Bring your own rubbish back. There are no more rubbish bins along the trails in Hong Kong country parks. Although there are still rubbish bins at picnic and camping sites, it is best for visitors to take all their rubbish back to the city.
Did you know?
- Wild animals love to forage for leftover food in rubbish bins. Take your rubbish away, to avoid the rubbish becoming food for wild cows, boars and monkeys!
- Once wild animals get used to picking food from the rubbish bins, not only is their health affected but their feeding habits are also altered!
- Rubbish in bins can be blown by strong wind and scattered across hillsides!
- Carrying heavy rubbish down steep trails is no easy task for the janitors. It is relatively easy for everybody to take away their own rubbish!
Practical Examples
- Estimate the amount and types of rubbish that will be produced and bring appropriate bags to collect it. For example, you can prepare an extra bag to pack recyclables.
- Use a well-sealed bag for food waste, to avoid attracting wild animals by the smell. A well-sealed bag also prevents small items of rubbish (such as tissues) from falling out easily.
- Pay attention to small, light items of rubbish (such as tissues and food packaging bags) that are easily dropped or blown away by wind.
- If you need to deposit human waste in the wild, choose a place away from people and water sources. Used tissues should be put in a sealed bag and carried away.
- While preparing meals for camping, minimise and properly handle food waste, soup leftovers and wastewater. Filter the residues before pouring wastewater and soup leftovers into the toilet. Food residues should be carried away in sealed bags. Use natural cleaning agents (such as hot water and tea seed powder) instead of chemical ones, to avoid polluting the natural environment.
- Do not wash your utensils in streams or pour wastewater and soup into them.
- Check before you leave the camp site that all rubbish is cleared away.
Fun Quiz: Is fruit peel and tissue biodegradable?
No, no and no! Many people think that organic litter can be easily naturally decomposed and so it is ok to throw away at any place. The fact is, it takes a very long time for even a small piece of fruit peel to decompose, and there may be pesticide residues that harm nature. Tissue, on the other hand, is generally processed and bleached, and so is not biodegradable.
