Plastic producers in Taiwan have scrambled to secure new supplies since the war in Iran disrupted petrochemical flows and tightened availability. Some producers have turned to the United States to purchase liquefied petroleum gas, another petrochemical used to make plastic. Others have sourced plastic goods from China, where many Taiwanese manufacturers have longstanding relationships.

自伊朗战争扰乱石化物流、导致供应收紧以来，台湾的塑料生产商一直在奋力寻找新的货源。部分生产商转而向美国采购液化石油气（另一种用于制造塑料的石化原料）；另一些则开始从中国进货——许多台商在那里有着深厚的长期合作关系。

Taiwan’s main plastic manufacturer, Formosa Petrochemical, imports two-thirds of its naphtha, the petrochemical used to make plastic, most of it from the Middle East. But in early March, the tankers carrying those supplies from the Persian Gulf stopped arriving.

台湾的主要塑料生产商台塑石化有三分之二的石脑油（制造塑料的关键原料）依赖进口，且大部分来自中东。但今年3月初，那些从波斯湾运来原料的油轮突然不再靠岸。

The shortage forced Formosa Petrochemical to shut one of its two production lines. The company’s production capacity has decreased about 42 percent from its normal level, its spokesman, Lin Keh-yen, said.

这场短缺迫使台塑石化关停了其两条生产线中的一条。发言人林克彦表示，公司的产能已从正常水平下降了约42%。

The disruption has been worse than the shocks that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or the Covid-19 pandemic caused, he said.

他说，这次断供的冲击甚至超过了俄乌战争或新冠疫情时期。

In March, Formosa Petrochemical was still able to fill orders using stockpiled inventory. There was less to go around by April.

3月时，台塑石化尚能依靠库存维持订单交付；但到了4月，市面上的货源已变得捉襟见肘。

“Of course, we also looked for alternatives,” Mr. Lin said. “But it’s impossible to buy such a large quantity.”

“我们当然也在寻找替代品，”林克彦说，“但要买到这么庞大的数量，根本不可能。”

Even if tankers carrying naphtha resumed normal passage through the Strait of Hormuz, it would take at least a month for Taiwan’s plastic supplies to return to normal, said Jerry Pai, former chairman of the Supply Chain Management Institute, Taiwan, an industry group.

台湾的行业组织中华采购与供应管理协会前理事长白宗城表示，即便运载石脑油的油轮恢复通过霍尔木兹海峡，台湾的塑料供应恢复正常也至少需要一个月的时间。

But the supply crunch is already trickling down into everyday life in Taiwan.

然而，这场供应危机已经开始渗透到台湾的日常生活中。

At the Xizhou Public Market, one of the oldest traditional food markets in the Taipei area, Hung Ming-he manages a web of relationships. He leads the organization that runs the market and owns a nearby stall famous for its pork dumplings.

在台北地区最老的传统市场之一——溪洲公有市场，洪明鹤维持着一张复杂的关系网。他是这间市场的管理机构负责人，也在附近经营着一个以猪肉水饺闻名的摊位。

Plastic touches nearly every stage of making those dumplings. At the butcher’s stall, Mr. Hung picked up freshly ground pork in a bulging plastic bag — at the vegetable stand, vibrant green scallions in another.

塑料几乎贯穿了水饺制作的每一个环节。在肉摊前，洪先生用塑料袋装了满满一袋现绞的猪肉；在菜摊前，又用另一个袋子装起翠绿的小葱。

At a table in the heart of the market, sheltered from rain by overlapping awnings, Mr. Hung folded dumplings with two colleagues and described how the plastic shortage had weighed on his business. While he talked, he and his colleagues placed finished dumplings into clear plastic clamshell containers with individual indentations to keep each one separate.

在市场中央的一张桌子旁，遮雨棚层层叠叠地挡住了雨水。洪先生正和两位同事一起包着水饺，并讲述着塑料短缺给生意带来的压力。说话间，他们把包好的水饺放入透明的塑料盒中，盒内的分格确保每一个水饺都互不粘连。

The price of plastic bags and other plastic restaurant supplies had doubled from March to April, he said. It was not just his business feeling the squeeze. Other market vendors, already working on thin margins, were hurting, too. Yet most, like Mr. Hung, were reluctant to pass the costs on to consumers, many of them retirees with limited budgets.

他说，从3月到4月，塑料袋和其他餐饮塑料用品的价格已经翻了一番。感到压力的不仅仅是他一家。市场上其他本就利润微薄的小贩也同样苦不堪言。然而，像洪先生这样的人大都不愿把成本转嫁给顾客——这里的常客许多是预算有限的退休老人。

Some retailers, he added, were charging three times what they did before the war for plastic bags. His restaurant would not be able to keep absorbing the increases for much longer, he said.

他补充说，有些零售商售卖的塑料袋价格已经是战前的三倍。他表示，他的店恐怕撑不了多久了。

“If it goes any higher, we will have to start charging customers more,” he said. “Let’s see what Trump does.”

