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Taiwan To Ban Plastic Straws, Cups and Shopping Bags By 2030 (channelnewsasia.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Taiwan is planning a blanket ban on single-use plastic items including straws, cups and shopping bags by 2030, officials said Thursday, with restaurants facing new restrictions from next year. It is the latest push by Taiwan to cut waste and pollution after introducing a recycling programme and charges for plastic bags. The island's eco-drive has also extended to limiting the use of incense at temples and festivals to protect public health. Its new plan will force major chain restaurants to stop providing plastic straws for in-store use from 2019, a requirement that will expand to all dining outlets in 2020. Consumers will have to pay extra for all straws, plastic shopping bags, disposable utensils and beverage cups from 2025, ahead of a full ban on the single-use items five years later, according to the road map from the government's Environmental Protection Administration (EPA).
There's also paper straws.
I really don't like them and they feel weird on your lips, but they work.
It's a slightly different culture there. It's not that there are multi-use versions of straws, but that they give them out for everything. If you go to a 7-11 and get a 20oz bottle of coke, they give you a straw. Buy two of them, they give you two straws. It's essentially unheard of in a restaurant to have a drink without a straw also given to you even though the reusable cups can be drank from without a straw.
I'm not certain how fast food places will change for this, as their lids make it impossible to drink without a straw, and the cups are flimsy without lids.
One thing I can state, the shopping bags that they charge for there are of a much higher quality than the ones you get in the states. This may be that they start making higher quality cups that don't bend as easily for in restaurant use, or even start having reusable cups in McDonald's.
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." [Thomas Jefferson]
I was somewhat skeptical on the plastic bag ban when it was introduced, but I will say I definitely noticed the reduction in litter. Prior to the ban you would see plastic bags blowing in the wind like urban tumbleweed. After the ban, almost non-existent. Similar to composting (by the city, not your back yard). Initially it feels like you are being put upon, to sort yet another thing, have another bin, etc etc. But really you get used to it pretty quickly and the benefits far outweigh the perceived hassles.