Caring about keeping our waterways clean leads us to look at our own plastic consumption habits. Hong Kong-based environmental charity Plastic Free Seas (PFS) wants to clean the oceans up by changing our relationship with plastics. Getting into the habit of refraining to buy another plastic-bottled drink and remembering to fill a metal bottle can go a long way in reducing plastic waste in oceans.

This advocacy group is heavily engaged with schools and companies in the city, setting up talks, workshops and other educational activities, including beach clean-ups and corporate events, to spread its message and to encourage everyone to be more mindful about waste that can end up in the ocean. PFS has also developed resources for everyone, from lesson plans and educational material for teachers to a corporate programme aimed at engaging employees.

A Plastic Ocean Foundation—which is founded by the team behind the award-winning environmental documentary A Plastic Ocean (2017)—gathers dedicated scientists, educators and social entrepreneurs “to change attitudes towards plastic in one generation”.

The Hong Kong advocacy group embraces nature-based science approaches and applies them to conservation issues; one of which involves the use of specially designed eco-shellfish units to create a “living shoreline” and protect Hong Kong’s coastal environments—a natural and sustainable structure as opposed to a concrete seawall. The group was also involved in Hong Kong’s first bamboo afforestation project to restore the ecosystem at Ha Pak Nai, a coastal area north of Hong Kong.

A Plastic Ocean Foundation also believes in people empowerment and has set up programmes such as the Blue Ocean School Network to connect schools and community programmes who care about cleaning up the oceans together. To help out, you can join their beach clean-up programme One Tonne Less, which aims to clean up at least one tonne of ocean waste every year.

Launched in 2000, Hong Kong Cleanup has since mobilised 1 million volunteers and picked up 11 million kilograms of trash from beaches and coastal areas around the territory. 

The group organises weekly clean-ups in which everyone is welcome to join. There are three difficulty levels: easy, for those who’d prefer not to walk to the site; medium, if you can manage a small walk among rocky terrain; and adventurous, for heavier trash, rockier terrains and longer walks. At the end of the day, once the trash is collected, it is weighed and properly disposed of—some of it recycled if possible.

Hong Kong Cleanup is also active on Instagram, where it posts sustainability tips and pictures of the trash it collects, documenting what could have ended in the oceans. The group also facilitates privately organised clean-ups for interested groups and organises corporate events.

ADM Capital Foundation (ADMCF) is the environmental conservation foundation of a namesake local investment firm running and funding programmes across Asia in areas such as water conservation and marine biodiversity.

As many water initiatives tackle water access, sanitation and health, ADMCF’s water programme is instead focused on industrial pollution of waterways. This means working with the Hong Kong government to educate administrators on water challenges, funding organisations calling out supply chain pollution violations in China, and establishing China Water Risks, an online database of water-related issues and business risks consulted by finance professionals and policymakers.

The foundation’s Living Oceans programme aims to facilitate the sustainability of marine resources. As Hong Kong is a significant importer of seafood, ADMCF engages with local and regional stakeholders in the industry to develop more sustainable ways to run fisheries or conservation programmes that take marine biodiversity into consideration.

NOW READ

Out of step: why sneakers and sportswear still lag on sustainability

5 Hong Kong initiatives that are inspiring us to reduce, reuse and recycle waste for a greener future

Everything you need to know about Antarctica’s shrinking ice in the time of rapid climate change