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■綠領行動調查發現，超過七成受訪者支持「每周無膠袋日」。
Up to 1,481 retail outlets across Hong Kong as of Sunday (October 14) had signed up for an environmental protection campaign known as No Plastic Bag Day (NPB Day), which is set for every Tuesday beginning last week. The participating retail outlets include supermarkets, convenience stores, garment stores, audio/video disc shops and pet shops.
From now on sales personnel at those retail outlets will not offer plastic bags to shoppers to take their purchases back home, though it is not a binding rule of the voluntary fight against such “white pollutants”.They will oblige the customers if they demand shopping bags during the one-year program, free of charge.
The Green Collar Action (GCA) group, which initiated the campaign, hopes that NPB Day will help reduce the disposal of plastic bags in Hong Kong's landfills by 50 tons each time.
According to the latest Hong Kong Solid Waste Monitor (report) issued by the Environmental Protection Bureau of the SAR government, the amount of household waste has been dropping in recent years, but remains the leading source of all waste every year. Local residents on average threw away 701 tons of plastic bags everyday in 2006.
Green Collar Action (formerly the Green Student Council) Director Angus Ho told reporters that earlier efforts by individual retailers had already shown impressive results before NPB Day was launched. Participating retailers gave away about 40 percent less plastic bags on average during more than six months of trial run, when it was observed once a month.
As residents grew used to NPB Day, Ho said, their environmental protection awareness increased noticeably. He hoped the weekly NPB Day would enable participating businesses to save 50 percent of plastic bags a day and cut down the total amount across Hong Kong by 50 tons each time.
Green Collar Action conducted a random survey of 326 residents in September and found more than 60 percent of them knew about the NPB Day campaign, but 50 percent of them had yet to acquire reusable shopping bags of their own. ■春生 資深翻譯員
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