Campaigners hand government medical waste washed ashore in Hong Kong, in call for action
Government departments were alerted to the problem as far back as 2008
Dangers lurking among the recent deluge of waste washing ashore on Hong Kong were highlighted on Tuesday, as beach clean-up campaigners displayed used and unused medical waste collected from a Discovery Bay beach. They urged the government to find the source of the medical waste and put a stop to it.
Local resident Moran Zukerman collected several boxes of human and veterinary medical waste from Sam Pak Wan in Lantau over two months. His haul contained glass and plastic bottles, tablet blister packaging, vials, ointments,IV bags, and syringes – some with the needle still on.
The discovery of medical waste adds danger to beach clean-ups, to which some families take their children. “Which is a pity, because we need a lot of beach cleaning,” said southern district councillor, Paul Zimmerman.
“And this is only one beach ... and only part of what one person found. Imagine if you go to all the beaches in Hong Kong and how much you can find. It’s a systemic problem.”
Zimmerman said it was “very easy to identify where it came from” as the waste had labels with the factory name and address. Many of the items had Guangdong addresses, and simplified Chinese characters.