmental Protection has held monthly beach cleanup activities and attracted 300 companies and volunteer groups to participate on Sunday at Guanyin Coastal Recreation Area, UDN reported. The area is important ecologically for its grassy dunes and algae reefs.

The department said that today’s the cleanup activity cleared more than 900 kg of trash, 280 kg of which is recyclable. In the first half of the year, the department has led 129 such activities and attracted 11,000 participants. In total, they have cleared 64 tons of trash.

In addition to the cleanup operations, the city’s tourism bureau is promoting green travel in the city by encouraging visitors to bring their own reusable toiletries instead of relying on hotels to provide the items. Hotel guests will still be able to request toiletries in case they don’t bring their own.

Visitors who participate in the scheme can receive a NT$100 voucher from one of the 41 registered green hotels, UDN reported. The vouchers are limited and the hotels will offer a total of 18,600.

Tourism Bureau representative Li Fu-hua (李復華) said that Taoyuan has a total of 257 hotels. Of those, 56 are designated as green hotels by the Department of Environmental Protection.

Chairman of the Taoyuan Hotel Association (桃園市旅館商業同業公會) Chen Ying-jui (陳盈瑞) said that to become a designated green hotel, the business must meet certain standards, including lower electricity usage with LED lighting as well as reducing water use by 26%. Chen added that participating in the green tourism initiative will help promote Taoyuan as a more attractive destination.