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SUNGEUN MOON
Eco-bags and tumblers, which have become synonymous with eco-friendly practices. However, it is difficult to say that they are eco-friendly when looking at the usage status of consumers. Experts warn that eco-bags and tumblers are more harmful to the environment than disposable products if they are not used more often and for longer. As eco-friendly products are often received as free gifts and stored without using them, resource utilization has also decreased. Considering the “eco-friendly break-even point,” the process of making eco-bags from cotton costs more energy and costs more than making vinyl from oil and has more greenhouse gas emissions. The process of making or disposing a tumbler emits 24 times more greenhouse gases than paper cups and 13 times more than disposable plastic cups. (Climate Change Behavior Research Institute, 2019)
That means consumers must use
Stainless Steel Tumbler – 220 times required
Eco-bags – must be used 131 times
Silicon Straws – 5 years, 2000+ times available
What would happen if all of these environmental break-even points were crossed?
In 2030, the government banned the provision of disposable products to cafes and restaurants to reduce excessive use of disposable products. However, when people banned the use of disposable products, they bought and used multi-use products as if they were disposable products, and quickly threw them away, which rather caused a “rebound effect” that worsened the environment. Therefore, in 2045, the government regulated the sale of multiple containers at franchise cafes such as Starbucks. In order to purchase Starbucks goods, the existing products must be used more than a certain number of times to make new purchases. Tumbler - 220 / Multiuse Container - 200 / Silicon Straw - 300 When using the product, the user must obtain a Starbucks stamp and fill it up before purchasing another multiple containers.
2023