After COVID-19 dining ban, takeaway waste clogs Hong Kong’s pavements, parks and waterways
HONG KONG: A deluge of trash from takeaway containers and disposable cutlery is clogging the streets..
HONG KONG: A deluge of trash from takeaway containers and disposable cutlery is clogging the streets and parks of Hong Kong as COVID-19 restrictions on dining in restaurants eat away at the city's capacity to dispose of its garbage.
The dining restrictions ban eating in any outlet after 6pm. At other times in the day, restaurants can only operate at half-capacity and with two people per table.
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As a result, plastic from eating out has doubled from last year since takeaway food is the only option for many people who do not cook at home. Hundreds of thousands of people in the crowded city live in compact apartments with tiny or non-existent kitchens.
Pavements in residential and office areas are littered with Styrofoam boxes and coffee cups spilling out from bins, while plastic bags and wrappers are seen floating at popular swimming sites.
READ: COVID-19: Hong Kong backtracks on restaurant dining ban, to allow with restrictions
A staff member wearing a face mask hands takeaway food to a customer at a restaurant in Hong Kong, China, Jul 20, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Lam Yik)
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"For many people, the biggest issue is they don't deal with their own waste on a daily basis so they aren't realising the scale of their own consumption," said Tracey Read, founder of Plastic Free Seas in Hong Kong.
The city's residents are consuming more than 101 million disposable plastic items for takeaway every week, according to environmental group Greeners Action, more than double the amount discarded last year.
Hong Kong's government said existing landfills will reach capacity this year and in June it announced it was disposing of human graves to further extend one site.
Single use plastic tableware is one of the top ten categories of marine litter in Hong Kong, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
"Emerging food delivery online platforms are definitely one of the contributors exacerbating the severity of the problem," said June Wong, an executive at WWF who focuses on marine litter and plastic.
WWF is working with delivery companies, Deliveroo and Foodpanda, to combat disposable plastic cutlery.
READ: COVID-19: For kitchen-less Hong Kongers, new ban on restaurant dining is a bitter pill
Women wearing face masks walk past a man eating takeaway food inside a shopping mall in Hong Kong, China, Jul 20, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Lam Yik)Read More – Source
