Taipei, Dec. 9 (CNA) A French TV show host who recently visited Liuqiu, a coral island off the coast of eastern Taiwan's Pingtung County, praised the reusable cups offered by the island's cup-sharing program as well as its other eco-friendly schemes.

Jerome Pitorin visited the island to shoot an episode of Echappees belles, a French travel show that he hosts. The show airs weekly on Saturday nights on the channel France 5.

The Tourism Bureau and the Dapeng Bay National Scenic Area Administration, which provided support for Pitorin and his crew, released a statement Monday about the visit.

According to the administration, Pitorin and his crew traveled around Liuqiu using reusable cups from the island's cup-sharing program, which was launched in April 2019.

The program works like this: People can borrow reusable cups for free from 23 rental points that are either beverage shops, convenience stores or tourists service centers. People are allowed to take the cups of beverages to go, without having to buy drinks in plastic bottles.

The stainless steel cups can be returned at any of the 27 return points across the island.

People have to sign up for the service with their cell phone number. Each cup has a number and the system keeps track of how many cups each person has borrowed.

Everyone is encouraged to return the borrowed cups so others can use them.

Pitorin and his team also used reusable lunch boxes provided by environmental groups to buy snacks on the island. They ate at restaurants which have reduced the use of plastic in their operations and stayed at an eco-friendly hotel.

As Pitorin really liked the reusable cups, the groups which provide the cups gave one to him as a gift.

Pitorin said he plans to use the cup as the crew heads to shoot more segments of the episode in Hualien County and in his future travels.

Liuqiu island attracts a large number of tourists every year, but the increasing number of visitors has also had a negative impact on the local environment, causing most noticeably an increase in plastic waste.

To combat this, several businesses on the island have started giving discounts to eco-friendly tourists, and the effort has been expanded by two environmental groups, Ching Piao and Hiin Studio.

The groups plan to roll out more green policies next year, which would allow tourists to rent lunch boxes and cutlery, and even rain coats, according to Kuo Fu, deputy chief executive at Hiin Studio.