For such a modernised city, it may surprise some to realise that around 70 percent of Hong Kong is actually comprised of country parks and greenery. This also means that we have an abundance of wildlife, with mammals such as boars, porcupines, civets, monkeys, buffaloes, deer, and even leopard cats roaming our territories. However, humanity is increasingly encroaching on their habitats and lives.
On Monday, September 9, 2024, Greenpeace Hong Kong announced the results of their research, which discovered that the droppings of five animal species commonly found in Hong Kong – the water buffalo, feral cattle, East Asian porcupine, wild boars, and macaques – contained microplastics in 85 percent of samples. This means that there is a widespread problem of our wild animals ingesting microplastics found in our nature and country parks.
Conducted in 2022, this research collected faecal samples from seven suburban areas across Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories, such as Kam Shan, Victoria Peak, Pui O Bay, and Sai Kung West Country Park. Microplastics ended up being found in animals from all locations, the most common of which were polyethylene and polypropylene, which are used to make disposable plastic packaging and cutlery, as well as takeout boxes.
According to Greenpeace’s project director Leanne Tam Wing-lam, the study shows that pollution caused by disposable plastics has spread from cities to the countryside. Dr Christelle Not, senior lecturer at the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Hong Kong, further explained that these results prove that ‘wild animals can still ingest microplastics from the environment even if they reside far away from urban areas and places with human activities’.
This then poses the risk of microplastics entering the food chain. Tam states, “Microplastics are difficult to clean up once they enter the environment and will only continue to accumulate [...] Animal poop [provides] nutrients for the soil and plants so if there are microplastics, [there’s] a very high potential that the plants may [absorb] them. So it would enter the food chain and also our ecosystem.”
Greenpeace is therefore calling on the Hong Kong government to step up their waste reduction efforts, also highlighting the need for a “strong Global Plastic Treaty to set plastic reduction targets, so governments worldwide can formulate their own plastic reduction policies accordingly”. Hong Kong has already implemented the first phase of controls on single-use plastics earlier this April, but the next phase – which is supposed to ban more items such as plastic table coverings, plastic-stemmed tooth floss, and more takeaway containers – has not yet been announced. For now, we can do our part in consciously cutting down on single-use plastics in our everyday lives.
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