2017-07-02

Thank you for joining “Monthly Green” on 1st July: Recycling Experience

1st July 2017, a day which marked another refreshing start of this year: Ms. Carrie Lam was sworn in as HKSAR 4th Chief Executive. After 20 years since the handover to China, the demand for democracy and freedom of speech never stops growing. In addition, Green Sense also aimed to make our voice out to our new chief executive about the uncontrolled housing development that may eventually devour our precious country parks in the march.

This was the 9th consecutive years that we have taken part in this annual march. Wishing to link our community with the environment, a recycling campaign was introduced to collect used plastic bottles and leaflets from the crowd. Indeed, we are all familiar with three-coloured recycling bins stood on the streets, but we may not be aware of how the materials should be recycled.

Taking plastic bottles as an example, the bottle-tops (PP 5), the plastic labels (varies) and the bottles (PET 1) are needed to be separated. The recommended plastic bottle recycling processes are as follows:

(1)   Remove the bottle cap

(2)   Empty and clean the bottle

(3)   Tear off the label on the bottle

(4)   Put them all in the recycling bin

Recycling makes earlier only if we do more in waste separation. The rain did not dampen the enthusiasm of our volunteers for recycling. Within such a short period, we collected hundreds of plastic bottles, thanks to the active response from the crowd.

We cannot solely rely on recycling while uncontrolled dumping still prevails. Source reduction should be the key to relieve the waste issue, as our landfills will hit to saturation point within years. We also co-operated with “Water For Free” providing water refilling service. For the sake of our already-trash-filled world, it is hoped that the public could reduce the use of PET plastic and bring their own reusable bottles.

More photos of the event: https://flic.kr/s/aHsm3CGGqd

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