According to the BBC, shops and restaurants in South Australia will not be able to sell or distribute soy sauce sub-containers under 30ml with lids, caps, and caps from the 1st. In particular, fish-shaped soy sauce containers have disappeared into history due to this measure.
South Australia’s environment minister and deputy prime minister Susan Close emphasized, “The fish-shaped container is used for only a few seconds, but when discarded, it remains in the environment for decades and hundreds of years.”
The move is based on the Environmental Law, which was revised in 2023. South Australia has already banned supermarket plastic bags, plastic straws, beverage stir sticks, cotton swabs, and confetti, and the move further broadens the scope of the regulations. The state government described the policy objectives as “reducing pollution, reducing carbon emissions, and protecting marine life.” The fish-shaped container is made of recyclable polyethylene material, but it is often not properly treated in recycling facilities due to its small size, which put a heavy environmental burden on it.
The container was first devised by Teruo Watanabe of Japan in 1954. Since then, it has changed from ceramic and glass products to plastic, and has become a typical method of spraying soy sauce on take-out sushi. However, large-capacity soy sauce bottles or sauce pouches are excluded from the regulation.
The Australian government has warned that without these measures, plastic waste entering the ocean will more than triple to 29 million tons per year by 2040. Meanwhile, Australia ranked seventh among 25 countries in the global plastic waste management assessment, showing a relatively high level of response.
JULIE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
