How to Reduce the Usage of Plastic Carrier Bags in Taiwan
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Introduction
How many plastic carrier bags do you use every single day? As a university student, I have to admit that my laziness leads to at least 2 plastic bags use in my daily life. In fact, according to Adane and Muleta (2011), disposals of plastic carrier bags threaten not only the natural surroundings but also people’s health. The reason lies in that most of the materials made into plastic bags cannot decay naturally and they only break down to tiny pieces which are known as microplastics. These microplastics will exist for thousands of years and contaminate environments that become threats toward animal and humans’ lives by transporting toxins through food chains. Based on the survey from the Environmental Protection Administration in Taiwan, the usage number of plastic bags is 15.2 billion in 2018. In other words, on average, each of us used 1.8 plastic bags per day (Lin, 2019). That is an enormous amount for plastic bag usage. Therefore, we should re-evaluate our attitude toward this issue in Taiwan and take action to solve this problem for the sake of our own nature and health. In this essay, I am going to introduce two major solutions to reduce the usage number of plastic carrier bags ─ one method calls for the practice of a forced fee on each plastic bag in broaden fields and the other solution asks for the eco-friendly awareness of every single citizen.
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Solution 1- A Forced Fee on Each Plastic Carrier Bag in Overall Fields
“Free of charge” is one of the reasons why people use plastic bags for carrying stuff; therefore, the government should regulate that a fee on every plastic carrier bag of every field that will provide plastic bags for decreasing the usage of plastic bags. Although Taiwan has carried out the legislation of forced charge on plastic bags in certain kinds of fields ( like department stores, retail malls and fast-food chain restaurants, etc.) since 2002, the overuse phenomenon of plastic carrier bags still exists nowadays. According to a report from Central News Agency (CNA), the number of plastic bags uses in Taiwan is nearly 15.2 billion tons, which is 10 times more than the usage in Germany in 2019. And, several reasons can explain why the amount of plastic bags used in Taiwan is considerably large. First, due to carriage convenience plastic bags bring about, getting takeout becomes normal for Taiwanese people. Secondly, our food consumption culture relies largely on a variety of food stands. However, these street stalls are not included in the legislated practice of providing charged plastic bags. In other words, this consumption of plastic bags in food stalls is actually free of charge according to modern laws in Taiwan.
To understand when exactly people use plastic carrier bags, I conducted a survey, involving 100 respondents at the age around 19 to 24. A total of 88 people answered that takeaway meals result in their usage of plastic bags mainly (Table 1). From this survey, we can know that take-out is to blame for the huge number of plastic bag use. One of the reports conducted by the United Nations (Giacovelli, 2018), which is also known as UN, suggests that governments should have “strong leadership” among launching “financial incentives” to alter customers' habit of using plastic bags. Thus, I believe that a recommended solution to the UN is that we can practice charging those who use plastic carrier bags in Taiwan. The logic lies in the idea of user charge and it means when you need to utilize a plastic bag, you will have to afford its extra fee, for which, in this case, is the negative impact on the environment while manufacturing and disposing of a plastic bag. Besides, there is the other factor served as a support for the mandatory fee on plastic bags. That results from citizens’ positive acception toward fee laws today. Actually, the government has already practiced a regulated fee on a plastic bag in some chain retailer business and people seem to accept this legislation. In my survey, there are 90% of respondents’ agreement on the regulation of charging each plastic bag, which can serve as proof that most people felt positive about this kind of mandatory execution (Table 2).
Table 1. The Timing of Using Plastic Carrier Bags
Table 2. The Responses of Whether One Can Accept the Regulation of a Forced Fee on a Plastic Carrier Bag
However, some may doubt whether this forced charge on a single plastic bag can decrease the plastic bag usage effectively. The forced fee laws that have practiced in Wales and Greece can provide supports to this solution. Because of the introduction of mandatory charges in 2011 on plastic bags, the usage of the single-use plastic bag has declined approximately by 80% in Wales among retail businesses (WRAP, 2015). In addition, the Greek government has practiced a levy on consumers for the use of plastic bags and it has turned out that the consumption of ones has fallen by 75-80% (Smith, 2018). According to my research, 88% of people agreed that a forced charge on each plastic bag can serve as a solution to reduce the amount of using plastic bags (Table 3). So, our government should take the practice of a legislative fee on every plastic bag usage in all kinds of places that will give out plastic bags for decreasing the number of plastic carrier bags used in Taiwan.
