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The Green Earth 5th Anniversary Join Force With Us
This year marks the fifth anniversary of The Green Earth (TGE). We have grown from a small team at the very beginning to a 12-person team today, advocating waste reduction at the source, plastic-free, leave no trace, and cherish resources, etc. and spreading the seeds of caring for the earth everywhere.
Facing with the global environmental crisis, TGE will continue to actively promote the practices of zero-waste, resource conservation and carbon reduction to the government, the business sector and members of the public for a more sustainable Mother Earth. |
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Response to “Public consultation on Scheme on Regulation of Disposable Plastic Tableware”
In 2019, Hong Kong disposed of a staggering14.6 billion pieces of single-use plastic tableware to landfills. TGE welcomes the government’s move of launching the public consultation on regulating single-use plastic tableware but considers the pace of the regulation being too slow. TGE and Prof. Ng Sai-leung of CUHK conducted a online survey early this year where findings showed broad support for banning single-use plastic tableware.
TGE reiterates the importance of regulating the degradable plastic alternatives in light of their increasing use by the catering sector. Degradable alternatives might not degrade as claimed; they might just disintegrate into smaller plastic particles (eventually becoming microplastics), creating even more serious pollution than conventional plastics.
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Waste Charging Bill passed after years of delay
Although the long overdue Waste Charging Bill (the Bill) was passed in the LegCo in August 2021 after 16 years of discussions, TGE is concerned over the additional conditions put forth in a closed-door meeting between the Environment Bureau and the lawmakers, which would weaken the effectiveness of the waste reduction initiative:
1. No definite time frame for the effective date of the Bill until further consideration by the next term of the LegCo.
2. The LegCo’s largest political party DAB suggested giving a year of free bags to all citizens after the law is in place.
3. The government will only provide free food waste collection for the catering industry but not for households and other types of business.
TGE calls for the early implementation of the Bill, further enhancement of the recycling infrastructure, collection services and public education. |
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Tai Sheung Tok (大上托) cement trail construction
A large-scale concrete trail construction at Tai Sheung Tok was reported by the public in late May. The construction destroyed large area of vegetation along the trail.
TGE has kept monitoring the situation, and in July we filed our concern to the Civil Engineering and Development Department which coordinates the project. We urged the department to adopt sustainable trail management concepts in their work.
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Colouring Competition, Clean the Ocean with Colour Pens
Unlike most of the colouring competitions which usually invite participants to simply adding colours, TGE’s “Rethink Plastic” Colouring Competition invited participants to “remove” plastic wastes from the underwater world by applying their creativity.
176 kids and adults have joined the competition. We were impressed by many excellent drawings, which turned plastic wastes into beautiful ocean creatures.
View the drawings |
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Jockey Club Community Sustainability Fund – "Rethink Plastic” Ocean Clean-up Action
Supported by the Jockey Club Community Sustainability Fund “Rethink Plastic” Ocean Clean-up Action Project, we have conducted over 50 clean-ups in the last nine months, reaching remote coastal areas where marine trash was found piling up. More than 800 volunteers rolled up their sleeves and removed debris from at least 50 coastal locations.
We have trained 28 youth ambassadors and encouraged more than 100 people to go out for a “Clean-up Vacation” (an outing with coastal clean-up action) through this project. In addition, we keep spreading the message that “reduce waste at source” is the most effective solution to address the plastic waste problem.
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Waste Reduction Support in Events
Conventional events are gradually coming back! TGE’s Jockey Club “Events Go Green” Programme supported “City Challenge Race 2021”, hosted by Youth Outreach in July, where waste reduction suggestions were given during the preparation stage and recycling education station were set up in suitable spots at the event day.
The organizer implemented a series of green measures to make the event even more environmentally friendly. These include reusing the event banners from previous years, encouraging participants to bring their bottles to refill water, and using reusable timing chips, etc.
As always, we are ready to support more event organizers to become more environmentally friendly!
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The Sustainable Olympic Games
Congratulations again to the athletes and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee for a successful Olympic Games hosted despite the pandemic. Tokyo 2020 aimed to be the greenest Games ever hosted by taking numerous sustainability measures. Besides showing our support to the Hong Kong Team, we followed closely the sustainability concepts being applied in this mega event with side stories regarding the climate crisis that might have slipped through your radar:
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Building a virtual forest with steps -- Journey to enrich our woodland
Enhancing a woodland would take a long time. Bupa Hong Kong and their clients have joined hands with us to build a virtual enriched forest by accumulating footsteps and to show the changes in biodiversity of local woodlands. 58 million steps were accumulated in a month to turn a bare woodland into an enriched and vibrant one. Do you want to visit the woodland and see the Sweet Gum and barking deer?
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Our new Green Earth Companion
We are pleased to welcome the following new companies that joined the Green Earth Companion Programme in the last six months. They are Alta Solutions Asia Ltd, Brita Hong Kong Ltd, Bupa Hong Kong, Classic Beautè Limited, Ikea, SSGE Bio-Energy Co. LTD and TAL Apparel Ltd. Welcome and we can’t wait to work with them in our journey to sustainability.
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With your kind support given to The Green Earth, we could make a small difference. Your encouragement and support will certainly help us to keep moving forward on the challenging green journey.
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© Copyright 2021 The Green Earth Limited. |
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