Earlier quoted context omitted.
That would cost $3T if everyone turned their guns in.
And would be a better use of the money than most other things the government does already.
Like schools, roads, medicare, research, etc??? OK.
Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
371–380 of 417 posts
Re: Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
#372The UK dropped to 500 million bags annually used from 7 billion after introduction of a 5 pence per bag charge. That's just one country albeit one of the world's largest. Still I think we're over due for much more agressive action. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/30/england-...
It is through this kind of actions that we can hope to one day erase the Great Pacific Garbage Patch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch
Re: Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
#373Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't like that this is a regressive tax - pay a premium for the good bags, settle for paper, or pay for reusable bags. If anything, maybe just give a tax credit for not using plastic, which is printed on the receipt.
A better solution would be to pan the production and use of disposable plastic bags altogether like most countries did with plastic microbeads.
There's no good reason to ban plastic bags. We have to take convenience and quality of life for humans into account at some point when considering these environmental issues.
Re: Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
#374> single-use plastic straws
People will resort to single-use cleaning implements to wash their straws.
Re: Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
#375Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve seen this also and have not seen any evidence to the contrary. Considering how damning this study is to plastic bag bans, I’m guessing this means there aren’t any studies that rebut these findings.
So we need studies now to tell you to occasionally clean the bags you put raw meat into?
That’s one way to interpret the results. Alternatively, the study shows that in the normal course of human behavior, plastic bag bans may have nontrivial negative health impacts.
Also, it shows that in considering the carbon footprint of reusable bags, we should factor in regular (not occasional) cleaning.
Considering that a reusable bag needs to be reused many (hundreds, if memory serves) of times before reaching carbon neutrality versus single use plastic bags, this is not necessarily a trivial impact.
Re: Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
#376Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lots of my friends have said the same thing. I've always wondered why people didn't re-use bags before the charge... Saving the environment didn't matter, but 5p does? People didn't know plastic was bad before? They didn't care? It's great that the 5p charge works, but do we need to have a 5p charge on every bit of plastic to drive the point home?
do we need to have a 5p charge on every bit of plastic to drive the point home? Is this a people thing? I observed very often that cashiers routinely gave away much too many bags for customers that didn't ask for them, maybe to look generous? I still see in McDonalds and Burger King that they insist in putting in the shelf a lot of ketchup bags, drinking straws or paper napkings that I don't asked for or want. Simply…
I think it also has to do with retraining social expectations to know that people are expected to reuse bags at the grocery store or wherever. At the grocery stores here in Japan, they actually charge about 2 yen for using plastic bags, but the norm is to take plastic bags anyway, so it's more like they subtract 2 yen for not taking plastic bags. When buying takeout lunch, places will bag the lunchbox faster than you can open your mouth. There needs to be a way to disrupt the "plastic bag by default" mode of thinking.
Re: Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
#377Earlier quoted context omitted.
As I recall from my childhood, they get mushy if you dawdle too long with your drink. They also are more prone to collapse if drinking a milkshake and you deform a spot on the side mid-suck.
The newer ones are better, but can still colapse if left in a drink too long. I never understood straws however. They bypass your tounge, thereby skipping the whole point of a tasty drink, and nobody uses straws for water it seems. It is very strange, and looks vaugely infintile to see an adult suckling in public.
They're a godsend if you have bad/sensitive teeth.
Re: Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
#378I agree for the bags, the cups... but not the straws. I am not going to give steel straws to my kids. They are dangerous (no more walking while drinking), hard to clean, heavy, they can't play with it... But it's not because I use plastic straw that I don't reuse them, a "disposable straw" usually last nearly a week if the are not used with something hard to clean like syrup or milk. As for the bag side of things, we…
Try showing your kid a video of a straw being pulled out of a sea turtle's nose. Assuming they're as sensitive as most kids are, they'll instantly grok what the problem is and refuse to ever use a plastic straw from that point onward.
Re: Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
#379The UK dropped to 500 million bags annually used from 7 billion after introduction of a 5 pence per bag charge. That's just one country albeit one of the world's largest. Still I think we're over due for much more agressive action. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/30/england-...
Anecdata, but since it was introduced, I've gone from getting a new bag every day (lunch/fresh groceries), to using the same one for pretty much the last 6 months. It was a very noticeable shift to making me think about their use. Buying one because I've forgotten is a rare, and slight annoyance (the price doesn't put me off, it just changes the mental model).
A lot of us are doing the same. Feels great! Just don't forget to wash them once in a while, especially if they've been carrying meat (even packaged) as bacteria may grow and spread to your fresh food.
Re: Taiwan ban single-use plastic straws, plastic bags, disposable utensils by 2030
#380> 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.
How exactly does the printing of tickets work? Most countries have special machines (owned by the lottery authority) for printing lottery tickets, but this seems to be built into the store’s POS?