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Taiwan Announces Ban on All Plastic Bags, Straws, and Utensils |
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by Rahul Kumar Patel | 14-03-2018 00:40 0 |
Ordering take-out, picking up groceries, buying a soft drink — these are all activities that will change over the next decade in Taiwan when the island nation imposes a blanket ban on single-use plastic bags, straws, and cups. It will be one of the farthest-reaching bans on plastic in the world, and it demonstrates the momentum of the anti-plastic movement as the scale of environmental harm caused by the substance is fully realized. Taiwan aims to implement a blanket ban by 2030 to significantly reduce plastic waste that pollutes the ocean and also gets into the food chain to affect human health. Taiwan?s ban will be phased in over time and builds on existing regulations like an expanded recycling program and extra charges for plastic bags. The first part of the regulation includes banning chain restaurants from giving straws to customers in 2019, and then an overall ban on straws in dining outlets by 2020. Retail stores will be charged for providing free plastic bags, disposable food containers, and utensils in 2020 and additional fees will be added in 2025. These measures will culminate in a flat-out ban on single-use bags, utensils, straws, and containers by 2030. Globally, around 380 million metric tones of plastic are being created annually. Meanwhile, an estimated 8 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean each year, which is like emptying a garbage truck of plastic into an ocean every minute. The announcement is also part of a larger movement against plastic in the world as governments realize that the convenience of plastic is not worth the harm it causes. The UN recently proposed a global ban on plastic pollution entering the oceans; Canada is planning to introduce a smilar proposal at the G7 gathering later this year; and a range of local, state, and federal government are enacting targeted and sweeping bans on plastic use. Plastic straws, in particular, have been the focus of environmental advocates. Each day, US citizens use about 500 million straws, according to eco-cycle. Considering the US accounts for just 4.4% of the global population the global number of straws used daily is probably much higher. Almost none of this straw can be recycled because they?re generally made from single-use plastic and are so flimsy that they can?t endure the recycling process. So businesses, cities, and even countries are getting rid of them. Scotland, for instance, recently announced a ban on single-use straws to be enacted in 2019. Taiwan?s ban goes farther by banning a suite of other popular plastic items. Now, the country needs to convince bigger consumers of plastic to follow their lead. |
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6 Comments
Greeting rahul
I hope you are doing well
Nicely written
Thank you so much for this report.
Keep writing
Green cheers!
Regards
Basanta
Posted 23-03-2020 11:06
Confirmed of the link, thanks Rahul :)
Posted 15-03-2018 17:41
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42239895
Posted 15-03-2018 00:35
I do agree with your opinion @Mentor Gyeongrine....plastic is actually a resource which we have to use in consonance with nature for the sustanable or long-term benefit and this way we can reduce its negative impact on nature. By complet blanket ban on its use will definitely increase human needs and dependency on another non-renewable biodegradable resource which is in very limited amount in nature. So the question arise what best we could do, the answer is we have to work on the recycling of the used plastic waste because only 9% percent of used plastic waste reach to the recycling unit.
Posted 14-03-2018 23:37
Hello Rahul!
The excessive consumption of plastic products has been a big problem recently.
The best way to solve this problem is simply not to use it. However simply banning the use of plastic seems a little bit too idealistic since mass products around the world are made of plastic. So I think the development of new materials that can substitute plastic will be a good make up for the plastic policy! What do you think about this?
Well written report!!
Thanks~ :)
Posted 14-03-2018 22:22
Hi Rahul, thanks for sharing Taiwan's new policy toward plastic bags.
It seems like Taiwanese government has thought this problem as a very critical problem.
But it sounds so clear and logical to do so since implementing decisive and strong policy in preventing further relative problems and pollution is important too, rather than keeping the use of plastic products recklessly.
And can you also cite the link about UN news for banning the influx of plastic bags into the ocean?
Keep up with your work! :) Nice report
Posted 14-03-2018 17:10