Beginning of the End of Single-Use Plastic in 2025

Beaches have a lot of single-use plastic wash up on shore

 

The Hong Kong government is finally going to tackle single-use plastic -- but not until 2025. So while green groups are pleased the authorities are doing something about the serious problem, it's not fast enough.

Starting in 2025 restaurants need to offer more eco-friendly tableware for takeaway, and customers will need to bring their own food containers. The government will start by banning the sale of expanded polystyrene tableware, including disposable cups, cup lids and food containers to dine-in customers.

Many people have eaten from takeaway boxes

Catering premises would also be prohibited from offering throwaway cutlery, as well as disposable plastic straws, stirrers, cutlery or plates.

In the second phase, no restaurants can use single-use plastic for takeaway.

"Countless waste plastic enters the natural environment, including the ocean each year, Secretary for the Environment Wong Kam-sing wrote in the consultation document. "They will eventually be fragmented into microplastics and enter the human food chain."

According to figures from 2019, Hong Kong is estimated to be responsible for throwing away about 14.6 billion pieces of plastic cutlery annually, or about 1,940 pieces per person.

While officials wanted to cover all types of single-use plastic, pre-packaged food like drink boxes that come with straws will be exempted.

Ban on single-use plastics to start 2025

Environmental groups like Green Earth said the government's schedule ignored the immediacy and scale of the environmental threat posed by takeaway public cutlery, the volume of which had risen during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The NGO noted mainland China banned the production and sale of single-use EPS tableweare this year, while the European Union has required all member states to prohibit the use of food containers and cups made from the same materials in the catering industry by this year.

Greenpeace agreed with Green Earth's criticism and urged officials to speed up the implementation of the scheme. But World Green Organization felt the timeline was reasonable.

Regardless the environmental issues Hong Kong has needs to be addressed as soon as possible. Lots of education is needed to teach residents the importance of cutting down single-use plastics and begin to encourage customers to bring their own containers. Charging them HK$1 or HK$2 is not enough of an incentive.

The market has eco-friendly boxes, but are costly

The same goes for plastic shopping bags. It's mostly men who don't bring shopping bags with them, and don't mind paying HK$0.50 for a plastic bag to carry their things in.

Pushing restaurants to use alternative takeaway boxes will be a relief. Many small shops use polystyrene packaging which is shocking in this day and age, but they are purely looking at it from a cost perspective.

Because of the pandemic people are becoming more aware of how much garbage is being thrown away, though for others, as long as single-use plastics are disposed off, it's out of sight, out of mind.

In any event why is the government waiting four years for this change to happen? Why can't this be happening in a year or two the most? 

It is time to protect the environment. Now.

HongKongers Sign up for Vaccine Jabs

Lam got the Sinovac jab yesterday in front of the media

With a slew of cameras watching, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was among the first to get the Sinovac vaccine yesterday.

Her other senior ministers also got the jab, but interestingly Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po, commerce chief Edward Yau Tang-wah, and environment minister Wong Kam-sing were conspicuously absent. Chan's office said he was too busy working on the budget...

Over 60,000 have signed up for the vaccine

Today it was reported over 60,000 people have made appointments online to get the same jab. 

Secretary for Innovation and Technology Alfred Sit Wing-hang said the enthusiastic response overloaded the system for a short period after the bookings opened at midnight, but is now running smoothly.

Some 2.4 million people are deemed to have priority to get the vaccine first, including those over 60 years of age, residents in care homes, healthcare workers, essential staff, pilots, flight attendants and cross-border workers.

There are skeptics who wonder if the government will be able to vaccinate at least 6 million Hongkongers within six months.

For those doing the math, if every one of the 6 million people gets two shots each, then that means 67,000 jabs will have to be administered daily. How will that be achieved? There are 29 Community Vaccination Centres across the city, and then 18 general out patient clinics of the Hospital Authority, as well as 1,200 private doctors and 1,500 medical clinics that will offer the vaccines.

Pilots are among those to have priority to get jab

Looks like administering the jab will be like a factory, where perhaps people walk in with their arms exposed ready to be jabbed and come out with a band-aid one minute later.

Meanwhile the BioNTech vaccine arrives at the end of this week, and then AstraZeneca later.

At least it's finally happening. Hong Kong is playing catch up to places like the UK and the United States where they are vaccinating tens of thousands of people everyday.

