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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.
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).
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.