Trail etiquette, a new breed of Hong Kong hikers and useful trekking apps
It’s still early days for our city’s country park visitors to grasp the green concept of bringing home one’s litter
The government is facing an uphill battle to encourage hikers to be more environmentally aware and reduce the amount of litter left in country parks, figures show.
In September 2015, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department launched its Take Your Litter Home public education programme in a bid to reduce the number of rubbish bins on trails. About 256 litter bins – almost half of the total number – were removed by the end of 2016.
Despite the initiative, the amount of litter collected from the city’s country parks has not drastically fallen; instead it has remained generally consistent since 2013/14, when 3,700 metric tonnes of rubbish were collected.
Meanwhile pictures of litter-strewn picnic sites regularly show up on social media.
A spokesman for the department said the cleanliness and hygiene of country park trails “had not been compromised” by the waste bin reduction.