Environmental Levy on Plastic Shopping Bags Overview The indiscriminate use of plastic shopping bags is a major and visible environmental problem in Hong Kong. Our landfill survey indicates that some eight billion plastic shopping bags are disposed of at landfills every year. This translates into more than three plastic shopping bags per person per day, which apparently go beyond our needs. Environmental Levy on Plastic Shopping Bag To address the problem of indiscriminate use, we propose to introduce an environmental levy of 50 cents on each plastic shopping bag at the retail level, with the first phase covering chain or large supermarkets, convenience stores and personal healthy and beauty product stores. A two-month public consultation was conducted between May and July 2007 to solicit views from the public and the stakeholders on the proposal. The results of the public consultation indicated overwhelming public support.  [Environmental Levy on Plastic Shopping Bag] [Environmental Levy on Plastic Shopping Bag] Product Eco-responsibility Ordinance (Cap. 603) Riding on the broad-based public support, the Product Eco-responsibility Ordinance (PERO) (Cap. 603) was enacted in July 2008. The Ordinance provides a legal basis for introducing producer responsibility schemes, with the environmental levy on plastic shopping bags as the first scheme under the Ordinance.   We are preparing the Product Eco-responsibility (Plastic Shopping Bags) Regulation (Regulation), which would further set out the implementation details of the environmental levy scheme.  Subject to the passage of the Regulation, it is anticipated that the environmental levy scheme could be implemented in mid 2009. Reference Materials    EAP Paper on "Implementation Details of the Environmental Levy Scheme on Plastic Shopping Bags under the Proposed Product Eco-responsibility (Plastic Shopping Bags) Regulation" (November 2008)   Product Eco-responsibility Ordinance (Cap. 603) (July 2008)   Bills Committee on Product Eco-responsibility Bill (January 2008 - July 2008)    Press Release on "Product Eco-responsibility Bill to be introduced" (December 2007)    Legislative Council Brief on PER Bill (December 2007)    Supplementary information paper on "Recovery and Recycling of Plastic Waste" (September 2007)    Public Consultation Report on the Proposal on An Environmental Levy on Plastic Shopping Bags (September 2007)    GHK (HK) Ltd's Study on "The Benefits and Effects of the Plastic Shopping Bag Charging Scheme" (September 2007)    Overseas Experience on Plastic Shopping Bag Reduction (July 2007)    Online TV Announcement of Public Interest (API) on Environmental Levy on Plastic Shopping Bags (May 2007)    Press Release on "environmental levy on plastic shopping bags proposed" (May 2007)    A Proposal on the Environmental Levy on Plastic Shopping Bags (May 2007)   2007/2008 Budget Speech of the Financial Secretary (February 2007)   Legislation Council Question on Plastic Bag Reduction (November 2006)   Legislation Council Question on Plastic Bag Reduction (July 2006)   Proposed Legislation for the Implementation of Producer Responsibility Schemes (April 2006)   Survey Results of Plastic Shopping Bags (2005)   Policy Framework for the Management of Municipal Solid Waste (2005-2014) (December 2005)   A First Sustainable Development Strategy in Hong Kong (2005)   Sustainable Development - Making Choices for Our Future (2004)

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