Hong Kong Connection：Marine Refuse

In 2012, the government established an Inter-departmental Working Group on Clean Shorelines. The group is responsible for removing marine refuse from shorelines and maintaining their cleanliness. In 2016, Hong Kong and Guangdong established the Hong Kong-Guangdong Marine Environmental Management Special Panel. The panel established a notification and alert system for marine refuse, which performs real-time monitoring of rainfall data in Hong Kong and 13 cities in Guangdong Province in the Pearl River Delta catchment, to predict coastal areas on both sides that are potentially affected by massive amounts of marine refuse, enabling advance resource deployment to address the problem.

According to Environmental Protection Department statistics on clean shorelines, marine refuse in 2017 exceeded 15,000 tonnes and continues to rise. The Green Earth, a local environment group, has pointed out that plastic beverage bottles are the most common global marine waste over the years.

Reducing waste at the source is the permanent cure. What are the difficulties in improving the situation, and what are the consequences if the situation continues to deteriorate?