As good as this will be for the environment and aesthetics, just have to think the bubble tea vendors as well as regular green tea vendors who sell their drinks in sealed containers to be pierced by a sharp straw are not going to be fans of this ban.
Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
91–100 of 417 posts
Re: Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well apparently a 5p charge resulted in a 14x decrease in usage of plastic bags, so despite your anecdote, it does make a difference.
A little thing to bear in mind is that the new bags weigh significantly more than the old ones, so it's not actually a 14x decrease. With the switch all the stores now sell "lifetime" bags. According to my fairly inaccurate kitchen scales the old ones weigh about 10g, the new ones weigh about 25g. So it's about a 5.6x drop, which is still fantastic. I think everyone talks about the number of bags as it makes the decr…
> the old ones
Charging for bags was commonplace in the UK in the 80's ... how long have you been keeping these for??
Re: Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
#93> uniform invoices – widely used in Taiwan
I wondered what this meant, so I looked it up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Invoice_lottery
To encourage businesses to report their earnings, Taiwan's tax authorities operate a receipt lottery. Genius.
Re: Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
#9412 years? 12 months seems plenty. It's not like they need decades of research to reintroduce paper straws, paper bags and reusable bags. Edit: I'm confused now. "As of next year, food and beverage stores such as fast food chains must stop providing plastic straws for in-store use. From 2020, free plastic straws will be banned from all food and beverage outlets. From 2025, the public will have to pay for takeaway plas…
paper straws really suck, please don't let them be the solution.
Re: Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well apparently a 5p charge resulted in a 14x decrease in usage of plastic bags, so despite your anecdote, it does make a difference.
A little thing to bear in mind is that the new bags weigh significantly more than the old ones, so it's not actually a 14x decrease. With the switch all the stores now sell "lifetime" bags. According to my fairly inaccurate kitchen scales the old ones weigh about 10g, the new ones weigh about 25g. So it's about a 5.6x drop, which is still fantastic. I think everyone talks about the number of bags as it makes the decr…
I think it's probably better than that though, because while some supermarkets have switched to using heavier bags, some are still using the lightweight ones.
Re: Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
#96Morocco is already actively banning plastic bags since 2016. www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2016/07/green-morocco-bans-plastic-bags-160701141919913.html
According to rumor, this was an initiative of the king who was unhappy with the immense amount of litter across the countryside. Conventional plastic bags have been replaced by fiber bags that, I guess, are biodegradable eventually, but I do wonder if their creation generates just as much CO2. Plus, every single shopkeeper will give you a new-style bag (or three) for free; no one is being encouraged to reuse bags.
Last time I was in countryside Morocco, the waste management program consisted in dumping all your trash in the street and let the wind take care of it. There was indeed lots of plastic litter flying around. Looks like banning plastic bags is a good start but they have bigger challenges to tackle when it comes to environmental pollution.
Re: Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
#97There's claims the plastic ban bag in San Diego led to a Hepatitis outbreak https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2017/sep/08/stringers-pl...
Two economists have claimed that the ban in San Francisco led to an increase in food-borne diseases. The proposed mechanism is that people don't wash their reusable bags, and dangerous bacteria gets onto them. It isn't clear to me how strong the evidence for this is.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/02/16/is-sa...
Re: Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've read that a dishwasher is less wasteful than hand-washing of dishes (perhaps this isn't true for people who are very, very scrupulous about their use of water while washing dishes, but that's not most of us).
water is not the problem. Electricity is. and besides, not everything go in the dish washer. And moreover some the dish washer soap can attack the surface of many things => increasing the need to replace those things...
I think people in California, Cape Town, or various similar locales might disagree with the idea that conserving water is unimportant. How much electricity does a dishwasher really use, anyway?
Re: Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
#99I recently bought a set of reusable stainless steel straws. They were expensive, but have a timeless "design" and have a build quality that gives the impression they will last a lifetime. When dirty I throw them in the dishwasher with the other cutleries. They don't take any space in the washer so cleaning them is essentially "free". (Making abstraction of the ecological cost of a dishwasher.)
Why use a straw at all instead of just drinking directly from a drinking glass, thus avoiding the need to wash and manage the straws?
Also, glass is a better material than steel for food applications, and glass straws exist, so they are probably a better choice (unless there's a significant chance of breakage like giving them to small children).
Re: Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
#100As of 2018, Greece charges €0.04 / bag.
Albeit very effective, I don't know how to feel about the actual contents of my new multi-use bag.
Almost every food item is packed in a single-use plastic package. It certainly seems that those are a greater concern than the plastic bags.