And by the way the LeaveHomeSafe app? While 97 percent of the 2.8 million downloads are local, apparently people in Fiji and Niger are even downloading the app! Technology chief Sit says perhaps there are people working or studying overseas there who may need to use the app later. 

Right...

 

 

 

 

Lam's Lockdown Plans Need Tweaking

Lam addressed media this afternoon, admitted could be better

Just over a year since the first case of the coronavirus was reported in Hong Kong, the city now has over 10,000 cases and is desperately trying to clamp down on a surge in cases in the Jordan area in Yau Tsim Mong district.

Late last night the government imposed a lockdown at over 100 buildings with streets cordoned off and monitored by police. That meant people coming back late could not go home, while those in their flats could not go out.

Goal was to test 10,000 with results by Monday

Meanwhile healthcare workers went door to door testing people.

The residents in lockdown were given food but there were lots of complaints -- as Hongkongers like to do, but in this case it was quite valid. They were given instant noodles, oranges, white bread, uncooked pasta and canned items like sardines and baked beans.

Instant noodles are hardly nutritious as well as white bread, and what are residents going to cook pasta with if there's no sauce? However, government officials didn't think to ask or know that many of the elderly living in this neighbourhood don't have can openers let alone a kitchen to cook.

They usually depend on social workers to deliver hot food to them, and now they can't come in to help feed them. District councillor Owan Li said the government should have considered delivering hot meals to them.

Lots of instant noodles, oranges and canned food

Nevertheless the food they were given is such a hodge podge... how do you even make a decent meal out of that?

This afternoon Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor gave a press conference near the lockdown area, wearing a black hoodie, while Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee wore a puffy jacket -- in 25 degree weather?!

Lam admitted there was room for improvement. She said the lockdown was difficult to execute without residents knowing, as 3,000 people are involved in administering the operation, and that perhaps people would be less anxious if they knew the lockdown was only for 48 hours and that food would be provided to them, though now we know it wasn't adequate.

She also said the lockdown was nothing like those on the mainland and preferred to call the scheme "restriction testing declaration", and that it would be lifted after testing was completed.

Lam visited the area but was she welcomed?

When questioned by reporters if residents who were inconvenienced by the scheme would be compensated, particularly if they could not get to their jobs, Lam would only reply that residents were supplied with food and there was a hotline to call if they had any questions.

The aim of the lockdown -- I mean "restriction testing declaration" -- is to test 10,000 people by tonight so that they will be able to get back to work by Monday morning. Again the government is oblivious to the possibility that some people work weekends...

What is scary is that Secretary for the Environment Wong Kam-sing reported nearly 90 percent of the sewage samples collected from 40 buildings in this area tested positive for the virus. So having them continue to live in these contaminated places is hardly ideal. 

However, where do you mover 10,000 people? And how can their sewage pipes be fixed?

Covid-19 is not going away in Hong Kong anytime soon, despite wearing your mask everyday, washing your hands and social distancing. The virus has revealed there are too many structural issues causing such a big spread of the virus...

Hong Kong Government Denials

Protesters dealing with non-stop tear gas in an earlier protest

Last week it was Matthew Cheung Kin-chung who left us all flabbergasted with his comment that he didn't understand why people were still angry even though the government had withdrawn the extradition bill.

This week it's Sophia Chan Siu-chee's turn.

Sophia Chan refuses to disclose the chemicals in tear gas

There have been calls since the protests began, asking what exactly is in the tear gas in terms of chemical composition so that the public and healthcare workers know how to treat victims of tear gas.

However, Chan denies there is a harmful effect from tear gas use, and refuses to disclose the chemical composition of the gas for fear it would affect police operations.

So police operations are more important than people's health?

Chan added the police were sourcing "safe and suitable equipment globally according to the established procedures".

Many dead birds have been sighted

She even had the gall to say in the Legislative Council that there was no evidence to suggest the use of tear gas can produce dioxins or cause dioxin poisoning.

"Given the short time of combustion of a tear gas canister, any cyanide produced will be quickly dispersed in the air," the health secretary said.

We know where this government's priorities are.
Then the environment secretary Wong Kam-sing attributes the toxic substances in the air to the burning of shops, and garbage, and Molotov cocktails.

So 10,000 rounds of tear gas don't mean much?

Have Chan and Wong seen the dead birds and squirrels around the city, especially around Hong Kong Polytechnic University these past few days?

These animals didn't commit mass suicide or all ate the same bad apple. 

Again these comments not only show how out of touch Hong Kong's senior officials are, but also how desperate they are to show they are in line with Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, or with Beijing.

