Waste Not, Want Not: Part 1 (Ep. 6)

Initial broadcast - 8:00 pm Friday August 21, 2015

To listen to the show's initial broadcast, please visit RTHK's DAB 31.

To listen to the show after the initial broadcast, please visit the archive here.

(Photo by Gary Verstick)

Hong Kong is facing a major waste crisis. Our earth is facing a major waste crisis. We begin this episode by visiting an isolated beach near Kennedy Town with Gary Verstick. Gary explains how no one visits this beach, the piles of rubbish come from the sea, which is a major issue facing all of our oceans. To learn more about why this disaster is happening and what we can do about it, I sat down with Nissa Marion, co-founder of the Hong Kong Cleanup Challenge and Ecozine Magazine. Nissa shares how in Hong Kong we produce the equivalent to 250,000 double-decker buses worth of trash each year, which is 50 times the number of buses we actually have! All this trash is being permanently “parked” in our landfills (NENT, SENT, and WENT), and they simply can’t keep it up! Soon a polluting incinerator will be built to help burn this trash, and, if it’s not going into these “proper” places, it’s ending up in our seas!

How did we become so trashy?

This is an issue very close to my heart, and I don’t even know why! In our modern lives, we have evolved to have a terrible system for transporting the goods that give us comfortable lives: packaging! Every day we buy and consume things, and then throw away the packaging or products without thinking twice about it. But all of these things have to go somewhere. In Hong Kong we have a very efficient waste management system: you never have to see or smell your rubbish again after you throw it away. It magically “disappears”! But sadly, most packaging never really disappears. A plastic bottle may need up to 500 years to decompose in a landfill.

As I mentioned to Nissa, in many developing countries they don’t have a system to take care of their waste, so it ends up being dumped in one place for years and years. Often rural areas, like this place in Guizhou, China, will have a traditional way of life and actually generate less waste, but gradually it’s becoming popular in these countries to have packaged products: packets of candy or bottles of shampoo. With no where for this rubbish to go, it ends up creating a nasty scar on the often beautiful countryside. And when you come face-to-face with years’ worth of trash, it is really disheartening.

(Photo by K. Davies)

(Photo by K. Davies)

But living in a developed city like Hong Kong does not mean we’re not creating something equally as nasty. We just don’t have to see it in our daily lives, so we have become alarmingly detached from the mess we’re generating every single day. The problem is widespread at many levels in Hong Kong: businesses providing too much packaging and no reusable packaging options; people opting for convenience; and the government not charging for waste dumping, implementing deposit systems, and providing more opportunities for wider recycling.

A major outcome, too, of our excessive waste is our seas becoming trashed. I asked Nissa to explain why or how so much rubbish is ending up in our seas. She says, cleverly, the seas are downhill from everything! Any rubbish lying around on the streets will eventually be washed down, or as Gary pointed out, people on boats are throwing their rubbish overboard, as if the water is a giant trashcan! Nissa explains how this is a disaster for wildlife, and massive patches (the size of countries!) of floating plastic is ending up in the middle of our oceans, thousands of miles away from humans. A study recently released by Jenna Jambeck highlights this shocking issue.

How to get Involved?

Reduce waste! Get out and see the mess! Join the HK Cleanup Challenge that's hosted each year. Various other organizations, like the Green Sustainable Living HK Meetup or Hong Kong Hiking Meetup, host clean-up events as well. Like Nissa mentioned, going to these events can give you a "light bulb" moment when you realize what a disaster (straws, plastic bottles!) we're causing.

When you become aware of the scale of this absolutely dire situation, you begin to realize how much we’re needlessly consuming. There are many easy ways to rethink our relationship to plastic and waste. For example, Shiu Shing Hong soap shop

(130a Jervois St., Sheung Wan) offers a unique opportunity to purchase various soaps and household cleaning products and to return the bottles for refilling.

Here are some tips:

1. Say NO to single-use plastic bottles. Get a reusable water bottle, like a Klean Kanteen.
   
   (Available at home or hiking stores.)
2. Find plastic-less options in your daily shopping:
• Use powder laundry detergent (not liquid that comes in plastic bottles).
• Use good quality bar soap instead of liquid body wash. (Be mindful though of palm oil.)
• Shop at wet/farmers markets for fruits and vegetables that don’t come in plastic packaging
3. Keep a food container (like Glasslock) at work or handy to use for a take-away lunch. Use your own reusable fork/chopsticks. Avoid prepackaged salads, sandwiches, and juice bottles that come in single-use plastic containers.
4. Bring your own mug for take-away coffee or drinks.
5. Shop at stores that let you bring back bottles to refill and reuse, like Shiu Shing Hong (130A Jervois St.) in Sheung Wan, or for fancier items Vom Fass on Hollywood Rd. in Central. LUSH also uses minimal packaging (only paper?) for their products. Please let us know if you have more recommendations!!!
6. Use less: use less shampoo, dish soap, cleaning products.
7. Buy in larger containers (bulk): fill up smaller bottles you’ve saved. Buying in bulk reduces how much plastic is needed per liter/gram of the product.
8. Ask for less plastic. Here are some useful phrases in Cantonese:

• No straw please.
• A cup for here please. 
• No plastic please.

Credits

Special thank you to:

Gary Verstick of Save China's Tigers)

Nissa Marion of HK Clean Up Challenge & Ecozine Magazine

Kathryn Davies - Producer & Host

Music by Kodomo (Concept 10)

Please share if you have other tips or recommendations! Please let us know if we've forgotten any important shops or ways to reduce waste!