Charging for plastic bags: Hong Kong

It has been one year since Hong Kong introduced a levy scheme charging 50 HK cents (6.6 cents Canadian) per plastic bag. That's right, if you forget to bring your reusable bags to the supermarket, you get charged 50 HK cents for every plastic bag you need. Hong Kong’s levy scheme has been successful as evidenced from the statistics below.

Recent news in Hong Kong confirm the success of the 50 cent charge. The only surprising statistic, which can be both negative or positive (depending on how you look at it) was that the government was expecting to pool in about $200 million from the levy over the course of the year, however, it only brought in $20 million. Obviously, this this can be attributed to the large scale reduction in plastic bag use and the massive increase in reusable bag use.

This news provides a great deal of relief to city officials who have been criticized for their lackluster efforts on waste management. As land is scarce in Hong Kong, there is little space for waste sites and landfills. This continues to challenge city officials as to what approach might be most effective and efficient with dealing with waste. Fortunately, plastic bag use has dropped significantly.

Toronto and Washington D.C. both have plastic bag levy schemes. Washington DC, unlike Toronto and Hong Kong, is clearer as to how they spend the revenue raised from the scheme. For example, Washington D.C. raised $150,000 from their 5 cent levy in January 2010. This money went towards cleaning up the Anacostia River. Thus, environmental remediation efforts in D.C. have been aided by the levy and citizens are much clearer about how the revenue is spent.

Hopefully the government of Hong Kong will be a little clearer as to how they will spend the revenue.

Here is a summary of some of some statistics:

-$19.8 million was the total amount of money collected from the levy between July 2009 and March 2010. This revenue goes directly to the government

-Usage of plastic bags is now far less than before the levy was introduced, with a reduction of 90%

-The number of registered outlets now collecting the plastic bags levy has reached 3,000