50 cents levy on each plastic bag proposed
By Joseph Li (HK Edition)

To tackle garbage disposal and to ease pressure on the existing landfills, the government will propose an environmental levy on plastic shopping bags to the Legislative Council Panel on Environmental Affairs on May 28.

With a levy of HK$0.5 on each plastic bag, the government hopes to reduce drastically the number of plastic bags used by supermarkets and retail shops from over 1.8 billion to about 1 billion. The levy could also yield HK$200 million in revenue in the first few years.

Legislators, green groups and citizens in general supported the plan, but some citizens said 50 cents levy on each bag would be too high.

Currently Hong Kong disposes of 8 billion plastic shopping bags every year which means more than three plastic bags per person per day. This has led the government to think of ways to tackle the problem in line with the "polluter pays" principle.

There are over 55,000 shops in Hong Kong, but the government aims to cover in the first stage only 700 to 1,000 retailers and about 2,000 retails outlets including large supermarkets, convenience stores, and personal health and beauty stores. Although these types of shops accounted for only 4 percent of the total number of shops in Hong Kong, it was necessary to begin with these shops as 20 percent of the plastic bags in the landfills originated from these retailers, said a government source.

According to the government source, plastic shopping bags are defined as ones made wholly or predominantly of plastic and have handles to carry, holes or strings. Plastic bags with no handles, holes and strings offered at supermarkets for wrapping unpackaged fresh will not come under the scheme. Sealed plastic bags applied before goods are sold (e.g. boxes of tissues) and plastic bags sold as packaging materials (e.g. Sandwich bags) are also not counted.

Under the proposed law, shops are required to register with the government and collect the levy from customers on behalf of the government and keep relevant records. They are also required to submit the levy and provide the records to the government on quarterly basis. Shops, failing to comply, may be prosecuted and subject to a maximum fine of HK$200,000.

"As it is difficult to put all the shops in a net, we have to do it step by step or the law will hardly be enforceable," said the government source.

However, there is no penalty for the customers refusing to pay and the concerned shops need to handle the dispute in normal ways like customers refusing to pay for goods.

The Environmental Protection Department will be responsible for the registration of shops and to collect the levy, and a team of about 20 members will carry out random inspections.

After the proposal is submitted, the government will consult the public, industry and stakeholders in the next two months. If everything works out as planned, the government will introduce a bill to LegCo by the end of 2007 and have the bill passed by July 2008.

Edwin Lau, director of Friends of Earth, said the move should aim to correct the plastic bags abuse but not to increase government revenue.

Supermarket chain Wellcome said they would support environmental protection but added that such levy should apply to all kinds of retail shops in addition to supermarkets because plastic bags used by supermarkets constitute only a small portion of plastic bags used.

(HK Edition 05/22/2007 page6)