A Hong Kong government rule that all school students and staff take daily COVID-19 tests will add massively to the city's plastic waste problem, environmental activists say, with some 20 million kits a month set to be dumped at bursting landfills.
The mandatory rapid antigen tests , and their plastic accessories are expected to worsen marine and land pollution in the financial hub of 7.4 million people where some beaches and hiking trails are already awash with microplastics.
"If they had advised the public , the city would have saved at least some resources and reduced some waste." Over the past year Hong Kong has generated a colossal amount of disposable plastic waste from quarantine hotels and isolation facilities, which is not recycled due to fear of contamination. Official figures show a 33% rise in plastic disposables in 2020 with environmentalists expecting waste to have surged further since 2021 as authorities grapple to implement a "Dynamic zero" COVID strategy.
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