Country: Hong Kong
School/ organization: SKH Tang Shiu Kin Secondary School
Delegation leader/ teacher: Ms CHAU Yuk Lin
Students:
LUO Tsun Ming Karlton, CHOI Lok Hin, LI Chun Man, YIM King Sum, LEE Long Kwan
Partner organization: Environmental Association in Hong Kong
Since a mass of litter was washed ashore on the beach or on the ground in the urban area by the super-typhoon in September 2018, many local people have become aware of the issue of marine litter and helped to clean up the shoreline actively. However, the removal of marine litter does not really help to conserve the coastal and marine environment. Our coastlines are still awash with marine litter. To minimize this problem, there should be a reduction of waste generation at source. In this project, a research has been conducted to know the extent to which the citizens understand the issue and their perception of the need to reduce marine litter.
The data was collected from 107 respondents through an online questionnaire or a face-to-face interview between 9th March and 31st March 2019. The results showed that they just had an average understanding about marine litter. Also, around 80% of the respondents reflected that most people did not care about marine litter because of three reasons. First, some perceived that the problem did not cause lasting damage. Also, it was not an imminent environmental threat. Third, it was only a problem to the coastal communities. Since they do not feel an urgent need to reduce marine litter at source, we set up an educational booth to spread the message of the importance of protecting the environment and teach the public how to upcycle the plastic waste in the Marine Conservation Carnival organized by the Environmental Association on 31st March 2019.