Introduction

To face the challenges of the waste issue fundamentally, Government, Business and Community all need to work together to embrace an environmentally sustainable culture in daily life, and to use less and waste less of the Earth's resources.

Introduced under the Product Eco-responsibility Ordinance (Cap. 603) ("PERO"), the Environmental Levy Scheme on Plastic Shopping Bags (the first phase) was launched on 7 July 2009 as the first mandatory PRS. It seeks to address the problem of excessive plastic shopping bag (PSB) use in some 3,500 chain or large outlets, mostly supermarkets, convenience stores, personal health and beauty stores, and drug stores. With the support of the wider community and participation of the retail trade, the first phase of the levy scheme has been implemented successfully. The Product Eco-responsibility (Amendment) Bill 2013 for the full implementation of the PSB Charging (the PSB Charging) was approved by the Legislative Council in March 2014 and the PSB Charging has come into effect since 1 April 2015.

The three pieces of subsidiary legislation for enhancing the Plastic Shopping Bag (PSB) Charging Scheme were passed by the Legislative Council on 19 October 2022. The enhancements include increasing the charging level per plastic shopping bag from the current level of at least 50 cents to at least $1, removing the present exemption for plastic shopping bags carrying frozen or chilled foodstuff items; and tightening the scope of exemption. Tightening the scope of exemption is such that free plastic shopping bags can only be provided when purchasing foodstuff items without packaging or not wholly contained in any packaging, or food and beverage takeaway items in non-airtight packaging, subject to the basic principle of one free plastic shopping bag per single transaction. The enhanced scheme will be implemented on December 31.