Finally, Hong Kong extends its plastic bag levy - but what about the rest of our rubbish?

Hong Kong has no shortage of ideas, expertise or finance. Anything should be and, as multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects prove, can be done quite quickly and easily. It is all a matter of will - and therein lies the problem when it comes to our environment. The government, for all its resources and rhetoric, simply doesn't think it's that important.

That may seem a sweeping, unfounded statement, but let's face facts. The pall of smog that blots out views from The Peak and the fine particles that get in our lungs and bloodstream as we walk beside busy roads are easily eliminated. All it takes is a government ban on old diesel vehicles, bunker fuel being used by ships in our waters and coal for electricity generation. Reducing the amount of garbage going into our fast-filling landfills requires the same thinking; there has to be will and determination to drive the recycling and waste charging that will reduce what we throw away.

There is no better evidence than the plastic bag levy. The second and final phase begins on Wednesday, almost six years after the first phase was launched and a decade and a half after the idea was floated by green groups. Phase two merely widens the scheme under which plastic bags cost 50 cents from large retail outlets like supermarkets to all sellers, no matter how small. There's a minor modification in that the levy, instead of being collected on behalf of the government as under the first phase, will now be kept by the sellers.

Within a year of phase one taking effect on July 7, 2009, the number of plastic bags from participating retailers going into landfills had dropped by 75 per cent. It is now customary to grab a reusable bag or take a trolley when going shopping. But there has not been a sharp decline in bag use overall; the numbers being thrown away have barely been dented. Continuing to make bags freely available has that effect. Tens of millions of tourists unaware of rules have an impact.

No one denies that the bags are an environmental hazard; they take hundreds of years to break down in landfills and are especially dangerous to sea life. Flooding is caused when they block drains during heavy rain. They are an eyesore when washed up on beaches and float beside shorelines. It is for such reasons that they have been banned in Bangladesh and Rwanda and hundreds of cities and towns, replaced by decomposable and biodegradable alternatives in Italy and subject to levies in Ireland and Germany and, likely soon, in Israel. California will hold a referendum in November next year that could impose the first state-wide ban in the US.

Hong Kong's lengthy delay in widening the levy has been unwarranted. Nor has much thought apparently gone into what should follow the scheme. Plastic bottles, disposable diapers and styrofoam are equally damaging, yet are not even part of the public discussion. Meanwhile, our landfills keep relentlessly nearing capacity and the plastic junk bobbing in our waters remains as unappealing as ever.