Hong Kong authorities have fined 21 restaurants for breaching the city’s disposable plastic ban in the year since the policy came into effect.
Under the first phase of the citywide plastic ban, which began in April last year, restaurants are prohibited from using styrofoam tableware, as well as most single-use plastic items such as utensils, stirrers, and plates. They had a six-month “adaptation period,” which ended in October.
Plastic cups and food containers are currently still allowed to be sold and used for takeaway but cannot be distributed for dine-in purposes.
In a Facebook post published on Monday – a day before Earth Day – the Environment and Ecology Bureau (EEB) said that it had received 122 reports of restaurants suspected of violating the ban between October, when the adaptation period ended, and mid-April.
Most of the eateries complied after follow-up by the authorities, and only 21 restaurants were fined for still breaching the rule despite receiving a written warning, the bureau said.
A business will be fined HK$2,000 if it fails to comply within 10 days after receiving a warning for violating the plastic ban.
However, the EEB also highlighted some improvements. “Relative to the over 26,000 eateries in Hong Kong, we can see that the sector has mostly gotten used to the new laws,” it wrote in the Chinese-language post.
See also: Hong Kong restaurants cut waste – and sometimes costs – as plastics ban goes into force
It added that an increasing number of customers have been getting into the habit of bringing their own reusable cutlery and that restaurants have also been using alternatives to plastic.
“The restaurant chains say that more than 80 percent of their customers no longer ask for takeaway cutlery, thereby preventing over 60 million sets of disposable cutlery from being dumped into landfills in Hong Kong,” the bureau also said.
‘Low-carbon city’
Under the second phase, the ban will be extended to more types of tableware including plastic cups, cup lids, food containers and food container covers, which are currently only banned for dine-in services but still allowed for takeaway customers.
No timeline has yet been announced for the second phase and the Facebook post also did not mention when the new rules would kick in.
But the bureau said it was preparing to collaborate with “large-scale restaurant groups” to conduct tests in the middle of the year for plastic alternatives to identify substitutes that would “affect citizens’ lives the least.”
The bureau hopes to promote a plastic-free culture and turn Hong Kong into a “green, low-carbon city,” it added.
According to Hong Kong’s Climate Action Plan 2050, which was released in 2021, the city aims to reduce carbon emissions by 50 per cent from the 2005 levels before 2035, and to achieve carbon neutrality before 2050.
Green groups, however, have criticised the plan, saying it does not have a mechanism for reporting the progress of meeting the objectives.
The government should establish regular reporting and clear reduction targets for different sectors, they said.
