Hong Kong’s Plastic Bag Levy Increases to $1: Is it sufficient?

Today, the Legislative Council passed motion on raising plastic bag levy from $0.5 to $1, and tightened the scope of exemptions including cancelling the exemption of plastic bag levy on frozen food, which will be implemented from December 31st this year. The Hong Kong Government estimated that increasing levy on plastic bags to $1 would reduce the amount of plastic bags consumption by one quarter, while increasing to $2 would reduce it to 40%. 

The Environmental Bureau’s Council previously conducted a public engagement exercise, results noting that about 60% of respondents agreed imposing stricter control on single-use plastic items to alleviate excessive use, and more than a third of respondents were willing to pay more for single-use plastics.

This new policy change has been controversial; on one hand, some organizations stated it was a good time to take action against previous policy’s ineffectiveness, but other organizations stated there is still a long way to go to achieve the ultimate goal of reducing waste at source, and some LegCo Members suggested to further increase the levy to $2. June Wong, Manager (Marine Pollution) at World Wildlife Fund mentioned previously that the previous policy of 50 cents price tag per plastic bag had limited effect on the general public as it has “already been absorbed by [them] and no longer provides sufficient discouragement.” WWF also did a survey last August, which found that almost 70% of respondents purchased plastic bags for hygiene reasons, while some others have noted they took the plastic bags for convenience purposes and for personal use. 

So the key question is - how will this new policy impact people’s actions on taking plastic bag? Feel free to share your thoughts with us, comment below!