HK's plastic wrap enough to encircle globe twice - green groups

Plastic packaging from four different types of products sold in Hong Kong stores in just one year can encircle the globe twice, says four environmental groups.  

The groups made the estimate based on Nielsen's sales statistics of the four products; rice, instant noodles, Chinese noodles, and sugar.  

Almost 200 million items were sold back in 2020, and their plastic wraps would be 80,000 kilometers long - two times the earth's circumference.   

Their packaging is only the "tip of the iceberg" among all consumer products sold, the green groups; Green Power, Greenpeace, Greeners Action, and the Green Earth said. 

Although the Council for Sustainable Development launched public engagement on the control of single-use plastics back in September, the engagement did not provide statistics for single-use plastic wraps. Nor was the packaging of imported products highlighted in the engagement.   

The green groups urged the government to announce the amount of plastic packaging disposed of every year and which types of products they come from in order to make policies to reduce their amount.   

A producer responsibility scheme should be established, requiring food manufacturers to reduce the use of plastic packaging, they urged.