Wong Kam-sin says pollution is created by the protesters

With their integrity is virtually non-existent these days, perhaps they think they can lie about everything.


Do they seriously think people believe them, regardless of what side they are on?

These elites are really astounding in their tone deafness...

Mission Impossible to Recycle

There aren't enough recycling bins like these and some dump waste in them 

In the last few years, Hong Kong people are becoming more environmentally conscious and are finally waking up to the myriad of issues that are plaguing the city.

One of the more pressing ones is pollution, but another is recycling, particularly dealing with food waste.

The Green Council, a local NGO conducted a survey of 1,288 respondents and found 89 percent were willing to recycle food waste if there was a recycling point where they lived.

Currently about 66 percent didn't do anything to reduce or recycle the amount of food waste they generated, mostly because only 5 percent of residential properties have food recycling schemes.

Glass recycling is a no brainer, but not enough collection bins

Everyday the city dumps 3,600 tons of food into landfills, making up 40 percent of Hong Kong's solid municipal waste, according to a study by the Environmental Protection Department in 2011.

The survey also found that 90 percent of consumers were interested in patronizing restaurants that had good food waste handling practices.

For restaurants to qualify for the "Lean Label Scheme", they had to introduce such practices as having recipes that made use of surplus food, allowing customers to choose portion sizes, and having proper storage facilities to prevent food from spoiling.

"In the past two or three years, our customers have become a lot more aware of the problem of food waste," said Carrel Kam Lin-wang, director of Yung Kee Restaurant in Central, that just received its Lean Label yesterday.

"Unlike a few years ago when customers would intentionally order until there would be foo to spare, nowadays even celebrities who eat at our restaurant will bring their own boxes to pay away leftovers," Kam said.

Where is Wong Kam-sing's leadership on this crucial issue?

Really? Hard to imagine the well-heeled whipping out plastic containers to put their leftover roast goose in, but you never know.

But more importantly, where is the government leadership on this issue?

Wong Kam-sing, secretary for the environment said yesterday that an economic incentive was necessary in order to reduce waste. "We must first have a fee on waste disposal which we will propose to the new Legco," he said.

While the implementation of this waste disposal fee is years from now, why not encourage more recycling with more bins for people to do it? And educate users on which items can be recycled, and which can't.

Right now there are hardly enough recycling bins where people live which is crucial in making this work.

The other is educating people on what can be recycled and what can't. Many use recycling bins on the street as another garbage can. This attitude has to change right now. And then there are those who are too lazy to sort their garbage and take it to the nearest recycling bin.

There is a recycling station just outside my apartment building, with even containers to accept glass (these are a rare sight in Hong Kong), and yet some residents still leave their empty wine bottles by the garbage can for the waste collectors to pick up.

Other cities around the world have been recycling for decades, and places like Vancouver are recycling all food waste to be composted. Why should this be an impossible task in Hong Kong?

The government doesn't seem to encourage the business of recycling either -- making it financially unfeasible for people to want to get into the recycling business.

But alas the government -- not just the Leung Chun-ying administration, but even in the colonial era -- didn't make much effort into recycling and no official now, even our current secretary for the environment isn't pushing this.

It's all talk and no action, which is pathetic particularly when people are clamouring for it even more now.

What's wrong with doing our part to save our environment from our own destruction? People want to do something, so why not make it easier for them to recycle?

Government Pats its own Back

Chief Secretary Carrie Lam to receive Hong Kong's highest honour

On the eve of the 19th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China, the government unveiled its list of awards, lauding those who have made significant contributions to the city.

It was quite surprising to see the list stacked with government officials, led by Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor being awarded the Grand Bauhinia Medal, the highest accolade possible.

Some of her colleagues receive the Gold Bauhinia Star, like Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok, Wong Kam-sing, Secretary for the Environment, and Paul Chan Mo-po, Secretary for Development.

What has Paul Chan done to merit a Gold Bauhinia Star?

One can see why Lam was given the award for her tireless efforts in trying to be the face of the Leung Chun-ying administration, particularly during the Occupy protests and last year when the government was pushing through electoral reform and failed. She had to put a brave face forward, which is professional of her, but at what cost morally?

What have Wong and Chan done lately that merit recognition for their work?

Pollution, waste and recycling issues have hardly been tackled, with the government timidly implementing waste disposal costs. Perhaps Wong will say these efforts need the cooperation of other departments, but his should be leading and pushing the cause with a goal of making Hong Kong a more efficient and cleaner city when it comes to dealing with waste and pollution.

