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• I'm angry! HK most wasteful place on the planet!
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  Monday, Nov 1, 2010 2:32PM / Standard Entry / Members only
  90 comments

  
  Tuesday's South China Morning Post headlined an article that really got me angry. The people of Hong Kong are the largest waste producers in the world! In the article it says that the average Hong Konger produces 921kg of waste annually which is more than twice as much as Japan(410kg) and Korea(380kg). That is sick and disgusting. We should be ashamed. I used to think Japan produced a lot of waste with their overzealous wrapping and packaging of products. The key difference is that they separate their garbage and everything that is recyclable gets recycled which hugely reduces the amount of waste going into landfills and dumps. So how do we get ourselves out of this mess? Well we can start by doing 2 simple things.
  
  FIRST: take and use only what you need! When you are at the store buying clothes, you do not need them to wrap it in tissue paper and put it in a big plastic or paper bag. The tissue paper is just going to go straight in your garbage can when you get home, so why bother? It wastes not only paper but time and energy as well. When you are at the fast food restaurant, don't take handfuls of ketchup packets, napkins and utensils that you will not use. What happens is you end up leaving it on your tray and then the restaurant has to throw it out! Those people handing out flyers, don't take one unless you really want it. Don't take it because you feel sorry for the person handing them out only to throw it on the floor or in the garbage 20 feet away. These are just a couple things to keep in mind but there are millions of other ways to be less wasteful too. Come up with some of your own.
  
  SECOND: RECYLE. Most of the civilized world has been recycling for over 20 years and although we do have systems in place, not enough people here do it. The fact is that we MUST recycle as much as we can. Most citizens are under the assumption that the government trash collectors separate our garbage for us but there is only so much those little old ladies at the trash collection centers can do. Most likely they only go for the stuff that is worth money to them leaving most of the perfectly good recyclables going back into the trash. People complain about how it is a pain to do and to have to think about. Well I think it's better than having to think about living next to a garbage landfill. As from the recent debate about the Clearwater Bay landfill, it's obvious we don't have anyplace to put our garbage now. So if we don't have space now what about ten years form now? We must all get in the habit of separating your garbage from the recyclables. This will greatly reduce our trash output. I have recycling bins in my house and in my office. When they get full we carry them to the gov't recycle bin and deposit them in there. It's simple and easy so just do it.
  
  Like I said there are many ways we can help this problem but the key thing is that it has to start with our own mentality shift. We have to think about how to make things better if we want to make things better and the seemingly little things that you as an individual can do will help a lot. I started a blog on environmental tips sometime last year but never followed up. I am now inspired to do make more and I would also like you to send your tips to me as well so we can all share ideas on how to save our environment.
  
  So start sending me your ideas now!!!!
  

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