Strict anti-Covid-19 measures such as social distancing that temporarily closed small businesses and entertainment venues may have had the unintended effect of moderating the tide of waste putting pressure on Hong Kong’s landfills. But good anti-pandemic intentions can also add to it.

For example, some catering outlets were reluctant to use customers’ own cups and utensils, instead of disposables, for serving takeaway food and drink because of concerns about the risk of passing on the virus. Instead, they supplied throwaway plastic or paper substitutes.

This has contributed, even if in a small way, to about 400 million paper and plastic cups a year sent to landfills, an estimate based on a Greenpeace survey of 1,000 residents.

The survey found 37 per cent of respondents bought takeaway coffee three times a week on average. It also found about 80 per cent bought takeaway food that came with disposable utensils about three times a week on average, which usually meant the use of one cup and two food boxes each time.

More than half did not clean and recycle their disposable utensils. Urging the government to encourage reuse, Greenpeace campaigner Leanne Tam Wing-lam said if it only prohibited plastic utensils, people would switch to paper, which would not solve the problem.