The Environmental Protection Department recently issued a consultation document on the "Control of Disposable Plastic Tableware Program". The plan proposes to implement the two-stage control. The first stage will be implemented in 2025, namely, a total ban on catering premises from providing knives and forks to dine-in and take-out customers. All kinds of disposable small plastic tableware.
Larger tableware such as take-out plastic food containers will be controlled in the second phase, but the second phase plan has not yet been implemented.
Ten environmental protection groups launched a press conference today (16th) to urge the government to fully control disposable plastic tableware by 2025, prohibit biodegradable tableware as substitutes, and set clear timetables and goals for each phase.
Tan Yinglin, the director of the Greenpeace project, emphasized: "The government must seize this opportunity to achieve real source waste reduction first."
Ten environmental groups launched a press conference today to urge the government to fully control disposable plastic tableware by 2025.
(Photo by Huang Yingjin)
4 fast food chains consume at least 500 million plastic tableware a year
Tan Yinglin, director of the Greenpeace project, quoted government data, stating that about 200 metric tons of plastic tableware are discarded every day, which is equivalent to the disposal of 14.6 billion plastic cutlery throughout the year.
At the beginning of this month, 10 environmental protection groups sent investigators to 4 large fast-food chains at McDonald's, KFC, Maxim's MX and Da Hao Huo to calculate the number of dine-in and take-out disposable tableware in the morning, lunch and evening hours.
Huan Tuan estimates that within one year, all four branches of the group will distribute at least 500 million disposable plastic tableware.
Tan Yinglin said that the plastic pollution problem in Hong Kong is urgent.
However, in the consultation document on the "Control of Disposable Plastic Tableware Program" issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, only the first stage of control is planned to be implemented in 2025, that is, catering establishments will be completely prohibited from providing all kinds of disposable plastic tableware to dine-in customers; takeaways are prohibited. Provide disposable plastic drinking straws, stirring rods, forks, knives, spoons and plates, etc.
The second phase of take-out regulation will be in line with that of dine-in, and larger tableware such as plastic food containers will be prohibited.
However, the plan did not specify a timetable for the implementation of the second phase. Tan Yinglin criticized: "The plastic tableware involved in the second phase is larger and will cause greater environmental pollution, but there is no clear timetable."
Tan Yinglin emphasized: "The government must seize this opportunity to achieve real source waste reduction first." (Photo by Huang Yingjin)
More than half of the interviewees took the initiative to "go plastic" and promote the government to ban plastic tableware by 2025
Wu Shiliang, associate professor of the Department of Geography and Resource Management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, used an online questionnaire to interview 336 people who had bought takeaways in the past year from February to May this year.
The results showed that for the government's regulations that restaurants cannot provide disposable plastic tableware to customers for free, the respondents scored 5.21 points (out of 7 points), reflecting the general public support for government control.
And more than half (56.8%) of the respondents often take the initiative to take out food.
Wu Shiliang said: "Although citizens have tried to take plastics, if there is no government regulation, restaurants may not be able to cooperate and it will be difficult to fully implement it."
Wu Shiliang said: "Although citizens have tried to make plastic, if there is no government regulation, restaurants may not be able to cooperate and it will be difficult to fully implement it." (Photo by Huang Yingjin)
The ring group urges the government to fully control disposable plastic tableware by 2025.
Tan Yinglin said: "The first stage is not difficult to do. It does not require a 4-year preparation period." Liu Zhaolang, senior project director of Green Earth, also said that the authorities must actively promote the reusable tableware model and prohibit degradable tableware and other unrecyclable materials into plastic. Cutlery substitutes, and set a clear timetable and goals for each stage.
Tan Yinglin urged the public to actively provide advice to the authorities, emphasizing: "The government must seize this opportunity to first achieve the true source of waste reduction."
Liu Zhaolang said that the authorities must actively promote the reusable tableware model, prohibit degradable tableware and other unrecyclable materials that cannot be recycled into substitutes for plastic tableware, and set a clear timetable and goals for each stage.
(Photo by Huang Yingjin)
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