Hong Kong – Government enhances Plastic Shopping Bag Charging Scheme

     The Government announced that the three pieces of subsidiary legislation for enhancing the Plastic Shopping Bag (PSB) Charging Scheme were passed by the Legislative Council today (October 19).   

 

     The three pieces of subsidiary legislation amend the Product Eco-responsibility Ordinance (Cap. 603) and the Product Eco-responsibility (Plastic Shopping Bags) Regulation (Cap. 603A). The enhancements include:

 

1. increasing the charging level per PSB from the current level of at least 50 cents to at least $1;
2. removing the present exemption for PSBs carrying frozen/chilled foodstuff items; and
3. tightening the scope of exemption such that free PSBs can only be provided when purchasing foodstuff items without packaging or not wholly contained in any packaging, or food and beverage takeaway items in non-airtight packaging, subject to the basic principle of “one free PSB per single transaction”. (In case there are multiple exempted foodstuff items in one single transaction, if placing all of them into one free PSB will compromise their quality, or if the size or capacity of the first free PSB is not enough to hold all of them, then one or more additional free PSB(s) could be provided.) 

 

     The Government will promote the enhancements to the PSB Charging Scheme to the trade and the public, and prepare a best practice guideline for the trade to understand the requirements under the enhanced Scheme. The enhanced Scheme will be implemented on December 31.