With all previous attempts to voluntarily introduce charges on plastic bag use in supermarkets having flopped, HK shoppers will now have to pay a mandatory HK$0.50 for every plastic bag they ask for at around 2,000 supermarkets.
We are told that the new plastic bag tax is aimed at cutting the city's daily mountain of plastic bag waste. I disagree and I’ll explain why. Littering of course is a major problem in Hong Kong. With 7 million people clustered together in a small space, HK has one of the world's largest per capita carbon footprints.
Apparently around 30 million plastic bags are thrown away in Hong Kong every day. That’s more than four per person - accounting for some 6 per cent of the 17,500 tons of rubbish sent to the city's landfill sites every single day. Granted that’s a whole load of plastic bags.
But this new tax is not really going to solve the plastic bag problem...it’ll just add some new money to the Government’s coffers. At the public’s same rate of plastic bag use the HK Government coffers will receive around HK$15,000,000 per day and $5,475,000,000 in additional cash flow every year. Not a bad amount during a global recession.
You see, almost every one I know in HK, uses these supermarket plastic bags to line the rubbish bins in their flat - so that when the cleaners come to pick up the rubbish during the early hours, they have it all nicely contained in a plastic bag. Imagine the mess otherwise. Great for a fly but not if you want to contain disease – Swine Flu etc.
So if people aren’t getting free plastic bags from the supermarket, they’ll have to buy mini rubbish bags anyway. Guess what? It’s made from environment unfriendly plastic as well. Same problem at a higher cost.
The city's environment secretary Edward Yau said he believed people in Hong Kong now understood the need for the charge and were ready for it.
Too right Eddy. The one thing Hong Kongers understand best is money and the new tax is meant to hurt where it counts. But sadly the problem will remain...
We are told that the new plastic bag tax is aimed at cutting the city's daily mountain of plastic bag waste. I disagree and I’ll explain why. Littering of course is a major problem in Hong Kong. With 7 million people clustered together in a small space, HK has one of the world's largest per capita carbon footprints.
Apparently around 30 million plastic bags are thrown away in Hong Kong every day. That’s more than four per person - accounting for some 6 per cent of the 17,500 tons of rubbish sent to the city's landfill sites every single day. Granted that’s a whole load of plastic bags.
But this new tax is not really going to solve the plastic bag problem...it’ll just add some new money to the Government’s coffers. At the public’s same rate of plastic bag use the HK Government coffers will receive around HK$15,000,000 per day and $5,475,000,000 in additional cash flow every year. Not a bad amount during a global recession.
You see, almost every one I know in HK, uses these supermarket plastic bags to line the rubbish bins in their flat - so that when the cleaners come to pick up the rubbish during the early hours, they have it all nicely contained in a plastic bag. Imagine the mess otherwise. Great for a fly but not if you want to contain disease – Swine Flu etc.
So if people aren’t getting free plastic bags from the supermarket, they’ll have to buy mini rubbish bags anyway. Guess what? It’s made from environment unfriendly plastic as well. Same problem at a higher cost.
The city's environment secretary Edward Yau said he believed people in Hong Kong now understood the need for the charge and were ready for it.
Too right Eddy. The one thing Hong Kongers understand best is money and the new tax is meant to hurt where it counts. But sadly the problem will remain...
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