Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) encourages public and business industries to join the concept of daily life without plastic. On June 26, in Taipei there was an event of “No Plastic is a New Fashion #ifollow”. It promotes 4 major themes; “no plastic activities”, “no plastic business circle”, “no plastic consumption”, and “no plastic food diet”.
Zhang Zijing (張子敬), the Head of EPA said that in the global attention of the plastic issues, all local animals are affected by the plastic products, for the example marine organisms are contain with the plastic particles, plastic bags found in the death whale belly, the turtle’s nose is inserted into the plastic straw, etc. It is obvious that it is imperative to promote the plastic limit policy.
Zhang Zijing also called for the reduction to use the plastic straws, the plastic bag for shopping, non-necessary disposable plastic products such as disposable tableware, bring your own meal box or bottle, use lesser or do other methods to reduce the dependence on plastics gradually.
Starting from July 1, there will be new limit regulations; for the public and private schools, department stores and shopping centers, as well as the chain fast food restaurants, in-house food and beverages shall not provide the plastic straws anymore. It is estimated that about 100 million plastic straws will be used each year.
The EPA is pushing the comprehensive plastic reduction in 2030, gradually reduce to use the plastic products. Taiwan uses up to 3 billion plastic straws per year, the top 5 of the beach waste based on the investigation of the environmental protection groups, giving serious environmental burden. The EPA encourages public to cultivate the habit of “direct drinking”, replace the plastic straws with the environmentally friendly straw if it necessary, and let the concept of no plastic being built into the daily life.
