|
translated by開明
In a recent survey conducted by the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) on the environmental impact of capsule toy frenzy among teenagers in Hong Kong, 2,540 Primary 3 to Form 6 students in the Central and Western District were interviewed; most of them under the age of 18. The purpose of the survey was to have a better understanding of the trend of capsule toys purchase among the younger generation. It is found that 47.4% of the interviewees had a habit of buying capsule toys from the vending machines. In terms of frequency, 20.7% of the interviewees paid more than 10 visits to the capsule vending outlets in a month and those capsule maniacs who visited the machines more than 90 times in a month accounted for 1.2%. In quantity terms, 24.6% of the interviewees bought more than 10 capsules and 2.3% bought as many as more than 90 capsules in a month.
Among the interviewees in the survey, more than 20% admitted that they would keep on buying from the vending machines until they got the capsules they desired. They would simply discard those toys which were not counted as their ‘favorites’ as they already had one; and even those which were their favorites but they had too many in stock. Moreover, nearly 60% of the young people interviewed would discard the capsule casings. Clearly, the capsule toy frenzy has posed a serious waste disposal threat.
Based on the figure of 810,000 youngsters between the age of 10 and 19 in the territory, YWCA estimated that around 388,000 teenagers have the habit of purchasing capsule toys and that a total of 16.8 million capsule toys are bought by teenagers in a year.
On the other hand, the association surveyed the 479 convenience stores, major toy chain outlets and supermarkets where capsule toys vending machines are installed in the territory and found that only 0.8% of them had in place a casing recycle bin. They also discovered that some outlets dumped the casings in the recycle bins as garbage without sending them to recycling. As the casings are made of polypropylene and polystyrene, they are not bio-degradable and contain carcinogenic substances. Improper disposal of these casings will cause a serious environmental problem.
|
