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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).
Not seeing it.
Straws are not exactly washable on the inside.
What's next - multi-use TP ?
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Taiwan about to pass us up in the US for common sense stuff. Really, I always wonder at the crazy waste of 10 napkins for one burger and junk like that... who needs it?
I lived in Taiwan for 2 years. This makes me both sad and hopeful. Hopeful because that island REALLY needs to focus on pollution. It's a country whose economy is built around manufacturing, and the factories dump tons of emissions into the air. I had a necktie I would show people when I came home. It was a nice charcoal grey tie. I'd then show them the back of the tie (the part that spent its life against my body, less exposed to the air), and it was royal blue. Bags and cups obviously don't contribute to air pollution, but the incense they mentioned definitely can (everything is extremely hazy during Ghost Month), and there is generally a lot of pollution of all forms, which you expect in such a densely populated area.
On the flip side, I loved the street vendors that served drinks. They would make your drink, pour it into a 700cc plastic cup, then use a head press to melt a thin plastic lid to it (think slightly thicker Saran Wrap). You could throw 5 or 6 of them in a plastic bag and not worry about them spilling. When you are ready to drink it, jab the disposable plastic straw through the lid and drink up. It was a genius system, and I will miss it dearly. I don't know what will become of those drink stands (seriously one every other corner throughout every city I lived in).
Straws have two use cases:
(1) If you're walking or driving and holding a drink
(2) If you're disabled.
I never understood why US restaurants gave straws with glasses or cups. If it's not clean enough to drink from, you shouldn't be drinking from it. If it's clean, you don't need a straw.
You say this in jest, but really that is an ambitious schedule for Taiwan. As I mentioned in another comment, there are drink stands on every other street corner who sell drinks in 700cc plastic cups. They have big, expensive heat presses that seal a lid on top of it so you can carry it in a plastic bag and later puncture that lid with the included plastic straw. This move completely destroys their business model, and they have invested heavily in the equipment.
They have had tech to make full vegetable fiber straws for at least a decade now, and all of the EU is converting to bio-plastics, so it's not difficult.
As you scale up production, the prices drop. If you remove the artificial subsides for plastic disposal of non-recyclable materials, you can easily switch, using this thing we like to call "capitalist markets".
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Burn them in an incineration. They are an excellent fuel source. And with a properly designed high-temperature incinerator the pollution is very low. (versus throwing plastic in a camp fire, where the fumes can be quite toxic)
Waste to energy and recycling can coexist and be beneficial. Some things are practical to recycle. Other things take too much effort to collect and clean. And other things take too much energy to recycle and should be reused as many times as possible (ex: glass, steel).
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I hate to admit it, but something I saw on Facebook actually changed my opinion on something.
In particular it was an image of an animal that had died because it tried to eat a straw, which got stuck in its throat. Seemed like a nasty way to go.
Combining that and the very slight convenience a straw offers over just drinking from a cup, and I'm in favor of saying most places should not have disposable straws, or at the very least just have straws on request for those that truly need them.
In the meantime I don't take straws from restaurants anymore, and also pick up any discarded straws I find in the wild and dispose of them.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why wait till 2030? We should avoid trash now, immediately. There's no valid reason to postpone a sane decision.
Can't win on environmental policy. If you do it quickly you are trying to destroy the economy, turn it into a third world stone age country. If you do it slowly you aren't serious and know you will be long gone before having to deliver.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
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They have big, expensive heat presses that seal a lid on top of it so you can carry it in a plastic bag and later puncture that lid with the included plastic straw. This move completely destroys their business model, and they have invested heavily in the equipment.
It doesn't have to destroy it. With a slight cultural shift, people will get into the habit of carrying their own re-usable straws with the necessary profile on the piercing end to puncture the lid. And the drink stands will sell the straws, at a price high enough to strongly encourage re-use.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
Doh! I totally missed the 'disposable cup' part of the equation. Please excuse my Homer moment - it's been a long day...
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
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This is where it becomes interesting to do an analysis of the plastic in the environment. Does the distribution and composition of plastic in the sea support the banning of plastic straws, is that just symbolic to build up the right mindset, or is this just the visual experience on streets with a lot of straws but with little impact outside of cities?
EU (including other European countries like CH) have also banned those plastic bags.
Most shops have switched to :
- giving out bags made of *compostable bio-platics* (so you can use them to discard your usual compostable kitchen waste).
- selling (recycled) paper bags
- selling higher quality multi-use reusable bags (either fabric or recycled PET plastic).
Though not an actual ban yet, some places have switched away from plastic cups, etc. :
- some outdoor festival have switched to compostable cups/plates/cutlery (mostly special wooden/cardboard plates, and bio-plastic cups and cutlery)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Way to solve a problem by destroying the age-old solution to a long-past problem. The circle of forgetfulness.
Show of hands: who remembers why we have disposable plastic products in the first place? Anyone? Anyone from Taiwan?
What the hell are you supposed to pick up dog poop with? (not the straw)
North Americans are too comfortable with just MAKING YOUR OWN MESS SOMEONE ELSE'S PROBLEM.
Just pick up your damn litter, for a start. Keep it in your pocket. Carry it to the trash can.
Secondly, don't take all of the disposable crap a store gives you! Take your own cup, your own cutlery. There are tiny ones that fit in your pocket or a bag.
Third, if you see a mess, make it your problem if reasonable. You can wash your hands afterward. North Americans seem to have a problem picking stuff up or holding on to it for 5 minutes because it's "icky". You just ate that ice cream cone, the package isn't any more icky yet than when you ate it. Put it in the trash.
BUT YES, THE ANSWER IS TO USE A MULTI-USE STRAW. They exist, they're simple to carry, and it's the responsible thing to do.
Why not now?!
...when humans are as irresponsible as they are! https://www.youtube.com/watch?... https://www.youtube.com/watch?...