Meanwhile Chan's record is hardly stellar, embroiled in several scandals mostly involving real estate. He and his wife were found to have property that had subdivided flats, and later it was reported his family had land in the New Territories where the government had planned to develop, thus possibly resulting in a windfall. He was accused of conflict of interest and did not fully disclose all his assets.

We vote for Chan Cheuk-ming to get formal recognition

What has he done to be awarded a Gold Bauhinia medal?

On the other hand, it goes without saying that the two firemen who lost their lives in the Ngau Tau Kok fire over a week ago, Thomas Cheung and Samuel Hui Chi-kit should be recognized posthumously with gold medals for bravery.

While this honour is a token that will not bring Hui and Cheung back to their families, it is a small gesture Hong Kong can do to show the community's gratitude towards them.

Other people recognized on the list seem to be pro-establishment figures, like Starry Lee Wai-king, chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, her colleague Tam Yiu-chung, and Liu Changle, chairman and CEO of Phoenix Television.

And for Father Franco Mella in helping the disadvantaged

How about highlighting people who are fostering community in the city, helping others in selfless ways, like restaurant owner Chan Cheuk-ming or Ming gor, who feeds the poor in Sham Shui Po, or Father Franco Mella, an Italian priest who came to Hong Kong in 1974 and learned Cantonese and has worked hard to help the disadvantaged.

To me, these people should be receiving the city's highest honours. But perhaps the government is perched too high on the pedestal to see the city's true gems.

Potentially Deadly Air

A picture of smog from March 2010 and clear skies in June later that year

Now we know the air in Hong Kong is bad -- not as bad as China -- but pretty bad relative to the United States.

Scientists who have studied air samples around China and Hong Kong have found 10 to 20 times more fine metallic particles than the US.

While Hong Kong's PM2.5 levels are lower than most cities on the mainland, it has a higher concentration of health-threatening trace metals. These include zinc and chromium that can cause a range of problems from premature aging to cancer.

Higher concentrations of airborne trace metals can even damage human DNA, thus endangering the genetics in future generations.

The scientists say that without greater environmental regulations, high trace metal levels could become a public health crisis.

Li Weijun, a professor of environmental science at Shandong University has studied nearly every part of China, from the grasslands of Inner Mongolia to Hong Kong's Victoria Peak, collecting samples and examining them. They probably have one of the largest data banks of airborne particles in China.

"Damage to health caused by fine particles is not only determined by the quantity of particles, but also what type they are," he said. "Trace metals are the nastiest things in the air that can damage your health."

With regards to Hong Kong, the PM2.5 pollution, Li believes it could have come from power plants and factories in the Pearl River Delta.

"As long as you have a large number of factories in your neighbourhood, you will have the problem. But even the most advanced technology cannot remove these extremely small particles," he said.

Li published a research paper in the academic journal Environmental Science and Technology last year. In it, his team found 105 micrograms of iron per litre of water in cloud on Mount Tai in Shandong province and 90mcg on Mount Lu in Jiangxi province. At Mount Elden in Arizona, the reading was only 5.6mcg.

In terms of zinc concentrations, 200-250mcg were found on the two Chinese mountains, and none on Mount Elden.

The other metals or hazardous elements in China's air include copper, magnesium, lithium, nickel, cobalt, arsenic and selenium. When mixed with water, zinc can enter human cells via the bloodstream or tissue.

Through oxygen, zinc can damage the structure of DNA in cells and this is irreversible.

Is this not shocking enough for anyone living in China and Asia?

In Hong Kong we always knew the "fog" was smog and then chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said there was nothing we could do about the air pollution across the border.

But now we know what we're breathing in is potentially dangerous, particularly for babies and young children.

What is the Hong Kong government going to do about this now? The onus is now in Secretary for the Environment Wong Kam-sing and the under secretary Christine Loh Kung-wai to really do something about the air quality here.

Top expats are leaving the city in search of cities with cleaner air for themselves and their families because it's priceless.

We thank Li for this report as it confirms what we already know, but in much greater and scarier detail.

He must also be praised for his extensive research. It wouldn't be surprising to hear if the Chinese government tried to bar him from publishing this work because of its explosive consequences.

Mainlanders are already wary of air quality in China and this report gives further evidence that the country has sacrificed the environment and its people for GDP growth.

We need more people like Li to shake things up and make governments realize that change needs to start now.