Nearly 70,000 stores are to be added to those ordered to stop providing free plastic bags, the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said.
Stores from seven business categories were on the list, with the regulation to apply to them from Jan. 1, 2018, the EPA said, adding that its aim is to reduce waste.
The restriction will not apply to businesses like bakeries where food comes into direct contact with plastic bags, it said.
The EPA introduced measures in 2002 to reduce the use of plastic bags, after which government departments, public and private schools, department stores, shopping centers, wholesale stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, fast-food restaurants and other major retail establishments were required to charge customers for plastic bags.
The regulations said the bags could not be thicker than 0.06mm and stipulated fines of between NT$1,200 and NT$6,000 for establishments found repeatedly giving away bags or using bags that were too thick.
Pharmacies, medical equipment stores, camera and cellphone retailers, bookstores and stationery retailers, laundromats, beverage stores and bakeries were among those to come under the regulations in 2018, the EPA said, adding that according to its two-stage implementation, an additional 90,000 businesses would be added later.
The agency said it would rescind the thickness requirement for plastic bags, while stores would remain in control of how much they charged.
Additionally, retailers in cities where rubbish bags are regulated will be required to offer approved bags as an option for shoppers, so that one bag could meet two needs, it said.
Taipei, New Taipei City and Shihgang District (石崗) in Taichung have rules that say waste must be thrown out in approved, store-bought rubbish bags.
Taiwan Watch Institute secretary general Herlin Hsieh (謝和霖) asked why there was a wait for the rules to be implemented.
“If the new rules simply expand the scope of existing measures, why wait 14 months to implement them?” Hsieh asked.
Hsieh called on the EPA to levy tariffs on plastic bag producers, rather than telling businesses not to give away bags for free.
Kaohsiung-based Conservation Mothers Foundation called for regulations on plastic bag prices, saying increasing the cost would be the only way the measures would be effective.
New policies must be introduced slowly, the EPA said, adding that it would hold public hearings to get feedback from the public.
Drinks retailer Red Sun Tea Shop said that while it would cooperate with the regulations, it hopes that chain drinks retailers would not be unfairly targeted, adding that online, non-chain drinks retailers should also come under the rules.
Drinks retailer 50 Lan said that customers are so used to having bags offered to them at no charge that suddenly charging for bags would cause considerable inconvenience.
A resident named Chu Chien-fu (朱建甫) said: “This is great! There are already some stores that do not offer free bags and it can be inconvenient, but I applaud this type of policy change.”
Another resident named Lei Tzu-ching (雷子青) said that if the policy covers drink retailers and bakeries then he will definitely find it inconvenient at first, but added that people should use reusable bags to protect the environment.
Additional reporting by Shen Pei-yao and Hung Chen-hung
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