Plastic, Plastic Everywhere

How can Hong Kong be consuming only 33 million plastic bags—five per resident—a day? I use more than that, and I'm already one of those making a conscious effort to use less!

Breakfast is delivered to my office every morning in a plastic bag. If I decide to have a sandwich, that comes in another smaller plastic bag. Even if I were to skip the meal and only get a cup of coffee, it is delivered in a cute little plastic bag that fits the cup rather perfectly. Lunch is pretty much the same ordeal unless I eat out.

In the evening I take my routine lap around the Japanese supermarket in my neighborhood. I don't buy much, but people here seem to think "good service" means giving you a separate transparent bag for every single item you purchase that's not completely dry. The pack of sushi would be separate from the pack of strawberries would be separate from the carton of OJ would be separate from the tub of Häagen-Dazs, all of which would then be consolidated into one big plastic bag baring the supermarket's logo.

Without even buying a newspaper, or anything from any bakery, I'm already using more than five plastic bags a day.

I personally believe the little transparent plastic bags used at the supermarkets are the culprit. They're too flimsy to be reused even as garbage bags. So they're good for absolutely nothing after the first use.

Another problem is the plastic tubes given out at entrances of commercial buildings and department stores on rainy days. Tenants/customers are encouraged to carry their umbrellas in these elongated plastic bags around the premise, so the umbrella would drip in the bag and not on the ground. A lot of times, people carry their umbrellas like they would canes by poking it on the ground with every step they take. Soon enough a hole is made on the bottom of the plastic tube, and a trail of rainwater is left on the floor anyway. Moreover, garbage cans around the premise would be stuffed and covered with these elongated plastic bags, most of them containing rainwater.

April 15 will be Hong Kong's first No Plastic Bag Day. Some 1,200 supermarkets and retail chains have already agreed to take part by charging shoppers 50 cents for each requested plastic bag that day. The proceeds are to go to Oxfam Hong Kong.

Only in Hong Kong would we sell what we're trying to discourage people to use, just to give the proceeds to an irrelevant charity. Here's an idea: Get a couple million woven bags from China with the words "No Plastic Bag Day, April 15" printed on both sides, sell them at the participating merchants for $5 a piece and donate the proceeds to Green Peace.