TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An eco-party will take place at Keelung Miaokou Night Market — one of the most popular tourist night markets in Taiwan — on Sunday (Aug. 9), featuring a variety of activities.

The event will spotlight a lion dance, percussion performances, point collecting, and stalls that promote plastic reduction, low carbon emissions, and other environmental concepts. People are invited to use public transport to visit the northern Taiwan market and bring their own shopping bags and cutlery to reduce the amount of waste, reported UDN.

Night markets are tourist magnets and epitomize the country’s culinary culture, and the "party" is part of a broader campaign to make them clean and environmentally friendly. While the markets are a source of pride for Taiwan, they are also a source of hygiene woes and excess garbage from single-use straws and food containers.

To polish the image of Taiwan’s gastronomic scene, the Cabinet-level Environmental Protection Administration has set aside a NT$60 million (US$2 million) budget for the transformation of “22 model night markets” nationwide.

Six approaches will be adopted to drive eco-friendly changes for each of the designated night markets across 22 municipalities. These approaches include recycling, energy conservation, controlling cooking fumes, kitchen waste management, public toilet cleaning, and cutting the use of non-reusable products, according to the Environmental Information Center.

The ultimate goal is to eventually expand the scope of the campaign to the rest of the country’s 400 night markets. The model markets include the Keelung Miaokou Night Market, Taipei’s Ningxia Night Market, Hsinchu's Chenghuang Temple Night Market, Kaohsiung’s Kaisyuan Night Market, and others.