Hong Kong’s marine waste clean-up mired in red tape and outdated attitudes

A small sampan manoeuvres between the fishing boats moored in the Cheung Chau typhoon shelter, while a small shrimp net is dropped over the bows to retrieve a modest catch of floating refuse.

It’s not exactly hi-tech, and nor does it appear to be very effective, because most of the floating plastic bags in its path escape the net.

It is one of a flotilla of more than 70 rubbish scavenging vessels operated by Kai Fat Harbour Cleaning, on contract to the Marine Department. They range from large, specialised sea cleaner boats to the adapted sampans.

These vessels represent the sum total of the Hong Kong government’s effort to remove rubbish from the sea during this summer’s marine rubbish crisis; the environmental disaster that transformed coastal waters into lap sap soup, popular beaches into festering rubbish tips, and left fishermen complaining that they are now catching more rubbish in their nets than fish.

“In view of the large amount of refuse found recently, the Marine Department has enhanced the patrol and instructed the contractor to step up cleaning in coastal waters whenever accumulation of refuse is found,” a spokesman says.