Garbage is accumulating on beaches
Hong Kong’s beaches and coastal areas are awash in garbage. Large deposits of trash, everything from candy and food wrappers to plastic water bottles, are being deposited on Hong Kong’s beaches and coastal areas in its southern region.
Officials are not entirely sure where all of the garbage is coming from, but based on wrappers that have simplified Chinese characters and mainland control codes, it is believed at least some of it is coming from mainland China. Still, officials believe that its own citizens are also contributing to the issue, likely from a lack of education.
The problem with plastic
Marine refuse poses a significant threat to sea life, including whales, dolphins, turtles, fish, and others. Sea life has been known to become entangled in plastic nets or bags, and consume garbage believing it to be food, which can cause turtles or other marine life to starve to death with “full” stomachs.
Plastic poses the greatest threat because it does not biodegrade, it just continues breaking down into smaller pieces, leaching toxic chemicals and becomes a food source for the smallest of sea creatures who mistake the tiny pieces for food. This has a negative impact on other sea life throughout the food chain, including less nutrients and the absorption of toxic chemicals from the ingested plastic.
The only #turtle nesting sight in #HongKong #China #trash flows onto the #beach #ShamWanLanna protected by #AFDC pic.twitter.com/2xvEfqBwlg
— Debbie ?Ahern #TransitionTeam #January20th (@savetheturtles2) July 12, 2016
Prioritizing the clean up of beaches
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) is working to prioritize its efforts by looking at each beach according to its cleanliness, accessibility, transportation, weather, safety, and any technical issues. This allows the clean up to occur in an organized and orderly manner, likely addressing the most utilized beaches first.
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So far, the FEHD collected more than 171,900 pounds of marine refuse across the affected area from July 1-9, and will continue to monitor these locations. The government has also invited the public to contact any of the various agencies involved to report marine refuse deposits that may need to be cleaned. The public has initiated many of the area clean ups, also demonstrating its care and concern regarding sea life, the beaches, and the environment.
Proud of these volunteers cleaning up the horrendous piles of trash that have been shoring up on HK beaches latelyhttps://t.co/KeXDVPFKQ0
— Britt Clennett (@BrittClennett) July 11, 2016
Educating the public about environmental concerns
Although various citizens and officials in Hong Kong have been working hard to clean up the beaches and coastal areas, it is believed that educating citizens about proper waste disposal, teaching recycling, and installing more water fountains at area beaches to reduce water bottle use are keys to long-term litter prevention.
To achieve this goal, in 2010, The Inter-departmental Working Group on Clean Shorelines was established to effectively coordinate efforts among public, private, and community organizations to clean up area beaches.
A report issued by the group in 2015 supported the education need, indicating that at least 80 percent of beach waste was generated by local coastal and recreational activities. The group concluded that continuing education of the public on proper waste disposal and reducing reliance on disposable water bottles would prove beneficial to decreasing the trash accumulation on beaches.
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