February 26, -- TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Imagine a world without plastic bags, or forks or spoons.

Picking up groceries at the supermarket? Better bring a knapsack or cloth bag. Ready to dig into a rice dish at 7-Eleven? Pray for chopsticks. Want to stir your tea on the go? You might have to use a finger.

That's where Taiwan may be headed, with a new law that bans the free distribution of plastic bags and disposable tableware in restaurants, department stores, supermarkets, convenience stores and fast-food outlets. While Taiwan isn't aiming for plastic-free, it wants to reduce plastic waste by 30 percent.

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Some consumers and retailers have grumbled about inconvenience, but the loudest complaints come from the plastics industry. The industry says the new law could cut its business by half and lead to widespread layoffs.

The government in Taiwan is one of a number around the world -- including Ireland, South Africa, Australia, England, Singapore and Thailand -- implementing or considering policies that restrict plastic use through taxes or bans, according to Plastics News, a U.S. industry publication.

"You can be sure that the bag-ban movement will continue to spread, especially if supporters can point to 'positive' results,' " Plastics News warned in a recent article.

In the United States, a ban is less likely because there is already a recycling culture, and consumers usually can choose between plastic or paper bags at most supermarkets, said Thom Metzger, spokesman for the American Plastics Council, which represents the multibillion-dollar industry.

The council argues that plastic is less harmful to the environment in some ways: Fewer resources are needed to ship plastic bags than paper bags, and plastic is increasingly being recycled into other products.

But in Taiwan, recycling has never been a big hit. About 20 percent of the garbage produced here is from plastics, as opposed to 10 percent in the United States, according to estimates by Taiwan's Environmental Protection Agency.

On this densely packed island of 23 million people, there is little room for landfill dumps. So most garbage is burned in giant incinerators -- including pollution-causing plastic.

"We use 20 billion plastic bags a year," said Hsiung-Wen Chen, director general of the Environmental Protection Agency's Bureau of Solid Waste Management. "That means 2.5 plastic bags are used per capita every day. It's very environmentally unfriendly."

Every day, more than 16 million people eat at least one meal outside the home -- grabbing something quick at a train-station convenience store or street vendor. And most use plastic tableware. Night markets, where vendors sell everything from sugary fruit in plastic bags to spicy tofu and fish on plastic plates, are exempt from the new regulations because of sanitary concerns.

The new law went into effect Jan. 1. It is the second phase of an effort that began in July when plastic bags were banned from government-run stores. Plastic tableware was added to the ban in October.

In all, about 75,000 businesses fall under the new law. (Retailers, however, are still allowed to sell plastic bags to carry purchases.)

Businesses have favored plastic bags over paper bags because they are considerably cheaper; companies that violate the new ban could face fines of about $1,700 to $8,500.

The strongest opposition comes from the plastics industry, which says the ban threatens the financial survival of half the island's roughly 2,000 producers of plastics.

After the first ban, three plastic companies and 10 distributors were forced to shut down, according to the Taiwan Plastics Industry Association. In all, the industry could see its business cut by 50 percent, said Sheng-Hai Hsieh, the association's secretary general. That means half of the industry's 100,000 workers could lose their jobs.

"The factories cannot suffer this kind of impact," he said. "This policy is a disaster. You have to make a policy that considers many areas of society -- social, economic -- not just environmental."

The government is offering assistance to laid off workers and low-interest loans to help companies adjust their business strategies.

Still, the association has organized two protests in Taipei, including one that drew several thousand people. It is planning another. The government rejected its request for a five-year delay on the ban. Officials also dismissed suggestions to start a recycling program instead, saying such efforts have failed in the past.

The industry worries that an even stricter ban will follow.

That is unlikely, said the EPA's Chen. While his agency would like a 100 percent ban of plastic garbage, the government is concerned about the fate of workers in the plastics industry.

If plastics consumption dropped by more than 30 percent, he added, "a lot of the plastic industry will shut down. If we didn't have this consideration, 100 percent would be best."

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