A policy that limits the use of plastic bags and utensils will be implemented on Wednesday regardless of strong opposition from the plastics industry, Environmental Protection Administrator Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said yesterday.
"We can make a great contribution to environmental protection as long as we get used to the small inconvenience of carrying reusable bags when shopping," Hau told a crowd in downtown Taipei, where environmental protection campaign activities were being held.
Hau said that the public's attitude toward using plastic needed to change.
Together with Pai Ping-ping (白冰冰), a TV entertainer who volunteered to promote the policy, Hau tore down several plastic bags and utensils attached to a huge model of the Earth to demonstrate his resolution in carrying out the policy.
In Taipei yesterday, several artists displayed their works made from recyclable materials or hand-made reusable shopping bags produced by local Taiwan-ese housewives.
The first stage of the controversial policy was launched on July 1, when all government-run stores were banned from providing free plastic shopping bags to customers.
Three months later, a ban on disposable utensils and food containers was imposed at government-operated grocery stores and restaurants.
The second stage of the policy will start on Wednesday, with the ban on free bags and utensils extending to department stores, supermarkets, fast-food restaurants, convenience stores and almost every type of retailer, except street vendors.
To promote the policy, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) distributed 1,000 reusable shopping bags to those participating in yesterday's campaign activities.
Representatives from convenience store chains and department stores joined the activities to show their support.
Giuseppina Toto, an Italian semiconductor engineer who is in Taiwan on business, said yesterday that the policy was reasonable given that in Europe most residents already use reusable bags for shopping.
"In the Netherlands, you have to pay about NT$3.5 to buy a plastic bag," said Toto, who now lives in the Netherlands.
Notices informing customers of the policy have been put up at most stores it affects.
A clerk at a branch of the Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Co in Sungshan District said that customers will be charged NT$1 for a single biodegradable plastic shopping bag from the start of next year.
The EPA has spent NT$30 million on publicizing the policy so far.
According to the EPA, 20 percent of household waste in Taiwan is plastic, almost double the percentage in developed countries.
Hau told the Taipei Times yesterday that the policy aims to reduce the amount of plastic waste by 30 percent within six months.
"The policy will be carefully reviewed in six months to see if the EPA needs to limit the use of other disposable materials," Hau said.
As for opposition from the plastics industry, Hau said that the EPA would do its best to solve unemployment caused by the policy.
According to Hau, the Cabinet will spend about NT$1.58 billion on creating 8,400 jobs for laid-off plastics industry workers next year.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods