The ban on disposable plastic takeaway containers in Hong Kong has pushed the city to embrace more environmentally friendly options. All this has led to a rise in business for sustainable packaging firms based out of the city.
There is a firm named Sustainabl. Planet, which happens to offer plastic-free packaging for hotels, restaurants, as well as other businesses, and it has seen a jump both in terms of new customers as well as sales in the first quarter of 2024 and vis-Ã -vis 2023.
According to Sustainabl. Planet’s founder as well as the CEO, Richard Oliver, they have seen a major rise when it comes to inquiries coming from food as well as beverage vendors who happen to be looking out for forms of plastic-free packaging solutions due to the new regulations, which went ahead and commenced on April 22. He added that they have been kind of providing free consultations across the lineup concerning the food and beverage vendors so as to review their state of the current packaging practices in addition to the new needs and, at the same time, also going ahead and offering actual sustainable plastic-free packaging choices so as to make sure that they happen to be in complete sync with the new regulations.
Notably, environmental authorities went ahead and also brought into effect a throwaway plastic ban on April 22 which in a way covered utensils such as straws and cutlery that are mostly given by the takeaway outlets. Apart from this, single use plastic cups or even for that matter boxes shall no longer be used by the dine-in customers under this policy.
Under Secretary for Environment and Ecology, Diane Wong Shuk-han, speaking at Greenway 2024 on April 29, opined that decreasing the plastic waste has been an international consensus since everyone knows about the negative impact which has been brought in by plastic pollution. Interestingly, Greenway 2024 happens to be a conference on climate change.
She adds that the regulations come with the objective of achieving a decrease in plastic at source by way of barring local production, sale, as well as supply when it comes to regulated products.
In terms of adding regulations, they have already gone on to take into consideration affordability as well as availability when it comes to alternative products in the market and, at the same time, the local scenario in order to decrease the impact it goes on to make on the daily lives of people.
According to Hong Kong’s municipal solid waste statistics pertaining to the one that is dumped across the landfill sites in 2022, the average daily quantity of the plastic waste was 2369 tonnes which is almost equal to 155 double decker buses. If we talk in total, this happens to account for 21% of Hong Kong’s overall solid waste.
Sustainabl. Planet, which was established in 2019, goes on to offer products like soup bowls, lunchboxes, cutlery, as well as coffee cups that happen to be made out of bagasse pulp, which gets derived out of sugar cane after its juice has been taken out. The paper happens to be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. The firm has gone ahead and collaborated with Pirata Group, one of the restaurant groups in Hong Kong, and is also in partnership with the airline HK Express, along with several hotels and developers in the city.
Oliver says that they indeed do welcome the new perspective enlisted in the policy and are also confident that the new regulations are very much raising the awareness when it comes to issues pertaining to plastic pollution in Hong Kong and also across the world.
A Hong Kong based operator when it comes to reusable tableware rental platforms known as ReCube has also gone on to take advantage of the disposable plastic takeaway ban.
Most of the restaurants that are making use of its services are expected to double in the Q2 of 2024 and a minimum of 32 restaurants have gone on to agree to collaborate with them by the end of May 2024, says its co-founder and CEO, Kelvin Tsui.
As per Tsui, they have dealt with more inquiries from restaurant as they have to pry out options to the existing set of plastic tableware. What they happen to be trying to offer is a choice in which the dining experience happens to be as good as disposable plastic, and at the same time, it also happens to be very convenient.
It is well to be noted that Recube, which was founded in 2023, goes on to rent-out reusable bowls, boxes and cups that happen to be made out of food-grade polypropylene plastic. It has already collaborated with several restaurants as well as coffee shops and also many other businesses.
As per Tsui, the restaurants happen to be concerned in terms of the expenditure that’s involved when it comes to switching to the non-plastic disposables, and they are also worried on the quality front.
What they happen to be trying to achieve is to go ahead and help them save that element of the cost by way of using their service, and at the same time, their containers also happen to be as good as disposable plastic. The fact is that they are indeed extremely durable, and there is a very low possibility that they would get soggy easily.
It is well to be noted that the reuse model happens to be very sustainable, as they can go on to create a completely zero waste takeaway experience when it comes to their partner restaurants. The fact is that in the Q1 of 2024, 37% of the food outlets went on to report a surge in takeaway business as per the Restaurant Confidence Index released by Deliveroo, which happened to survey more than 400 establishments. Interestingly, Deliveroo went ahead and collaborated with Sustainabl. Planet in 2022 as part of the HK$2 million or US$260,000 subsidy scheme in order to incentivize the restaurants so they can make use of plastic-free packaging.
