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Environmental
Awareness and Education
"
Our Contribution to the Environment
We
aim to promote community awareness through environmental campaigns,
publicity, education and action programmes, and public access
to environmental information, with a view to harnessing the
community's support for, and contribution to, achieving the
desired environmental goals
We
will actively encourage businesses and other organisations
in Hong Kong to adopt environmental management systems and
pollution prevention measures
"
Community
Support
Gaining
community support has been, and remains, one of the greatest
challenges of the environmental protection work in the HKSAR.
Over the years, we have worked in partnership with green groups
and other community organisations to raise the community's
environmental awareness through a range of activities and
programmes. They include talks and lectures; organising and
running environmental education and awareness projects for
schools, youths, corporations, government departments, other
organisations and members of the public; serving as advisers
and adjudicators of community environmental programmes; making
suggestions to community groups and environmental committees
on corporate environmental strategy and on how to organise
environmental awareness programmes. We intend to concentrate
more efforts in out-reach education programmes at district
levels in order to disseminate further the environmental awareness
message.
Chart
of o. of Environmental Awareness & Education Programmes organised
Chart of No. of talks given
to various organisations by EPD
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The
1999 highlights include:
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Staging the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Festival
& World Environment Day, both of which focused on
the theme of sustainable development
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The Waste Recycling Campaign in Housing Estates first
started in March 1998. In 1999, Phase III extended
the campaign to separate paper, aluminium cans and
plastic bottles to 300 private and public housing
estates
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The School Waste Paper Separation and Recycling Pilot
Scheme was launched in 1999 with 100 schools participating
in the pilot scheme
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The first Hong Kong Eco-Business Awards for green
offices and shops were organised in 1999 to encourage
green practices in the businesses
-
The Schools Environmental Award Scheme and Student
Environmental Protection Ambassador Scheme, aiming
at cultivating a sense of responsibility towards the
environment among students, attracted 417 schools.
These schools nominated a total of 6,139 students
as Student Environmental Protection Ambassadors
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Several environmental ambassador schemes were organised
for community groups such as Junior Police Call, Girl
Guides, Scout, Lions, Leos, Zontians, Z-Girls, as
well as in the private housing sector
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830 updated secondary school packs entitled Environmental
Explorer, highlighting new technology and recent information
on Hong Kong's environment, were distributed to all
secondary schools, public libraries, community youth
groups, universities and tertiary institutes to promote
environmental education
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1,100 environmental education kits were distributed
to all primary schools to provide teachers with up-to-date
environmental information
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Apart from the two existing environmental resource
centres in Wanchai and Tsuen Wan, funding was secured
for an LPG-fuelled mobile resource centre to reach
out further to the public, and construction was arranged
for a third fixed centre in Fanling
Image
of Waste recycling campaign in housing estates (Phase
III)
Image of School children are encouraged to participate
in Waste Paper Recycling Campaign
Image of Environmental Protection Ambassadors
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Public
Access to Information
We place
much emphasis on making environmental information widely available
to the general public. Examples of environmental information
available to the public:
- Weekly
reports on the water quality at the gazetted bathing beaches
during the swimming season are issued through Internet,
newspapers, TV and radio
- Starting
from July 1999, information on the Air Pollution Index (API)
has been reported hourly to the public via the Internet
and a telephone hotline, as well as to newspapers, radio
and TV. API forecasts are available daily and carried daily
by the media.
- Statistics
on environmental prosecutions brought by the EPD are released
to the news media on a monthly basis. Environmental Impact
Assessments that are either in progress or about to start
are released quarterly.
- Environmental
information obtained during routine monitoring of inland
water courses and the surrounding sea is published in separate
annual reports, as are air and beach water monitoring data
We produced
36 publications in 1999 ranging from publicity and training
materials to guidelines explaining our new services and initiatives.
Since
1996, our website http://www.info.gov.hk/epd , has provided
easy and instant access for the public to a wealth of information.
We plan to revamp our homepage in 2000 to make it even more
user-friendly and add new features such as electronic submission
of licence applications.
Recognising
the important role the media plays in disseminating environmental
messages, we organised media visits to our waste facilities
and air quality monitoring laboratories in 1999 so that journalists
could see the EPD's work first-hand. We also arranged demonstrations
showing how air pollution control measures have been applied
to government vehicles. In addition, we handled 6,155 press
enquiries, issued 168 press releases, organised 14 press conferences
and briefings, and arranged 218 press interviews.
Image
of The Air Pollution Index is updated hourly on the Internet
Image of Environmental information is readily available at
our website www.info.gov.hk/epd/
Iamge of Educational packs are distributed to promote environmental
awareness
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