白色污染

什么是“白色污染”？简单的说，这个词语是表示在海边和填地过度乱扔的废塑料。这个问题在香港特别盛行，因为由于各种行业常用塑料来包装食物，玩具，文具等各种物品。就很容易在一朝一夕积累了超大量的废物。再加上普通人缺乏的环保意识，就会损害香港的当地生态系统。

有几次在海边清理活动里，我注意到这个地方好像一个废土一模一样！甚至清了几个小时后那个地方跟开始时候相比一样，垃圾及废塑料占几个平方公里。这是一个无法忽视的问题。

那我们可以做什么预防措施来反抗这个不良问题呢？最简单及有效的事就是开始利用环保袋比如帆布包。另外人们会自学塑料的各种种类，因此会有效利用香港的回收系统。虽然这些动作可能会觉得渺小，浪费时间，事实上如果大家会改掉这些不良的生活习惯，学会一些环保习惯及意识，这样久而久之积少成多！

What is "white pollution"? Put simply, it refers to the excessive amounts of plastic waste being deposited to landfills and the coastal areas. This is an especially prevalent issue in Hong Kong, whereby the frequent use of plastic packaging in food products, stationery, toys, and other various goods makes it easy to accumulate large amounts of waste in short periods of time. This, in combination with the lack of awareness for environmental protection, can harm the local ecosystem.

In several beach clean-ups, I've noticed that the area looks like a wasteland! Even after cleaning for several hours it hardly seems like the community has made a dent in the pile of trash that covers several kilometers. This is an unignorable wake-up call.

So what preventative measures can we take to fight against this problem? The simplest option would be to start using reusable bags, such as canvas bags. Otherwise, educating oneself with the various types of recyclable waste will allow one to be able to effectively use Hong Kong's recycling system. Although these actions may seem insignificant at first if everyone can partake in this cause, over a period of time these small actions can amount to big changes!