Public adapting quickly to plastic ban: minister

Environment Secretary Tse Chin-wan on Saturday said the public was adapting quickly to the plastic-free scheme. The first phase of the plastic cutlery ban started on Monday, and restaurants are now barred from selling and using plastic utensils, but plastic containers are still allowed for takeaways. He told a radio programme that authorities had visited about 1,700 retail and catering premises in the past week and almost all of the large chains, and about half of the smaller restaurants, had changed to non-plastic utensils. "In terms of effectiveness, many chain restaurants told us that about 60 to 70 percent of customers, who bought takeaway food, didn't need disposable utensils. This phenomenon is very good because one of the aims of the plastic ban scheme was for people to bring their own utensils," he said. A chain supermarket was found to be selling sushi in paper boxes this week, with people describing it as "sushi in blind boxes". Tse said it's unreasonable and unnecessary for supermarkets to use non-plastic packaging. "Supermarkets may allow customers to eat at their tables. People normally think it's considered as dine-in, but in this situation, supermarkets expected customers to take out their food. In reality, a lot of people do take away their food," he said. "When supermarkets pack their food, they won't know whether customers will choose to take out or dine in... We think that treating this as takeaway is appropriate, according to the regulations." Responding to the quality of non-plastic utensils, Tse said the ban had just begun, and he believed that restaurants would be able to choose better substitutes later on.