2017 Enforcement Activities and Statistics under the Product Eco-responsibility Ordinance

 
 

The first phase of the Environmental Levy Scheme on Plastic Shopping Bags, which was launched in 2009, applied to some 3 500 chain or large outlets. In order to further address the problem of excessive use of plastic shopping bags (PSB), the PSB Charging has been fully implemented from 1 April 2015 to cover all retailers in Hong Kong.

Photo - BYOB

Under the amended Product Eco-responsibility Ordinance (Cap. 603), all retailers in Hong Kong, irrespective of the scale of operation and business nature, have to charge customers not less than 50 cents for each PSB provided in retail sales of goods, save for situations where there is exemption. For details, please click here. Retailers contravening the requirements may be liable to a fixed penalty of $2,000 or even prosecutions.

Photo - BYOB

 
In 2017, 154 fixed penalty notices were issued to retailers who contravened the PSB charging requirement and there were 15 prosecution cases. Most of the contraventions were related to providing free PSBs to contain non-foodstuff while others were related to providing free PSBs to contain foodstuff in airtight packaging, and offering rebate to offset the PSB Charge.
 
 
 
 
   

 

 

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