Reducing the production of single-use packaging is not a direction welcomed by producers, as it might adversely affect sales volumes and profits. So they embrace recycling instead. However, plastic cannot be recycled endlessly.

Beverage producers worldwide are well known for their lobbying activities, dating back half a century, against policies that pose a threat to their business.

When California considered enacting a container deposit law in 1974, Keep America Beautiful, an organisation backed by the beverage industry, opposed it. In 2020, the Changing Markets Foundation published a report disclosing lobbying efforts in Austria against the introduction of a bottle deposit return system that has proven effectiveness in reducing plastic pollution.

In Hong Kong, The Green Earth and other green groups have been urging the government to make producer responsibility mandatory via a deposit return system, coupled with meaningful targets, to put the responsibility back on drink producers and retailers.

Countries worldwide have adopted different mandatory measures to penalise producers should they fail to meet targets. For instance, Norway has introduced an environmental tax to encourage beverage packaging recovery and penalise producers.

Does the long delay in announcing details of the producer responsibility legislation in Hong Kong indicate that the administration might have been successfully lobbied by beverage interests?

To make drink producers responsible for the pollution arising from their single-use packaging, the legislation must have targets and teeth, and require producers to publish relevant reports verified by a third party annually.

Edwin Lau Che-feng, executive director, The Green Earth