How Can We Increase the Usage of
Reusable Utensils on Campus?
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Introduction
As climate change has become more and more serious, the awareness of environmental protection has been raised around the globe. Nowadays, people try their best to use eco-friendly products to reduce the damage to our earth. In our daily lives, more and more people tend to avoid using disposable utensils and use reusable utensils as much as possible. According to an article written by Pan (2019), “Reusable utensils include spoons, chopsticks, straws, cups, bowls, plates, meal boxes, and so on. Their common materials are stainless steel, glass, Polypropylene (PP), silicone, wood, and Polylactide (PLA).” In other words, the type and the material of reusable utensils are various, and we can choose them based on our own habits. If we can use reusable straws each time when drinking beverages, the amount of disposable straws that we reduce will be significant after a long period of time. What’s more, if we use more types of reusable utensils, the waste will decrease enormously. In brief, with everyone’s effort, we believe that using reusable utensils can save our earth.
2. Problem
Disposable utensils have negative effects on our health. Most disposable utensils are made of plastic due to its lower price and better accessibility. According to Forth et al. (2019),“Since 1950 to 2018, about 6.3 billion tonnes of plastics have been produced worldwide, 9% and 12% of which have been recycled and incinerated, respectively.” (p.1). Consequently, plastic takes a long time to recycle, while the recycling rate is quite low. Furthermore, according to Forth et al. (2016), “Burning of plastic wastes increases the risk of heart disease, aggravates respiratory ailments such as asthma and emphysema and causes rashes, nausea or headaches, and damages the nervous system.” (p.701). Namely, the tiny toxic chemicals released from burning plastic threaten our health in many aspects. Although using reusable utensils has been promoted during the past 10 years, the usage rate still can be improved in Taiwan. We conducted a survey with 154 participants in total, and they range from senior high school students to PhD students. From our survey, we found out 15.6% participants sometimes use reusable utensils, and 11.7% participants seldom use reusable utensils (Figure 1). In order to find out the most effective method to increase the usage of reusable utensils on campus, we discussed the feasibility of three alternative solutions based on our survey results.
Figure 1. Frequency of using reusable utensils
3. Evaluation of Alternative Solution 1
The first possible solution is to establish reusable utensils rental stations on campus. This idea is inspired by aplatform called “好盒器.” According to an article written by Yang (2020), this platform not only cooperates with local stores but also establishes self-service reusable utensils rental stations to provide reusable utensils for the public. People just need to register when renting reusable utensils and return them to the specific stores or self-service return stations without washing them afterwards. We believe that if there are reusable utensils rental stations on campus, students can get access to reusable utensils more easily. However, according to our survey, 33.8% participants (the majority) did not agree that this solution can increase the usage of reusable utensils on campus (Figure 2). Some people prefer this solution because they do not need to wash reusable utensils by themselves. In addition, once they forget to bring their own reusable utensils, they have other alternatives instead of using disposable ones. On the contrary, some people may oppose this solution because they think it is unhygienic to share reusable utensils with others, especially during the pandemic. Furthermore, they assume that the process of registration and return is too inconvenient. To sum up, to enhance overall convenience, it seems that many factors such as the total amount of reusable utensils and the location of the rental stations need to be taken into account.
Figure 2. Usefulness of establishing reusable utensils rental stations on campus to increase the usage of reusable utensils on campus
4. Evaluation of Alternative Solution 2
The second alternative is to provide incentives to promote the usage of reusable tableware: shops can offer discounts for consumers. In the context of Taiwan, the government announced the Parties Subject to and Means for Single-use Takeaway Beverage Cups Restrictions (Environment Protection Administration of Executive Yuan, R.O.C. Taiwan, 2021) to reduce plastic consumption and the negative impact of producing and processing disposable cups to the environment. It is hoped that local shops can encourage people to cultivate the habit of bringing reusable utensils on their own by providing at least NT$5 discount for the consumers. However, although providing incentives seems to be the more effective solution (Figure 3), some people claimed that unless shops can offer large reductions in price; otherwise, the discounts may not be a significant incentive to encourage people to bring their reusable utensils. Also, some shops may not want to provide discounts for the increased costs. Therefore, for the reasons outlined above, providing incentives to promote the usage of reusable tableware may not tackle the problem at its roots.
Figure 3. Effectiveness regarding shops providing discounts to promote reusable utensils on campus
5. Evaluation of Alternative Solution 3
The last possible method is to formulate regulations to fully prohibit disposable utensils. Theoretically, if the government thoroughly restrains the usage of disposable utensils, the number of plastic wastes will decrease largely. For most participants of the survey, legislating mandatory regulations is the most feasible way to promote the usage of reusable utensils, because people have no choice but to follow the law from being fined or punished (Figures 4). According to Taiwan External Trade Development Council (2020), the report stated that since 2018, the Korean government has announced several plastic restriction policies in coffee shops to limit the usage of plastic cups, straws, and bags. The Korean government expected that the number of disposable cups and bags will decrease by 35% in 2022. What’s more, Brazil has also released the plastic restriction policies in 27 cities, and thus the number of disposable utensils in their country has decreased by 1.91% from 2017 to 2019. Therefore, it is not until many countries promulgate related acts to limit the usage of disposable tableware that the number of reusable utensils increases. To conclude, without complete and mandatory regulations, environmental sustainability will only be a slogan but not an actual implementation.
Figure 4. Effectiveness of three ways to promote reusable utensils on campus
6. Recommendation and Conclusion
In summary, although establishing reusable utensils rental stations and providing incentives are not the most feasible solutions, they are still significant in increasing the usage of reusable utensils. In fact, according to Greenpeace (2020), even though Taiwan has formulated the restrictions to ban disposable utensils for 10 years, the total amount of plastic products still increases by 22.8%. Because of the backlash from plastic manufacturers and the lack of inspectors to check the actual implementation, these regulations cannot comprehensively reduce plastic products, and there are still many legal loopholes that haven’t been included. Besides, without paying a high price for violating the law, people won’t feel the real effectiveness of the policy. As a result, these regulations cannot solve plastic problems completely, we still need the cooperation from government, businesses, and society. “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed,” said Mahatma Gandhi (n.d). Only if we decrease the convenience of using disposable utensils or increase the importance of using reusable utensils will the usage of reusable utensils increase. Nowadays, when it comes to the environmental problem, almost every county in the world has reached a consensus to protect the earth immediately. Thus, we suggest that formulating regulations is the most effective solution, but it still requires collaboration from society to promote the usage of reusable utensils or even other items, and now it is the time for us to call for action to return a clean and safe homeland back to our mother earth.
References
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2. Environment Protection Administration Executive Yuan, R.O.C. (Taiwan). (2021). Parties Subject to and Means for Single-use Takeaway Beverage Cups Restrictions. Retrieved from: https://enews.epa.gov.tw/DisplayFile.aspx?FileID=E01D8B41CCB703C1
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