Hong Kong must cut plastic waste, but hands off umbrella covers for the sake of safety

Such covers for wet brollies are usually found in shopping malls or government facilities, like the library and the museum, and what’s common among these places? There is a large flow of people every day. Without any covers, dripping umbrellas would raise the risk of injury on slippery wet floors.

Hong Kong government ‘taking lead’ in plastic waste

Alternatives such as umbrella dryers are welcome, but they only work for stick umbrellas. Most people carry the foldable type, and therefore the dryers are not an option. Furthermore, these dryers are usually installed at an entrance and queuing to use them will cause delays. It takes only seconds to put your umbrella in a plastic cover and leave.

We should try to reduce plastic waste in every way possible, but seek a balance between practicality and environmentally friendly measures. We should promote the concept of reuse and reduce, as in, use the same plastic cover multiple times, and only get a new one when it’s damaged.

Raymond Chan, Ngau Tau Kok

Charge a lot more for plastic bags to break the habit