It was one of the most popular Canto-pop concerts held at the Hung Hom Coliseum. The organisers had prepared a gift for every fan: under each of the 10,000 seats was a specially ordered reusable bag stuffed with a whistle, brochure, light stick and other souvenirs.
The performance was great and the fans took the mementos home. But they also scattered lots of bags across the venue, making Coliseum staff do the extra work of tossing them into trash bins.
That concert was held after the 2009 introduction of the plastic bag levy. The story is told by a plastic bag manufacturer to illustrate the enduring appeal of plastic bags.
Before the levy's introduction, that manufacturer had worried that the industry would be hurt by the 50-cent per bag charge at 3,000 registered supermarkets, pharmacies, department stores, convenience stores and other outlets.
But over the past 22 months, the manufacturer has found a silver lining in the measure: making reusable plastic bags is even more profitable than manufacturing conventional plastic shopping bags.
'On the one hand we had to scale down our production lines on plastic bags, but on the other we have just witnessed an astonishing growth of the environmental shopping-bag business,' said Eric Lau Chi-leung, vice-president of the Hong Kong Plastic Bag Manufacturer Association. 'We owe our thanks to the levy.'
Demand for reusable bags has grown two- to three-fold since the levy began. And because the more durable bags have a higher profit margin, their sales have more than offset the 90 per cent decline in demand for conventional plastic bags.