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Following is a question by the Hon Albert Chan and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, at the Legislative Council meeting today (February 28):
Question:
At present, government departments often use black plastic bags for collecting garbage, broken branches and fallen leaves, and for carrying recovered waste. Some members of the public have reflected to me that the use of large quantities of black plastic bags by the Government has not only produced adverse visual impact, but has also increased plastic waste. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective quantities of plastic bags used by various government departments in each of the past three years, and among such bags, the quantity of those which are non-biodegradable; and
(b) whether there are measures to reduce the quantities of plastic bags used by government departments; if so, of the details of such measures; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, being the responsible agent for environmental hygiene and the provision of street cleansing service, uses about five million plastic bags each year. This is equivalent to an average of about seven hundred and fifty plastic bags per district per day. Since most of the cleansing work at the offices and venues of bureaux and departments are provided by property management companies or cleansing companies, we do not have information on the number of plastic bags used by those companies for garbage collection. On the other hand, we understand that close to thirty bureaux and departments have been using degradable plastic bags or plastic bags with recycled content as garbage bags in their offices. The Environmental Protection Department will encourage other bureaux and departments to consider switching to degradable plastic bags or plastic bags with recycled content.
(b) Resource conservation has been a key focus under the "green management" of bureaux and departments. Bureaux and departments have taken a series of measures to reduce the use of plastic bags, including using reusable nylon bags to replace plastic bags, requiring cleansing companies to replace garbage bags only when needed, reusing the same plastic bags, reminding colleagues to reduce the use of plastic bags through internal circulars, etc.
Ends/Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Issued at HKT 14:47
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