Plastic waste tops list of rubbish found on Hong Kong's beaches

Plastic waste poses one of the biggest threats of pollution on Hong Kong's beaches, this year's International Coastal Clean-up programme has found.

For the first time since the Green Council began organising the event in 2008, plastic items topped the list of marine debris found on the city's beaches, followed by styrofoam fragments.

A total of 9,456 plastic fragments - the highest amount on record - were picked up from the beaches, the council, a not-for-profit group, said yesterday.

Seven out of the top 10 items of marine debris collected by volunteers were plastic products, and more than half of the rubbish collected was made of plastic, the council revealed.

"This implies that the recycling facilities in Hong Kong are not enough," Green Council project officer Karson Yau Chun-yan said.

He added that the government should install more recycling facilities across the city.

It should also do more to educate people on the damage that plastic products can wreak on the environment, he said.