By Mark Sharp
- Published on May 10, 2016 by South China Morning Post
Plastic has been more than just a drop in the ocean to the Hong Kong economy. The city’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, built his fortune on plastic flowers in the 1950s and ’60s. At the same time, a generation of children learned the city’s name from plastic toys stamped “Made in Hong Kong”.
Unfortunately, almost all the plastic disposed of since it was invented is underground or, worse, in watercourses that feed into massive “rubbish patch” gyres swirling around in our oceans. There, it soaks up other toxins and is eaten by small creatures in a food chain that ends in humans.