Chinanews.com, December 27th. According to the Hong Kong Dagong Wenhui All Media Report, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government today (27th) reminded the retail industry and the public that the plan to optimize the charging of plastic shopping bags will be implemented on December 31st.

The optimization measures include: increasing the charge for each plastic shopping bag from the current minimum of 5 cents (Hong Kong dollars, the same below) to the minimum of 1 yuan; canceling the current exemption for plastic shopping bags containing frozen or frozen food; and tightening the relevant food regulations. exemption.

  The SAR government stated that only the purchase of food that is not packaged or not completely contained in any packaging, or the purchase of food delivery in non-airtight packaging, can be provided with free plastic shopping bags, and the basic principle is that one free bag per transaction.

  For the avoidance of doubt, the plastic bags provided with the service (such as the plastic bags commonly used in clinics to allow patients to take away the medicines prescribed by the doctor after consultation) do not involve the sale of goods in retail mode, so they will continue to be free of charge according to the current arrangement and will not be subject to the optimization measures influences.

  In the first month after the implementation of the optimization plan, the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department will first give a verbal warning to the merchants who fail to comply with the optimization measures. If the relevant merchants fail to correct the violations, the EPD will take enforcement action.

From January 31, 2023, once violations of the regulations are found, the Environmental Protection Agency will no longer issue warnings before taking enforcement actions.