A citizen carries an eco-friendly shopping bag to a street market in Hong Kong on the first day of the "No Plastic Bag Day" campaign yesterday. CNS

HONG KONG: Consumers offered mixed reactions to the "No Plastic Bag" campaign that started yesterday.

Over 2,000 stores of 18 major retailers pledged to support the extension of the "No Plastic Bag Day" from once a week to seven days a week. The extension was announced last month.

Supermarkets and chain stores joining the campaign will stop giving out plastic bags unless requested.

Consumers reacted quite differently to the campaign. A housewife named Wong supported the idea and said she always brings her own bags to shop.

"I have a bag with me every day. We ought to protect the environment," she said outside the PARKnSHOP in Aberdeen yesterday.

However, another man named Chow doesn't like the program at all, though he did not ask for a plastic bag.

"It's inconvenient. If I intend to buy I must bring my own bag," he said.

Chow thought it a good idea to pare down the use of plastic bags. He said the practice should be implemented step by step. He also opposed the plastic bag levy.

A cashier at Mannings said many customers brought their own bags. Those without their own bags didn't ask for plastic ones.

She added only one shopper expressed shock upon learning that plastic bags would not routinely be supplied.

The Hong Kong Retail Management Association which initiated the campaign expects a reduction of 400 million plastic bags every year.

About 2,000 private doctors under the Hong Kong Doctors' Union also signed on to the plan. Their clinics refrained from handing out the commonly-used white plastic bags unless patients requested them.

Chairman Henry Yeung Chiu-fat said about 70 percent of patients supported the idea yesterday.

Under Secretary for the Environment Kitty Poon welcomed the practice, adding the program is not in conflict with the implementation of a plastic bag levy.

The administration is scheduled to introduce the tax of 50 HK cents per bag in July. The bill awaits scrutiny by the Legislative Council. The new regulations are to be gazetted in mid-April.

(HK Edition 03/04/2009 page1)