Green Shopping

Plastic Bags and Packaging

Each year at, least 100,000 birds, whales, seals and turtles die as a result of choking on plastic! (Photo: courtesy of Ron Prendergast, Melbourne Zoo)

Plastic Bags
Every year, 500 billion to 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000!) plastic bags are used worldwide, which is 150 bags a year for every person on earth or one million plastic bags every minute! In China, one can frequently see polythene bags tossed around by the wind in the streets (called "white pollution"). When disposed of, they will either accumulate on landfills or they might end up in nature where they are eaten by animals, confusing them with food. Each year at, least 100,000 birds, whales, seals and turtles die as a result of choking on plastic!

It's great to give gifts but think about the resources used to make the products and the packaging. Choose the 'Greenest' gift you can find.

Mid-Autumn Festival and Moon Cakes
Some products use excessive amounts of packaging, e.g. consisting of several layers, cardboard boxes plus extra plastic bags, etc. in which the product is wrapped. Avoid these kinds of packaging as they have twofold negative environmental impacts: they unnecessarily use up precious raw materials in their production, and they add to large landfill sites after being disposed of.

Especially during Mid-Autumn Festival, do not buy moon cakes with excessive packaging! Moon cake packaging has been getting more and more lavish and wasteful, including many layers of wrapping, boxes made of wood or even iron. In Hong Kong, moon cake packaging waste accumulated to 2,000 tons in 2005.

Buy big water bottles instead of small ones - they use less resources to make.

Water Bottles
Every year, 89 billion litres of bottled water are consumed worldwide. Between 1990 and 2001, the bottled water market in Asia and the Pacific grew by 15%. Part of the plastic bottles is recycled to produce fleece products, but plastic bottles still constitute a waste of precious materials and energy in the conversion process.

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