(Central News Agency reporter Lin Honghan, Los Angeles, 4th) The Los Angeles City Council passed a proposal today to increase restrictions on plastic straws and plan to completely ban them in 2021. The city councilor who proposed the proposal showed a photo of a sea turtle with a straw inserted into its nose, emphasizing that "the misuse of plastic is killing people." Earth". California, USA, will restrict specific restaurants from actively providing plastic straws from January 1 next year. The Los Angeles City Council voted today to expand the scope of application to fast food operators. California Governor Jerry Brown signed a new law in September. Starting from January 1, 2019, all full-service dine-in restaurants in California are prohibited from actively providing plastic straws unless customers ask for them, but this does not include fast food restaurants. The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously 12-0 today to propose drafting an ordinance requiring all dining establishments not to provide plastic straws unless requested by customers. Compared with California’s plastic restriction measures, the ordinance that the city of Los Angeles is preparing to promote includes all restaurants, including fast food restaurants. However, after communicating with fast food operators, this measure allows an exception. For restaurants with drive-thru lanes, operators can inform customers in the car that they can ask for straws if they wish. After the proposal is drafted, it still needs to be approved by the committee and parliament. Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch O'Farrell, who sponsored the proposal, expressed the hope that this ordinance will be implemented on Earth Day, April 22, 2019, for restaurants with more than 26 employees, and will be extended to all restaurants on October 1.

(Central News Agency reporter Jiang Yuanzhen, Seoul, 31st) The Ministry of Environment of South Korea stated today that the "Amendment to the Law on Saving Resources and Promoting Resource Recycling" will take effect soon. Starting from January 1, 2019, large supermarkets in South Korea will completely ban the use of disposable plastic bags. . According to the amendment, all 2,000 large supermarkets and 11,000 supermarkets with an area of more than 165 square meters in South Korea will ban disposable plastic bags and instead provide environmentally friendly shopping bags and paper bags to customers. South Korea's Yonhap News Agency pointed out that at the same time, 18,000 bakeries across South Korea will not be able to provide free plastic bags starting next year. From January to March next year, the Ministry of Environment will actively publicize the main contents of the amendments with local governments and strive to solve the problem of environmental pollution caused by plastics. (Editor: Shi Yanfei) Source: Central News Agency (2018/12/31)

The 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) concluded last Saturday. The Environmental Protection Agency held a press conference today to explain the "results." The media questioned whether they could see the "actions to combat climate change" mentioned in the press release by the government. "Taiwan shows diverse vitality." What specific and proactive carbon reduction strategies are there in the future? Cai Hongde, acting director of the Environmental Protection Agency, said that carbon tax is one of the options, and renewable energy will develop biomass energy, and the 20% target in 2025 should be improved. Carbon taxes have been implemented in many countries for many years, including Germany, Denmark, Japan and the United Kingdom, which have levied energy taxes or carbon taxes. According to 2010 statistics, after the implementation of the carbon tax in the United Kingdom, approximately 3.5 million metric tons of carbon emissions were reduced every year. Taiwan has set a total greenhouse gas emission reduction of 20% in 2030 compared with 2005 and a reduction of 50% in 2050. Scholars including Li Yuanzhe, former president of Academia Sinica, have called for Taiwan to levy an energy tax or carbon tax to reduce the external impact caused by fossil fuel-related industries. Cost internalization. Yuan Shaoying, director of the Environmental Management Department of the Environmental Protection Agency, said that the Executive Yuan Sustainable Development Committee has asked the Ministry of Finance to propose a plan to levy a carbon tax or energy tax in 2020. It is understood that the Ministry of Finance’s plan is to promote energy taxes to replace oil and gas goods taxes, increase carbon taxes in an appropriate amount, and review the levy items stipulated in the goods tax regulations. In addition to the option of levying a carbon tax to reduce carbon emissions, Cai Hongde said that the government has formulated carbon reduction actions for six major sectors. In the energy sector, the 20% renewable energy in 2025 only counts wind energy and solar energy. If the biomass energy currently actively promoted Taking this into account, renewable energy can

The Ministry of Environment of South Korea plans to expand the control of toxic substances in electronic products. The adjustment includes increasing the types of controlled products from the original 26 to 49; adding 4 new plasticizer tests, increasing the number of toxic substance tests from the original 5 9 items; and penalties will be adjusted for those who fail to meet the standards. The amendment to control plasticizers is expected to be passed on July 22, 2019, and the control of additional product types is expected to be implemented on January 1, 2020. Official implementation still needs to wait until the presidential level "Electronic Products and Vehicle Resource Recycling Act" is passed. . The 23 new product control types include: dehumidifiers, toasters, electric kettles, hair dryers, and video game consoles. The four new plasticizer tests include: diester phthalate (DEHP), butylphenyl phthalate (BBP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), diisophthalate The penalties for butyl ester (DIBP) violations have also been adjusted, including increasing the amount of fines based on the number of previous violations, and halving the fines for businesses that voluntarily disclose the first violation. The fine for the first violation is 20 million won (US$$17,780), the second violation is 25 million won (US$$22,220), and the third violation is 30 million won (US$$26,670) ), all original fines were 30 million won. The Ministry of Environment of South Korea stated that this revision is based on suggestions from the industry and the EU RoHS2 Directive (Directive 2015/862/EU). Information comes

人進來貨出來，觀光業的興盛或許會「發大財」，但隨之而來對環境造成的汙染，卻經常讓各國出現難以估計的破壞，印尼觀光熱點峇里島近日祭出一項新政策，「將全面禁止使用一次性塑膠用具，包括塑膠袋、保麗龍及吸管。」 風光明媚的峇里島，遊人熙來往壤，絡繹不絕來到這個旅遊聖地，水清沙幼成為這裡最大賣點。但是隨著多年來開發，人類造成的環境汙染的惡果亦伴隨而來。 在丹帕沙（Denpasar）沙努爾（Sanur）海灘，不論旅客下船的岸邊，以及離飯店區一小段距離的天然沙灘，堆積了大堆水杯、吸盤等塑膠垃圾，環境令人噁心。 新加坡《海峽時報》（The Straits Times）報導，峇里島上面臨垃圾問題，不僅是外來遊客亂丟垃圾、當地業者也缺乏環保觀念，經常隨意傾倒來自飯店及村莊的垃圾，部份工人更貪圖方便，竟隨意將垃圾棄置於海中，讓這些垃圾隨著潮汐和海流，被衝上美麗的海灘。 造成當地海域和海灘遭遇嚴重汙染，縱使印尼政府不時出動大型機器及船隻進行清理，但峇里島的垃圾收集服務及收集垃圾的基礎設備仍不完善，跟不上經濟發展，導致情況愈來愈惡化。 「這裡的垃圾情況真的很糟糕….」在峇里島當導遊的亞沙華（Waya