Green consciousness slowly taking root in HK
By Victoria McGlothren
HQNGKONG — In money-mad Hongkong the word "green" conjures up dollars in the minds of most.
The perception of "green" as environmental awareness has been slow to spread among local businesses and communities, but activists say the change is starting to come.
"When people have enough of the staples, they seem to start looking at the environment around them," said Ms Nicola Saunter, senior editor at research consultancy Business International.
"Also, Hongkong is just so filthy that everyone is starting to notice."
In a letter published recently in the South China Morning Post, a visitor from Canada complained of the colony’s lack of concern for its surroundings. "I have been astonished at the low level of environmental care in your otherwise fine city," wrote Ms Anne Crawley. "If one goes to the temple of 10,000 Buddhas, one’s nose is assaulted by 10,000 horrid smells."
Like many places on earth, garbage and noise are often considered somebody else’s problem.
Hongkong has six million people crammed Into narrow strips of land squeezed between the sea and rugged m4~ntains. Parts are routinely cited in cited in record books as having the highest population density on earth. It gets dirty fast.
Environmental progress has been slow. Promoters learn to applaud baby steps. "The language of environmentalism in the West is seeping into Hongkong," Ms Saunter said. "People now know what recycling is. They know what biodegradeable means."
Contests to design posters or T-shirts for anti-pollution campaigns now actually~ attracted entrants, she said. "A few years ago, all they drew was a blank stare."
While grassroots environmentalists are busy raising awareness in the community~ the colony’s founding trading companies, or hongs, have taken on the weighty task of ridding staunchly capitalist Hongkong of industrial pollution.
The Private Sector Committee on the Environment is chaired by the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the colony’s de facto central bank, and includes big names such as Jardine Matheson Holdings, Swire Pacific and Hutchison Whampoa.
The group was trying to help smaller manufacturers to gear up for tough antipollution laws coming later this year and next, said committee coordinator Humphrey Keenlyside.
In case manufacturers do not know where to buy special effluent-eating equipment, the committee sells it.
"The way we’re trying to appeal to factory managers is by saying that environmental controls are not only good for the community, they’re good for you," Mr Keenlyside said.
A nickel-recovery machine, for example, could clean nickel from water as well as recovering the nickel, allowing manufacturers to sell or reuse it. "The economics are such that you can pay for this piece of equipment within two years. It’s not really that long to wait," he said.
"We don’t want to put these factories out of business. We just want to see them operate in a more environmentally sound way. Sooner or later, they will have to."
With a series of new laws stretching into next year, the government is tightening local environmental legislation to bring it• in line with international standards.
Enforcement, in Its infancy, is so far weak. Last year, the colony’s Environmental Protection Department received nearly 2,000 air-pollution complaints. Prosecutions totalled 295.
The threat of tougher laws has raised hackles in Hongkong where few are expected to welcome an erosion of the colony’s tradition of laissez-faire government. Police recently battled 400 farmers intent on driving their ducks and chickens to a government building in the bustling central business district.
The action was a protest against a law, due next year, to prevent animal waste from polluting the colony’s streams.
Local manufacturers are expected to balk at the new higher cost of doing business.
"Sure, these changes are going to affect the cost of doing business," said the managing director of a medium-sized electronics factory, who declined to be named.
New equipment to clean effluent from waste could cost from several thousand Hongkong dollars to millions.
One economist said common sense would likely prevail and environmental awareness would one day thrive in Hongkong.
"Hongkong doesn’t stand still," said Mr Miron Mushkat, regional economic research director at Baring Securities.
"It has come a long way from a labour centre to a service centre. But to survive as a service centre, it has to be more aware of its physical surroundings. Otherwise we won’t be able to project a very sophisticated image." — Reuter.
Source : The Straits Times, 14th August 1991
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