The anti-disposable plastic campaign “Macau Plastic Waste and Pollution” says that it has collected over 4,700 signatures online and offline, with the activists’ petition delivered to the government yesterday.
The petition was handed to an official outside Government Headquarters yesterday morning by five local activists from an ad-hoc group which started to organise the campaign two weeks ago.
Legislators Agnes Lam Iok Fong and Sulu Sou Ka Hou are among the 4,700 who have signed the petition which is addressed to Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosario and Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA) Director Raymond Tam Vai Man, according to Annie Lao Ka Wing, one of the five activists.
The trilingual (Chinese, English and Portuguese) online petition on the website www.change.org points out that “according to the State of the Environment of Macau 2017 report published by the DSPA, on average each person produced 2.16 kilos of solid waste per day in the city last year, with an increase of 2.9 percent [year on year]… , which is also the highest compared to other nearby regions such as 1.49 kilos in Singapore (population of 5.61 million in 2017), 1.41 kilos in Hong Kong (population of 7.36 million in 2017)… plastic and food waste represented the two largest components of solid waste in Macau, with 23 percent of the total waste produced in 2017 being plastic and 27.4 percent being food waste.”
“We want the government to give us a response on when [it will] ban single-use plastic in the city and when [it will draft] a law to impose taxes and fees on plastic waste created by businesses in Macau? We want the government to respond about the petition to the public within two weeks, before September 13, in a press conference,” the petition, which was released to the media by the group yesterday, demands.
Lao, a writer by profession, told reporters outside Government Headquarters that over 4,700 people signed the petition, adding that the signature campaign will continue.
The number of signatures account for 0.7 percent of Macau’s population.
Apart from urging the government to come up with a new law which would once-and-for-all eliminate all kinds of disposable plastics, the 28-year-old environmental protection activist also said that the government should plan specialised waste processing – and not just send all the rubbish to the city’s incinerator , as well as regulate local businesses to only use biodegradable products.
Lao noted that there are owners of cafes, restaurants and retail shops among those who signed the petition.
A government-drafted law on banning single-use plastic would have to be submitted to the Legislative Assembly (AL) for debate and vote.
Annie Lao Ka Wing (second from right) hands the anti-disposable plastic petition to a government official, accompanied by the other four activists of the campaign’s ad-hoc group, outside Government Headquarters yesterday. Courtesy TDM
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