A recent survey shows that Hongkongers produce the most waste and are the most reluctant to change their wasteful behaviors. Write a letter to the Editor in response to the survey results. In your letter, discuss the seriousness of the problem, give ideas on how the Environmental Protection Department can handle the excessive amount of waste and suggest what can be done to make people more environmentally friendly.
Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to the results of a recent survey showing that Hongkongers produce the most waste and are the most reluctant to change their wasteful behaviors. Given the situation Hong Kong is now in, for sure the government and we Hongkongers should do something to address this problem, or we risk drowning in a sea of our own rubbish in a few years’ time.
Currently the city has three major landfills, which are all rapidly diminishing in capacity. However, little has been done to alleviate the stress on the landfills and the amount of waste we produce is ever-increasing. Each day, every Hong Kong adult and child produces 1.28 kilograms of household trash, more than twice as much as Japanese and South Koreans and 91 kilograms a year above the per-person total for Norway, which is an astounding figure for a city with so little space for refuse disposal.
Some may say that this figure is no big deal because household rubbish just includes mostly leftovers and decomposable waste that will soon return to mother Earth’s opening arms. The levy imposed on plastic bags has proved successful so that there is no need to worry about them either, they say. This is in fact a wrong perception. Aside from the quantity of garbage we are producing, what the types of waste are is another problem to be dealt with. In addition to the leftovers and plastic products we are dumping, waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is another headache. WEEE is a kind of toxic waste because it contains heavy metals. The biodiversity in Hong Kong will be adversely affected if we do not stop dumping these products while they are still useful. Also, the poisonous metals in the WEEE can be absorbed by smaller organisms, passed along the food chain and eventually be consumed by humans. The results can be devastating because Hong Kong’s next generation can very well be a horde of mutants or handicapped. At this point I believe that the seriousness of the problem of Hongkongers’ wasteful behaviors is clear to all who are reading this letter.
The Environmental Protection Department can do much to handle the excessive amount of waste. For instance, it could learn from Japan by introducing an efficient separation and classification system for waste. Reusable and recyclable waste, WEEE which includes television, fridges, washing machines, air conditioners and computer equipment and other household waste should be separated and dealt with accordingly. The polluter-pays principle should also be adopted along with the separation system. Cost of handling the recyclable waste which may include some of the WEEE and other household rubbish should be paid for by the ones who dump them so that Hongkongers will be more cautious and think more carefully when next time they decide to discard something. All electrical and electronic products on the market should be required to carry a label showing they are eligible for collection and recycling through designated channels and consumers should pay for the reclaiming of electronic scrap at the time of purchase or when they dispose of it. The government can draft laws to back the policies by punishing those who refuse to abide by the rules.
Furthermore, the government can launch campaigns and promote the 3Rs: Recycle, Reuse and Reduce as the major principle in processing waste in Hong Kong, so as to prompt the citizens to become more environmentally friendly. The government can cooperate with green groups so that they can organize seminars and provide ideas to advertise the adverse effects of continuing the production of large amount of waste and refusing to ameliorate wasteful behaviors.
The mounting pile of refuse in the landfills is not something that can be left alone but a common responsibility that we all share. A high level of domestic waste production may be the natural outcome of the city’s economic activities, population growth and tourist numbers, but it can never and should never be an excuse for us to sit with folded arms seeing the situation worsening. Capitalism drives Hong Kong prosperous, but it should not be at the expense of our environment. It is high time Hongkongers and our government stepped out to contribute to solving this problem that concerns us all.
Yours faithfully,
Chris Wong