of a plastic carrier bag charge was not an efficient way to reduce plastic use, local eco-activist Annie Lao Ka Weng told The Macau Post Daily during her talk on plastic pollution at Ponte 9 in the Inner Harbour area last week, urging the government to impose restrictions on disposable plastic.
The Legislative Assembly (AL) this month passed a government-initiated bill on the implementation of a plastic carrier bag charge scheme for retail businesses in Macau.
Macau’s anti-plastic bag law will take effect on November 18, and one pataca will be charged per bag. Shops providing customers with free plastic carrier bags will be fined 1,000 patacas for each bag they provide.
Lao, a local citizen who has been studying and working in Australia and returned to Macau in 2015, said she felt frustrated about the city’s low environmental awareness and its insufficient environmental protection facilities, so she started collecting signatures for her online petition in August last year urging the government to restrict single-use plastics by proposing legislation on the matter.
A pedestrian walks past a plastic recycling bin in Estrada de Coelho do Amaral overflowing with different kinds of unrecyclable rubbish yesterday.
Local eco-activist Annie Lao Ka Weng addresses last week’s talk on the issue of plastic pollution, at Ponte 9 in the Inner Harbour area. Photos: Rachel Lei
