Taiwan consumes about 4 billion disposable cups per year, but it could reduce carbon emissions by more than 58,000 tonnes if all these single-use cups were replaced by “circular” cups, a Greenpeace study released yesterday showed.
“The plastic pollution is caused mainly by the excessive use of non-reusable products, and recycling them would not relieve the burden on the environment,” Greenpeace Taiwan plastic reduction project director Chang Kai-ting (張凱婷) said. “The environment would benefit more if we can replace paper cups or other biodegradable plastic containers.”
The non-governmental environmental protection organization collected information on the operation of five circular cup manufacturers in Taipei, Seoul, Hong Kong and Tokyo and compared the environmental impact of using non-reusable cups with using circular cups, Chang said.
Photo: CNA
Compared with other parts of the world, East Asian nations have an advantage in promoting the use of circular cups, the study found.
“In Taiwan, circular cups are used 187,000 times per year. Each use of a circular cup helps reduce carbon emissions by 25.4 percent, which is equivalent to the reduction of carbon emitted by using 20 non-reusable cups,” Chang said.
“If we replace all 4 billion disposable cups that Taiwan uses per year with circular cups, we would be able to reduce carbon emissions by 58,785 tonnes and save 845,000 cubic meters of water. The former is the approximate amount of carbon emitted by more than 240,000 scooters on the streets in Taiwan,” Chang said.
The promotion of the recycling resources act, which was proposed by the Ministry of Environment, should gradually eliminate the use of single-use products, Greenpeace said.
Government agencies should work together to develop systems for reusing resources to help the nation achieve a product reusable rate of 50 percent by 2030, it said.
Song Yi-zhen (宋宜臻), cofounder of Good to Go, a drink and food container rental service, said the government should help businesses upgrade circular cup rental services, in addition to asking food and beverage chain stores to increase the usage of circular cups.
Taiwan’s circular cup rental service has the potential to be exported to other countries, she said.
Government regulations should require businesses to install more stations to rent and recycle circular cups, and motivate more businesses to use them, Blue Ocean Vision cofounder Tang Cheng-tse (湯誠則) said.
People should be educated to keep circular cups clean, he said.
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