Hau's positive image, however, was partly the result of a NT$30 million public-relations campaign.
Hau has seized every opportunity to educate the public.
"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 on Dec. 29.
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 resolve to carry out the policy.
Hau and Pai also played roles in TV commercials as environmental police attacking the pollution caused by the use of plastic materials.
One week before the second stage of the policy was implemented, Hau wrote a 3,000 word letter to EPA staff, asking members to write the history of environmental protection in Taiwan.
"Obviously, the policy of tackling environmental problems resulting from the use of plastic bags has become a citizens' movement for environmental protection," said Yuan Shaw-ying (袁紹英), head of the EPA's public-relations office.
Hau has called the policy "a revolution in living."
The policy was welcomed by some environmental groups, which believe that less consumption of plastic materials will help improve the environment.
Some groups, however, said they are worried about other materials being used to replace disposable plastic items.
"If paper substitutes are readily available, I don't think people will lose the habit of using something only once," said Lai Wei-chieh (
Three days after the implementation of the new policy, Lai said that he saw a noodle dish in a chain store being wrapped in seven layers of paper.
In addition, Lai said, the implementation of the policy put the burden of looking after unemployed plastics-industry workers on the government's shoulders, even though the industry is in decline.
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