TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Beverage shops in Taipei City will be banned from using disposable plastic cups from Dec. 1, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said.

Local governments in Taiwan will have to submit their plans and schedules for banning disposable plastic cups before Dec. 31, 2024, CNA reported. The DEP has finalized a plan for the submission, which will ban all beverage stores in the city from using disposable plastic cups, starting from Dec. 1 of this year.

The new policy will make Taipei the first municipality in the country to enforce the ban on disposable plastic cups.

The department said that staff will go to every chain and non-chain beverage store in the city to give them a heads-up that they need to finish their stock of plastic cups before the new policy kicks in and assess replaceable materials for cups as early as possible.

The ban on disposable plastic cups, including cups made of biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA), will affect 2,206 beverage stores in the city. It’s estimated that the new policy will reduce the use of 76 million disposable plastic cups and 912 tons of plastics a year, per CNA.