HK restaurants cut waste, sometimes costs, as plastics ban takes effect

Most Hong Kong restaurants have made the switch to green alternatives since a ban on single-use plastics came into force last month. And while some have complained of extra costs, others have found unexpected savings in ditching disposable tableware.

Under the first phase of the ban, which officially took effect on October 22 after a six-month grace period, all styrofoam tableware, as well as plastic straws, stirrers, forks, knives, spoons and plates are banned.

Plastic cups and food containers may still be sold and used for takeaways but cannot be distributed for dine-in purposes.

While many remained hesitant to carry their own reusable cutlery, Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan said this week that a more eco-friendly culture had begun to take root.

Lam, who was buying lunch at a “two-dish rice” shop in Western district, brought his own reusable plastic lunchbox. He aimed to reduce waste, not to replace one type of waste with another, he said.

“It doesn’t really matter what material it is, I just don’t use disposable [tableware],” he told HKFP in Cantonese.

According to the Environmental Protection Department, 80 per cent of customers at chain restaurants had opted out of takeaway utensils, while about 30 per cent of restaurants no longer provided them. That translated into a reduction of 30 million sets of disposable cutlery, the department said.

Higher costs

The owner of the two-dish rice shop, who asked not to be named, said there were other customers like Lam who had started bringing their own cutlery and lunchboxes. This somewhat reduced the financial strain from purchasing new utensils such as paper spoons.

But since most of the shop’s business came from takeaway orders, it still had to use a substantial amount of disposables.

The shop’s paper spoons, which attracted complaints earlier this year over their flimsiness, cost more than six times their plastic counterparts, she said, amounting to a HK$4,000 increase in costs per month.

The new rules also meant the business had to purchase clear plastic takeout boxes, which cost HK$2 apiece, up from the 60 cents it cost to buy styrofoam boxes.

However, it appeared that the owner had yet to fully familiarise herself with the new rules, as some dine-in customers were still eating out of plastic containers.

The owner said she was unaware of that rule and would soon switch to reusable plates for diners who ate in. Cleaning up would not be much of a hassle as the shop only had one table.

Instead of directly prosecuting restaurants that have not phased out banned products, the authorities will provide information on how to buy eco-friendly alternatives, Tse said last week.

Cutting costs

Restaurants at the Smithfield Market Cooked Food Centre in Kennedy Town had all switched to green alternatives, but the new tableware options were far from perfect.

A stallholder named Ngan said he had given up buying straws, citing high costs and poor quality. Straws were the most expensive item to swap out, and most of the alternatives got soggy quickly and tasted of paper, he said.

“In the beginning, the customers were complaining about the straws. But they’re used to not having them now, and they all just drink straight from the can, so I can save that cost,” he said in Cantonese, gesturing to a fridge stocked with canned soft drinks.

But Ngan is still faced with the costs of spoons which he buys for HK$1.3 apiece, and partitioned paper plates which cost 80 cents.

See also: How big is Hong Kong’s waste problem, and how much does it recycle?

Though most of the tableware had been replaced when HKFP visited last week, the restaurant was still using plastic bowls for soup, which Ngan thought would only be outlawed next year.

Lam, the manager of Sing Kee Restaurant, said the increase in costs was manageable, as most of his business was from dine-in customers who used reusable tableware. Greener alternatives to single-use plastic were now costing the restaurant 30 per cent more, he said.

Lam also added that the sourcing process was not an issue, as suppliers would promote their products at the market.

The restaurant does not currently charge extra for a cutlery set, as some chain restaurants have done to recoup costs, but it may have to do so if costs rose further in the future, or once the next phase of the ban kicks in, Lam said.

But Lam also said he was concerned about hygiene, as the paper utensils were more prone to mould.

In Sham Shui Po’s Dragon Centre, a shop selling rice noodles in soup had stocked up on paper bowls. Its owner Yu said his old supplier had yet to design a bowl that could withstand the temperature of hot soup.

“The paper bowls would melt in minutes,” he said in Cantonese, adding that he was still trying out different options.

As the grace period came to a close last week, one supplier called for another adjustment period to allow vendors to make the transition as the government expands the plastics ban to cover more products.

Speaking on RTHK, Alvis Yip of Supply Ching called for the second phase to be implemented in stages. “If the government changes everything all at once, manufacturers [of paper containers] might run into issues,” he said in Cantonese.

The second phase of the ban was originally scheduled for some time in 2025. But environment minister Tse said last week the government would not rush the next step, having learned from the backlash against the city’s proposed waste tax.

“We want to figure out a method that the industry agrees is practicable. That’s when we’ll do it,” he said in Cantonese.

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