Statistically, about every 60 seconds, we dump a whole garbage truck with plastic garbage into the ocean, which is 8 million tons of plastic per year. Taiwan is now stepping out of this fateful cycle and banning all disposable plastic products – forever!
The complete ban will come gradually until 2030
The nationwide one-way ban on plastic in Taiwan should be phased out so that stores and customers can gradually get used to it over the next few years. First, no plastic bags, straws and disposable cups are allowed to circulate; By 2030, there will be a complete ban on everything that is made of plastic and designed for one-time use. In detail, it looks like that from next year no more plastic straws may be issued in restaurants, edible tubes or stalks made of real straw would be allowed. In 2020, the complete ban on the colorful vacuum cleaners will follow in all catering establishments. Retailers who are still issuing plastic bags from 2020 will have to pay a fee, which will increase substantially in 2025. In 2030, there should be no more disposable plastic carrying bags.
Every day, 500 million drinking straws end up in the US
Lee Ying-yuan of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency said, „We want to introduce a general ban by 2030 to significantly reduce plastic waste that pollutes the ocean and is already in the human food chain and harms our health.“ Thirsty People in The US consumes about 500 million plastic straws day after day: that’s a huge number! How many plastic tubes in Taiwan land every 24 hours in the garbage is not known, but even this amount will be quite clear. From 2019, Scotland wants to ban all drinking straws made of plastic, and in many other states is also moving. The garbage avalanche can probably be greatly reduced in this way over the years, but then probably decades of tidying up is still in demand.
