The project was executed between March 11th and December 31st, 2019. Among its key objectives were the following: to collate the international measures of preventing and reducing municipal waste, to put into effect the reduction of single-use plastic straws, to review the control measures to reduce disposable tableware, single-use takeaway beverage cups and plastic shopping bags and discuss a revision of the measures, and to promote the concept of source reduction of municipal waste. Major achievements are as follows: (1) the collection and analysis of how international communities such as the United Nations, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the US, and South Korea managed and prevented single-use products, how they reduced the sources of municipal waste in the past three years, the status of their implementing alternatives to plastics and biodegradable or compostable plastics and the implementation outcomes in Taiwan; recommending how to adjust Taiwan’s milestones of source reduction and drafting related statements in Chinese and English, (2) putting forward the proposals for restricting the use of plastic shopping bags, disposable tableware, takeaway beverage cups, plastic straws, and microplastics; presenting the draft operational guidelines for government departments and schools to use fewer single-use products; supporting in the legal process and drawing up corresponding measures; organizing field visits for the experience sharing from implemented cases; (3) continuously tracking and supervising the announced measures of source reduction of municipal waste; conducting onsite surveys, or via telephone or internet regarding the restrictions on single-use products such as plastic shopping bags, takeaway beverage cups and plastic straws. The level of support for the ban on single-use plastic straws by the respondents has exceeded that of 2018 and has increased to 82%; (4) organizing campaigns and press conferences on plastics restriction, designing campaign literature, posting the concept of source reduction of single-use products on social media, encouraging sectors that are not under the restriction to reduce the consumption voluntarily, working with colleges, universities and groups to campaign at markets, night markets, and commercial districts to small groups for a total of 50 times.

Municipal waste, Source reduction, Single-use products, Single-use plastic straws, Disposable tableware