Beverage shops are to be banned from serving drinks in single-use plastic cups in September, the Ministry of Environment said yesterday, adding that it is also considering subsidizing the use of reusable cups at professional baseball games and other enclosed venues.
Beverage shops in 21 cities and counties have already stopped using single-use takeaway plastic cups since the Parties Subject to and Means for Single-use Takeaway Beverage Cups Restrictions (一次用飲料杯限制使用對象及實施方式) were implemented on July 1, 2022, the ministry said in a statement.
Aside from banning single-use plastic cups, the rules also require shops to provide reusable cups for customers to borrow and give customers who bring their own reusable cups a rebate of at least NT$5.
Photo: Chen Chia-yi, Taipei Times
Kinmen County, which still permits single-use plastic cups, would begin prohibiting them in September, the ministry said.
“That means no beverage shops in the country would provide single-use plastic cups starting in September,” it said.
The rules have since July 2022 helped reduce the use of single-use beverage cups by 17 percent and about 790 million single-use plastic cups have been replaced by reusable cups or cups made from materials other than plastic, ministry data showed.
As of last year, 1,763 retail stores and restaurants from seven large convenience store chains and eight fast food chains have provided reusable cups, which accounted for 12 percent of all the retail sales venues they owned, the ministry said.
Collectively, they provided 198,000 reusable cups for customers to borrow, it added.
Last year, 160 million drinks sold in convenience stores and fast-food restaurants were served using consumers’ own cups, and the percentage of customers who brought their cups was 2.8 times higher than before the rules were implemented, the ministry said, citing data from convenience store and fast-food chain operators.
“This shows how a government policy has changed the habits of consumers,” the ministry said.
To further reduce the use of single-use plastic cups, the ministry said that it is considering subsidizing the use of reusable cups at professional baseball games and other enclosed venues.
The purpose is to give those who have not tried using reusable cups the opportunity to access the service in the hope they would consider using it again.
The ministry also stipulates guidelines for operators who offer reusable cups, which regulate borrowing, returning, cleaning and inspection of reusable cups, as well as communication with consumers, it said.
“The quality of reusable cup services must be consistent, and business operators who offer the service must submit a report on hygiene inspection results every six months,” the ministry said, adding that no operator failed the hygiene inspection last year.
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
RSS