Deposits for plastic bottles needed in Hong Kong

[DocMartin Williams]

Deposits on plastic bottles may seem a jolly nice idea to many of us – could make a huge difference in Hong Kong, where we buy and throw away maybe 10 million bottles per day – close to 4 billion per year!

There’s currently a petition where you can support this [also for tetra paks etc]: http://www.supporthk.org/en/petition/implement-laws-refundable-deposit-all-drink-containers

But consider this – from a website about trying to encourage such measures [as legislation, not wishy washy voluntary effort as Environmental Protection Department for some reason favours, even though in 2005 policy it aimed to implement this as mandatory measure by 2008!]

Why have the beverage and packaging industries expended so much energy to attacking bottle bills, and what have they gained? It is hard to say for sure, but we leave you with a quote from a beverage industry man himself–Dwight Reed, president of the [US] National Soft Drink Association in 1980:

“Society is telling us in unmistakable terms that we share equally with the public, the responsibility for package retrieval and disposal.This industry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the attempt to dispute, deflect, or evade that message. It is interesting to speculate on the state of our public image, and our political fortunes had that same sum been devoted to disposal or retrieval technology.”

http://toolkit.bottlebill.org/opposition/arguments.htm

Of course, bad to even recycle – requires more energy etc, plus tough to get good grade of liquid from the input plastic. Still too throwaway, surely.

Various places are trying to combat single use plastic bottles; best if Hong Kong follows suit. If unlikely given big business holding sway here.

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