In the country where the bubble milk tea craze first originated, consumers’ love for such beverages has created a huge waste problem for Taiwan, with an estimated four billion single-use cups ending up in landfill sites each year.
As part of its longer-term plan to blanket ban all single-use plastics bags, containers, cups, utensils and straws by 2030, the Taiwanese government implemented a nationwide ban on the use of single-use plastics cups in all retail outlets from 1 September 2024.
The ban, which the Ministry of Environment estimates will reduce the use of single-use plastics cups by 790 million each year, requires stores to provide paper or fibre-based cups, encourage consumers to bring their own reusable cups, or offer a reusable cup-borrowing service.
The single-use plastics cup ban had already been progressively rolled out by some enthusiastic local Taiwanese city and municipality governments over the course of the last 12 months. Taipei, the first city to impose a ban in December 2022 – covering more than 2,000 beverage shops in its jurisdiction – claims it a led to an estimated reduction of 49 million single-use cups in the year to July 2023.
Kaohsiung, which has 2,867 listed beverage shops and implemented its ban in July 2023, estimates a reduction of 124 million single-use plastics cups within one year, the equivalent of 3,072 tonnes of carbon emissions.
In the six major municipalities of Taipei City, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, along with Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County, those who flout the ban are subject to a fine of between NT$1,200 (US$37.02) to NT$6,000 ($185.12).
Cities such as Taipei have reported a major shift in consumer behaviour, with many residents starting to carry their own reusable cups. For the most part though, cities report that beverage shops have mostly switched to paper cups.
The Ministry of Environment has released a report noting that while most proprietors express a willingness to comply, some point out that one plastics cup costs NT$0.20 ($0.006), whereas one paper cup costs more than NT$1 ($0.03) and about NT$2 ($0.06) for the brand’s logo to be printed on it. It means, therefore, that proprietors have no choice but to place bulk orders to reduce costs.
Others complain that paper cups lose their strength quickly due to the moisture drawn from the typical high humidity environment in Taiwan, particularly in spring and summer.
When it comes to speciality drinks such as multi-coloured and layered options, some retailers complain that it’s now no longer possible for their customers to view the layers through paper cups, which is impacting on their business.
Despite this, the ministry is pressing on and plans to continue focusing on promoting its reusable cup rental programmes, which let consumers borrow reusable cups from kiosks at participating locations – convenience stores and fast food chains, in particular. Through these programmes, people can return the cup to any kiosk within three days for cleaning when they are done using it.
The ministry has service guidelines regulating materials, labelling, recycling, cleaning and inspection for the rental cups. Ministry statistics for 2023 indicate that 1,763 convenience stores and fast food chains nationwide participated in the programme, providing about 198,000 reusable cups for borrowing.
It also claims to be considering allowing organisers of professional baseball games and other closed-door events to apply for reusable cup service subsidies, which can range from NT$300,000 ($9,254) to NT$3 million ($92,535) per operator depending on the number of participating locations. This will allow more people to experience using the reusable cup service when buying drinks in the future.
Restriction policies
The Taiwanese government has been promoting and implementing what it terms as ‘plastics restriction policies’ since 2002, enforcing regulations in stages to restrict the use of plastics bags for shopping, disposable tableware, single-use plastics beverage cups, and plastics straws.
The government says these policies are aimed to ‘guide manufacturers to use alternative materials, to assist retailers to restrict the use of single-use plastics products, and to encourage consumers to avoid disposable items or to carry their own reusable containers’.
In the last few years, it has also increased its efforts to reduce plastics usage at source. For instance, in July 2022, eight types of entities – including public institutions (government departments, public schools, and public medical institutions), private schools, department stores, shopping centres, wholesale stores, supermarkets, chain convenience stores, fast-food restaurant chains, and food and beverage businesses with physical storefronts – were banned from providing plastics disposable tableware.
At the same time, the Ministry of Environment announced that it is working on designating plastics packaging trays and clamshell containers (blister packaging) as mandatory recyclable waste to strengthen plastics recycling. While it does not specify an implementation date, the ministry says that when the designation takes effect, entities that manufacture or import such packaging will need to be registered as ‘responsible enterprises’ and will have to ‘report the operating or importing volume and pay the recycling, clearance and processing fees on their own initiative’.
In 2023, several regulations were promulgated, including the Targets and Implementation Methods for Restriction of Internet Shopping Packaging, and the Guidelines for Reducing Online Shopping Packaging 2.0, which states that internet shopping packaging materials must not contain polyvinyl chloride, that paper packaging materials must contain at least 90 per cent recycled content, and that plastics packaging materials must incorporate at least 25 per cent recycled materials.
The first version of the Guidelines for Reducing Online Shopping Packaging was originally introduced in 2019 when the average weight of packaging materials for each online purchase was 0.322kg. By 2022, it had reduced to approximately 0.248kg – a 23 per cent weight reduction. With the 2.0 version, the government is targeting a 50 per cent packaging material weight reduction.
In August 2023, the government went further and implemented regulations banning the same aforementioned eight types of entities from providing biodegradable plastics-made cups, bowls, plates, dishes, food containers, and inner trays in food containers for disposable tableware. This was to address concerns over potential biodegradable plastics contamination in existing recycling processes.
These plastics bans are part of a wider master plan that the Ministry of Environment has been tasked to create and implement, including a dedicated resource circulation act that is a combination of the existing Waste Disposal Act and Resource Recycling Act. Currently in the public consultation phase, the new legislation – which will be known as the Resource Circulation Promotion Act – references similar legislation from the EU, Japan and South Korea ‘to achieve the goals of maximising resource circulation and minimising waste treatment’.
According to the ministry, the Resource Circulation Promotion Act ‘aims to flip the concept of waste management, place a focus on the management of the lifecycles of materials, increase manufacturers’ responsibilities (in terms of recycling and reusing waste, managing waste generation and product origins), and build a favourable environment for resource circulation’.
The new law will ‘adopt measures such as pricing, material restrictions, encouraging self-supplying, promoting circular services, and restrictions on the use of certain materials’.
‘Combining this with corporate ESG [environmental, social, and governance] considerations, the ministry will initially seek voluntary cooperation from businesses or promote measures through exemplary companies,’ continues the ministry. ‘This approach of gradual expansion of promotion aims to be pragmatic and systematic.’
Taiwan’s annual demand for plastics is approximately 13 million tonnes, according to the Ministry of Environment, of which approximately 3.41m/t is used domestically. Around 1.04m/t of material is recycled and reused annually. Other waste plastics amount to around 1.621m/t, of which about 1.535m/t goes to energy recovery.
Although Taiwan is not one of the leading manufacturers of plastics globally, it is a major manufacturer and exporter of plastics packaging machinery. According to the Ministry of Finance, approximately 82 per cent of all plastics and rubber machinery produced in Taiwan is exported. Its top five export markets are China, Vietnam, the US, India and Thailand.
In 2021, the total export value of plastics and rubber machinery was US$1 billion, a 13.5 per cent increase over the previous year. Of this, 18.3 per cent was plastics injection moulding machinery, while 11.3 per cent was extrusion lines. Vacuum/thermoforming machines and blow moulding systems each constituted about 9 per cent of total exports.
By Trina Tan