Table 3. The Responses toward Whether Charging for Each Plastic Bag Can Reduce the Usage
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Solution 2- Raise the Awareness among Plastic Bag Issues
To lessen our overuse of plastic bags in Taiwan, we should raise our awareness of issues about what plastic bag dumps will cause ─ whether these negative impacts are on our environments or on living creatures. When it comes to issues related to plastic bags, what are some topics that you will put on a list? The answers might vary from one to another. For example, a huge amount of plastic bags piling in landfills contributes to an unattractive city scene. Many terrestrial and marine creatures are jeopardized by disposals of plastic bags. It is easy to list plenty of items by the title of “Threats Plastic Bags Can Cause”. But, is it also an easy task for you to elaborate carefully on the issues you wrote on the list previously mentioned above? Take further explanations of the examples I just mentioned above. Instead of just sympathizing with the difficult situations of those animals, conducting thorough research on how plastic bags work to threaten their lives ,and taking immediate action to transfer one’s plastic bag usage behavior would be more useful. This further elaboration on threats plastic bags cause toward creatures would try to arouse the idea that we may have owned some recognition about some plastic bag issues, but this awareness can be better improved to a more complete understanding, which is considered helpful toward the habit change due to the thought of being eco-friendly. If you know that about 80-90% of dead sea turtles’ bodies contained plastic bag wastes due to their misidentification between plastic bags and their food-jellyfish, you may not use a plastic carrier bag offered by a store next time. Because you understand that it is hard to control where the plastic bag will be dumped, in this case, you will start to decrease the use of this polymer product. And that is how this solution practices.
Yet, some people may argue that this kind of moral lecturing cannot really transfer people’s habit of utilizing plastic bags and achieve the goal to reduce their usage number. Nonetheless, in a research conducted in Turkey (Arslan et al.,2012), the findings showed that green product awareness and environmental behavior has led to 74% changes in their purchasing behavior. And, another study conducted by Jakovcevic et al. (2014) also mentions that the real reason for a citizen in Buenos Aires City, Argentina, to alter the habit of using plastic bags is because of “ intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivations”, which demonstrates that they adjust their behavior of bringing their own bags for saving their surroundings due to their environmental recognition. Based on my collected data, 90% of respondents consents that the eco-friendly consciousness can do some encouraging effects on the reduction of plastic bag usage (Table 4). Hence, we have to raise awareness among variable themes of plastic bags, through either the education system or social media, in order to lower the usage of plastic bags and have an environmentally-friendly society in Taiwan.
Table 4. The Answers of Whether Eco-Friendly Awareness Can Help to Reduce the Use of Plastic Bags
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Conclusion
The hazards of plastic carrier bags are threatening the environments and lives in Taiwan. For this reason, we have to take action to prevent these negative outcomes. This research paper unveiled two methods that we can take to reduce the usage of plastic bags - a mandatory charge on each plastic bag in all types of business and a revival of people’s eco-friendly understanding. First, the government should pass a regulation of the extra fee for a plastic bag and make it be practiced in all kinds of fields that will provide plastic bags. Plastic carrier bags attribute to the convenience of carrying takeaway cuisines, which amazingly inspires the consumption culture of food stalls in Taiwan. And, the ease of fetching and free of charge results in the flood of plastic bags. The practice of a forced charge on each plastic bag can be considered a helpful way since this solution is based on the concept of user charge and nowadays regulation working under retail corporations. The efficiency of charging a mandatory fee on a single plastic bag has been proved by Wales and Greece. Secondly, we should always be aware of how harmful the surrounding will become while producing the waste of plastic carrier bags. The solution might seem like a slogan to some people. But, owning the clear and accurate understanding toward environmental crisis, which has been caused by humans’ discharging of plastic bags, can trigger a change among one’s plastic bag using behavior. This transformation in mind plays a vital role in the plastic bag reduction campaign. Therefore, we should spread the correct information to the public for raising everyone’s awareness of the plastic bag subjects. In the end, through each person’s habit change on plastic bag usage, we can finally step into a more progressive and healthier phase in terms of life quality in Taiwan due to the reduction of plastic bag use. With the aid from outer legislative constrict and inner conscious restriction, it is supposed that people will have transferred their habits toward using plastic bags and then reduce the usage number of these polymer products. If these two means can be carried out in Taiwan successfully, we can achieve a goal to lower the usage of plastic bags and benefit not only ourselves but also the natural environment, or even the whole world.
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