The growth of online shopping has contributed to an increase in plastic waste, despite government policies and efforts since 2002 to reduce plastic use, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday.
Data from the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Department of Statistics showed that plastic bag production continued to grow from about 214,000 tonnes in 2016 to 232,000 tonnes last year.
“E-commerce has become an industry that uses a lot of plastic,” EPA Department of Waste Management Director-General Lai Ying-ying (賴瑩瑩) said yesterday.
Photo: CNA
Annual domestic sales — including indirect exports — of plastic bags grew only slightly in the past three years, but remained high at about 160,000 tonnes, while direct exports grew year-on-year, from about 48,000 tonnes in 2016 to 63,000 tonnes last year, Lai said
A UN report last year showed that plastic packaging volumes doubled between 2000 and 2015, and are expected to more than quadruple by 2050 to 318 million tonnes annually, exceeding the total production volume of the existing plastic industry, Lai said.
Although the production and use of plastic in Taiwan remained at about the same level in the past few years, the nation has not fared badly when compared with the global growth rate, she said.
Many people from the plastic industry protested when the EPA first implemented plastic reduction policies in 2002, but this year, when it implemented a policy to phase out the use of plastic straws, it received public support and some stores even started using biodegradable straws before the policy took effect, she said.
The ban on plastic straws did encounter opposition when the plan was announced in June last year, she said.
However, as the policy was clear, manufacturers and retailers adapted quickly, and social media played its role in spreading information rapidly so that the public understood the policy, she said, adding that the public has taken a more proactive approach in implementing the ban on plastic straws.
“Consumers can guide how products are manufactured,” she said.
As the government pushes a circular economy, it would need to consider the concepts, innovative production and business models for implementing it in stages and whether the public would be able to accept them, she said.
Showing a fountain pen made of recycled materials as example, Lai said that globally, Taiwan ranks among the top in plastic recycling and reuse, and it has refined the skills to make marine waste into new products, so the EPA hopes that people can form the habit of reducing plastic use and influencing manufacturers, retailers and business models.
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