On June 8 the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) released draft regulations that would ban the use of single-use plastic drinking straws for dine-in use at restaurants in government offices, schools and colleges, department stores and fast-food chains.
Following the announcement, many Internet users have been posting their fears about how people will be able to drink bubble tea, which contains chewy tapioca balls, without using straws. Even the National Palace Museum joined in with a satirical post on its Facebook page, asking readers which kind of antique spoon they would like to use to drink their bubble tea.
At the beginning of the month, the Taipei and Taoyuan city governments separately announced that air conditioning would be installed at all their elementary and high schools.
This announcement also attracted opinions both for and against it.
Air conditioners are for comfort; drinking straws are for convenience. Just as installing air conditioning in schools is a popular policy, restricting the use of plastic might cause widespread annoyance. Comfort and convenience are not free. They come at a price and are the root causes of many environmental problems around the world.
At a rough estimate, an army of 150,000 air conditioners would be needed to cool every classroom in Taipei. If all these air conditioners were running at the same time, the warm air they pumped out would aggravate the urban heat island effect, making the Taipei Basin hotter and steamier than it already is.
They would also use a huge amount of additional electricity. It makes you wonder whether Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) is serious when he claims he opposes building a new coal-fired power plant in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳).
As for plastic straws, although they are not the biggest contributor to the 8 million tonnes of plastic debris that pour into the world’s seas each year, they do pose a grave threat to marine organisms.
Because straws are so small and light, they are easily carried into the sea by the wind and rivers.
You might have seen photographs of plastic straws stuck in a sea turtle’s nostril and the stomach of an albatross, causing them to suffer and die.
Many people still have faith in fancy words like “degradable” and “recycling,” hoping that they will preserve the convenience of single-use plastic, but the truth is that recycling has failed.
Worldwide use of plastic has multiplied 20 times over the past 50 years, but less than 9 percent of plastic gets recycled, and when it does, it is only used to make low-grade single-use products, rather than reusable ones. Instead of being “broken down,” so-called degradable plastics are mostly only “broken up” into little fragments.
Plastic is still plastic, and marine scientists tell us that when plastic is fragmented into tiny particles it does even more damage to marine ecosystems. It is also easier for plastic microparticles to enter the food chain and eventually end up on everyone’s dinner tables.
The Environmental Quality Protection Foundation applauds the EPA for taking this first step on the path of restricting the use of plastics, but it does not go far enough.
According to the EPA’s Action Plan of Marine Debris Governance in Taiwan, we will have to wait until 2030 for all shops to be completely forbidden to provide plastic straws. That leaves 12 years, in which time more than 100 million straws will probably find their way into the sea from Taiwan. By being so easy on ourselves, we are being ruthless to the sea.
Compare this with Kenya, which in August last year announced a total ban on plastic bags, with offenders facing up to four years in prison or a fine of up to US$40,000.
India is becoming swamped in plastic, but on June 5, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a plan to eliminate single-use plastic products by 2022.
Kenya and India are both developing countries. Is Taiwan really such a mollycoddled country that sucking bubble tea through a straw is the most important thing for us and nobody can feed themselves without using straws?
Humankind’s quest for convenience will never end, but that quest should be within a range that does not overburden the Earth.
Drinking straws are not a real necessity. They can be made of materials other than plastic, or else people can drink in other ways that are really not terribly inconvenient.
The EPA needs to get tough about disposable plastic and actively guide consumer habits. Just as happened a few years ago with the ban on polystyrene foam cups, consumers will eventually get used to doing without them.
Air conditioning and plastic straws provide a small, but accurate reflection of the public’s attitudes to the environment, and they show that Taiwan is still far from being a land of responsible global citizens.
Hsieh Ying-shih is chairman of the Environmental Quality Protection Foundation. Kao Szu-chi is a researcher with the foundation.
Translated by Julian Clegg
With escalating US-China competition and mutual distrust, the trend of supply chain “friend shoring” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fragmentation of the world into rival geopolitical blocs, many analysts and policymakers worry the world is retreating into a new cold war — a world of trade bifurcation, protectionism and deglobalization. The world is in a new cold war, said Robin Niblett, former director of the London-based think tank Chatham House. Niblett said he sees the US and China slowly reaching a modus vivendi, but it might take time. The two great powers appear to be “reversing carefully
As China steps up a campaign to diplomatically isolate and squeeze Taiwan, it has become more imperative than ever that Taipei play a greater role internationally with the support of the democratic world. To help safeguard its autonomous status, Taiwan needs to go beyond bolstering its defenses with weapons like anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles. With the help of its international backers, it must also expand its diplomatic footprint globally. But are Taiwan’s foreign friends willing to translate their rhetoric into action by helping Taipei carve out more international space for itself? Beating back China’s effort to turn Taiwan into an international pariah
Typhoon Krathon made landfall in southwestern Taiwan last week, bringing strong winds, heavy rain and flooding, cutting power to more than 170,000 homes and water supply to more than 400,000 homes, and leading to more than 600 injuries and four deaths. Due to the typhoon, schools and offices across the nation were ordered to close for two to four days, stirring up familiar controversies over whether local governments’ decisions to call typhoon days were appropriate. The typhoon’s center made landfall in Kaohsiung’s Siaogang District (小港) at noon on Thursday, but it weakened into a tropical depression early on Friday, and its structure
Since the end of the Cold War, the US-China espionage battle has arguably become the largest on Earth. Spying on China is vital for the US, as China’s growing military and technological capabilities pose direct challenges to its interests, especially in defending Taiwan and maintaining security in the Indo-Pacific. Intelligence gathering helps the US counter Chinese aggression, stay ahead of threats and safeguard not only its own security, but also the stability of global trade routes. Unchecked Chinese expansion could destabilize the region and have far-reaching global consequences. In recent years, spying on China has become increasingly difficult for the US
RSS