Enforcement Activities and Statistics under the Product Eco-responsibility Ordinance 2010
The Environmental Levy Scheme on Plastic Shopping Bags (the Levy Scheme) became operational on 7 July 2009. As the first mandatory producer responsibility scheme introduced under the Product Eco-responsibility Ordinance (PERO), the Levy Scheme introduces a direct economic incentive to encourage the public to switch to reusable shopping bags.
Under the Levy Scheme, registered retailers are no longer allowed to give out free plastic shopping bags; and their customers must pay an environmental levy of 50 cents for each plastic shopping bag they ask for. Having registered under the Levy Scheme, registered retailers are required to submit a return on a quarterly basis setting out the number of plastic shopping bags distributed to customers from their retail outlets, and pay to the Government the total amount of levies collected for the quarter.
Prescribed Retailer
A person who carries on a retail business at: (i) 5 or more qualified retail outlets in Hong Kong; or (ii) at least one qualified retail outlet in Hong Kong that has a retail floor area of not less than 200 square metres.
A "qualified retail outlet" is one that offers all of the following categories of goods for sale: (a) any food or drink; (b) any medicine or first-aid item; and (c) any personal hygiene or beauty product.
The person who carries on a retail business that fulfills either item (i) or (ii) above is a "prescribed retailer", and shall register under the Levy Scheme.
Registration
Under the PERO, a prescribed retailer shall register his qualified retail outlet as registered retail outlet, otherwise no plastic shopping bag (PSB) shall be provided directly or indirectly to a customer from his qualified retail outlet. As at 31 December 2010, a total of 40 retailers registered under the scheme, operating some 3,100 registered retail outlets that are subject to levy. These primarily include chain or large supermarkets, convenience stores, personal health and beauty stores, department stores, drug stores, etc (see Figure 1).