“如果价格再涨，我们就不得不向顾客涨价了，”他说，“看看特朗普会怎么做吧。”

Taiwan’s plastic use remains among the highest in the world. Last year, government data showed the island used 229,008 metric tons of plastic bags, which works out to about 50 billion four-gram bags. Some of those plastic bags may have been exported later.

台湾的塑料使用量仍位居世界前列。政府数据显示，去年全岛共消耗了229008吨塑料袋，换算下来约为500亿个4克重的标准袋。其中一部分塑料袋后来可能被出口到了其他地方。

Taiwan needs to do more to curb plastic use, said Mr. Pai, the former chairman of the Supply Chain Management Institute. “It’s destroying the environment for future generations,” he said.

供应管理协会前理事长白宗城表示，台湾需要采取更多措施来遏制塑料使用。“这正在破坏子孙后代的生存环境，”他说。

Part of the reason plastic products are so abundant is that Taiwan is home to the Formosa Plastics Group, one of the world’s largest plastic makers. The conglomerate is also a part-owner of Formosa Petrochemical, one of Asia’s largest oil refiners.

塑料制品如此泛滥的部分原因在于，台湾拥有全球最大的塑料制造商之一台塑集团。这家企业集团同时也是亚洲最大炼油商之一台塑石化的股东。

But researchers have found another reason plastic use is so entrenched. Taiwan’s recycling system is so pervasive that people don’t feel bad about throwing away a bag, bottle or utensil after a single use.

但研究人员发现了塑料使用如此根深蒂固的另一个原因：台湾的回收体系过于完善，以至于人们在单次使用后丢弃塑料袋、瓶子或餐具时，并不会感到良心不安。

Wang Ming-yuan has run her pharmacy for 20 years. Like many pharmacists and traditional Chinese medicine shops in Taiwan, she orders custom plastic bags printed with her shop’s name and space to write customers’ prescriptions and dosages.

王明媛经营药店已有20年。像台湾许多药房和中药店一样，她会定制印有店名的塑料袋，上面留有空白以便填写顾客的处方和剂量。

When Ms. Wang placed a new order in mid-March, her supplier warned that it did not know when the order could be filled. By April 12, she had run out. She has since switched to paper bags, though those contain plastic sleeves, and she worries they may disappear next.

3月中旬，当王女士再次下单订购塑料袋时，供应商警告她无法预估交货时间。到了4月12日，她的库存彻底告罄。此后她改用纸袋，但这些纸袋里仍含有塑料衬套，她担心接下来纸袋也会消失。

“Who would have imagined how essential these things are to our everyday lives?” she said.

“谁能想到这些东西对日常生活竟然如此不可或缺？”她说。

Ms. Wang, who is also a spokeswoman for a Taiwanese pharmacists association, said it was the worst supply shortage she had seen in all her years running the pharmacy.

身为台湾药师公会发言人的王女士表示，这是她经营药店多年来见过的最严重的供应短缺。

The plastic shortage was forcing other businesses to make some tough choices.

塑料荒也在迫使其他商家做出艰难抉择。

At the start of April, Yeh Pi-chiu, who manages a rice vermicelli noodle shop near the Xizhou market, started charging customers one Taiwan dollar — roughly 3 cents — for every plastic bag their order required.

4月初，叶碧秋（音）开始在她位于溪洲市场附近的面线店里向顾客收取每个塑料袋1新台币——约合人民币0.2元——的费用。

“Anything related to plastic has gone up in price,” Ms. Yeh said. The fee wasn’t about profit, she insisted, but was about encouraging customers to be more conscious of how much plastic they use.

“凡是跟塑料沾边的都涨价了，”叶女士说。她坚称收费并非为了盈利，而是为了提醒顾客关注自己的塑料用量。

Her noodle shop, which is festooned with cat pictures, was donating the proceeds to a local animal shelter.

她的这间挂满猫咪照片的面线店将这笔收入全部捐给了当地的动物收容所。

A few blocks away, the supply crunch was hitting at the source.

几个街区之外，供应危机正在冲击源头。

Yu Chih-ta and his mother have spent decades running a shop that sells plastic bags and containers to small businesses, including food vendors.

余志达（音）和他的母亲经营一家专门向小商户（包括食品摊贩）出售塑料袋和容器的店铺，至今已有数十年。

Since the war began, they said, new shipments have stopped arriving, leaving them to sell only what they had in stock. To stretch supplies, they have steadily raised prices and rationed how many bags customers can buy.

他们说，开战后货源就断了，现在只能卖库存。为了延长供货周期，他们不断提价，并开始限购。

The shelves are lined with signs that look decades old, except for the layers of fresh price stickers pasted over one another in recent weeks.

货架上的标价签看起来有些年头了，唯一的区别是最近几周上面层层叠叠地贴满了新的价签。

In the corner of Mr. Yu’s shop, a television on the wall showed President Trump discussing the war in Iran.

在余先生店铺的一角，墙上的电视机里正播放着特朗普总统谈论伊朗战争的画面。