Hong Kong Needs to Cut Paper Use

Some 8 million lai see envelopes were collected last year

Just before Lunar New Year, many companies send me lai see envelopes and I try to give them to colleagues to use, or I keep them. So I was very pleased to find out I could take them to a collection point at my apartment building, where they would be picked up by an environmental group called Greeners Action.

Yesterday I took a bag of unused and used lai see envelopes to the box. I had so many that I had to ask the attendant to lift the lid of the box instead of putting them through the slot at the top of the lid, and when he did, I was pleased to find there were already stacks of red envelopes in there.

Please put your lai see envelopes in this box!

The NGO is trying to make people more aware of the garbage they are accumulating, and that things like lai see envelopes can be used again and again.

Greeners Action's executive director Angus Ho Hon-wai estimates that the amount of paper used to make the lai see envelopes amounts to 16,300 trees.

Seriously?

Does he mean skinny trees or very thick mature ones?

"It's an astronomical figure," Ho says. "I've looked at some numbers and it doesn't seem like other places with Chinese people distribute as much lai see as we do."

Not only that but many people in Hong Kong like to use crisp bills too to symbolize a new start to the Lunar New Year.

Last year Greeners Action collected about 8 million lai see envelopes -- about 30 tonnes in weight -- and about half of them were still good to reuse, the other half was recycled.

The envelopes are given out to people to use again

People have until February 22 to collect their lai see envelopes and drop them off in 500 collection points around the city, including shopping malls, Jockey Club betting stations, residential estates, hospitals and banks.

We should also keep in mind that the city threw out 2,257 tonnes of waste paper everyday -- a 17.5 percent increase from 2015. Hong Kong people really need to not only be more conscious of using paper, but also the government needs to educate them on how to recycle and help make recycling paper and other items a viable business.

Facts on Lai See

Fresh new banknotes are usually handed out during Lunar New Year

In Hong Kong, for those who are single, and young, Lunar New Year is about receiving lai see (利是). In China, young people who are working give red envelopes (紅包) to their parents as a gesture of thanks for raising them.

The elderly and companies in Hong Kong like to follow the tradition of giving brand new bills -- starting new year -- which has led to a whole industry of printing new banknotes.

Lai see packets are usually filled with $20 or $100 notes

Here are some interesting facts:

HK$8 billion -- the total amount of money people exchanged to get new banknotes this year.

400 million -- the number of new banknotes needed in the run-up to the Lunar New Year.

200 million -- the number of new banknotes printed this year.

1 tonne of cotton -- needed to make 1 million banknotes.

200 million -- the number of banknotes that are yin-san or "good as new" for lai see. Banks have machines that sort out these notes.

Banks sort out notes that are good as new for lai see use too

HK$20 and HK$100 -- the most common denominations used for lai see. These bills are used most frequently and need to be replaced within 18 months.

HK$500 and $1,000 -- these higher denomination bills aren't used often and are usually replaced in two to three years.