Green Living in Hong Kong
FoundationHong Kong's three landfills are filling up. Follow the four principles — reduce, reuse, recycle and replace — and save energy and water, and everyone can help the planet.
- Hong Kong's three landfills are nearly full, so waste must be cut at the source.
- Four principles: reduce, reuse, recycle and replace.
- Blue bins take paper, yellow bins metal and brown bins plastic.
文體小知識：環保教育說明文講解保護環境的知識和方法，讀完就能動手實踐綠色生活。
§Text Passage
1People in Hong Kong throw away more than ten thousand tonnes of municipal solid waste every day, and it all goes to three landfills. The landfills are nearly full, and plastic in the waste takes hundreds of years to break down. The best way to solve the waste problem is to cut it at the source — not making needless rubbish in the first place.
2Green living follows four principles. Reduce: bring your own shopping bag and water bottle, and refuse unwanted leaflets. Reuse: give old clothes to people in need and return glass bottles for refilling. Recycle: sort waste paper, metal and plastic into the three-colour recycling bins. Replace: choose greener items, such as using an electric fan instead of air-conditioning for part of the time.
3Food waste is one of the largest parts of Hong Kong's solid waste. Order only what you can eat, store leftovers properly, or turn them into compost. Community recycling facilities such as GREEN@COMMUNITY operate across the city, taking in paper, metal, plastic and glass bottles, as well as large appliances like air-conditioners, fridges, washing machines, televisions and computers.
4Saving energy and water matters just as much: switch off lights and air-conditioning when leaving a room, choose appliances with Grade 1 energy labels, turn off the tap while brushing your teeth, and take showers instead of baths. Green living is not hard work but smart habit; when a whole family practises it, Hong Kong's environment gets better day by day.
1Summary 重點摘要
Hong Kong's three landfills are filling up. Follow the four principles — reduce, reuse, recycle and replace — and save energy and water, and everyone can help the planet.
2Vocabulary cards Vocabulary
A large site where waste is buried in the ground; Hong Kong's three landfills are nearly full.
Making less rubbish at the source, for example by bringing your own bag.
Using the same item again, such as returning glass bottles or passing on old things.
Collecting sorted waste to make into new products, such as paper made from waste paper.
Food thrown away during cooking or eating; one of Hong Kong's largest waste streams.
Public bins: blue for paper, yellow for metal and brown for plastic.
Community recycling facilities in each district that take many recyclables and hold green education activities.
The label showing the most energy-efficient appliances, which use the least electricity.
Fertiliser made from broken-down food scraps such as fruit peel, used for growing plants.
3Step by step Steps
- Step 1: Cut waste at the sourceGreen living starts with cutting waste at the source, which means stopping rubbish before it is made. Bring a cloth bag when shopping and your own bottle when going out, and take no plastic forks or tissues you do not need — then no waste is made at all. Hong Kong makes a huge amount of waste every day and the landfills are filling up, so everyone's effort matters. Write a shopping list first and buy only what you truly need — another good way to cut waste at the source.
- Step 2: ReuseThings do not have to be thrown away after one use; a little thought gives them a second life. Donate books you have read to the class library corner so others can enjoy them; use biscuit tins to store stationery; turn a clean glass jar into a pen holder. Every extra use means one piece less rubbish and saves the resources needed to make new things. Clean, complete old clothes can be given to collection bodies and passed on to people in need, extending the value of the item.
- Step 3: Sort and recycleWaste that cannot be reused can become useful material if it is sorted for recycling. Hong Kong's three-colour recycling bins make it easy: flatten newspapers and used paper into the blue bin; rinse drink cans and put them in the yellow metal bin; put clean plastic bottles into the brown bin. Correct sorting keeps the recycled material clean and usable. Rinse bottles and cans and flatten paper before recycling, so the material is not polluted and handling becomes more efficient.
- Step 4: Cut food wasteEvery day Hong Kong sends a huge amount of food waste to the landfills, which wastes food and burdens the environment. At a buffet take only what you can finish; turn leftover bread into bread pudding; put fruit peel and vegetable leaves into a compost bin, where they slowly become fertiliser for plants. Treasuring food means treasuring resources. Order just enough dishes and add more if it is not enough — smarter than ordering too much and leaving food behind.
- Step 5: Save energy and waterMaking electricity and supplying water use precious resources, and everyone can help save them. Switch off the lights when leaving a room; set the air-conditioning at twenty-five to twenty-six degrees in summer — cool yet economical; turn off the tap while brushing your teeth, saving litres of clean water each time. Small habits add up and make the Earth's resources last. Choose appliances with Grade 1 energy labels and take showers instead of baths, and the savings become even more obvious.
- Step 6: Bring others alongGreen living should not stop with yourself; bring the people around you along too. Suggest a paper-recycling box for the classroom at the class meeting; show grandparents how to sort newspapers; agree a family green checklist and review it together every week. One person inspires a family, a family inspires a community, and the power of green living keeps growing. The school's General Studies display or class meeting is also a good place to share green ideas, so more people learn about green living.
4Diagrams Diagrams
5Worked example Example
Example: Yu's family is having a picnic in a country park at the weekend. Before they set off, Mum asks Yu to prepare a green picnic list. What should he do?
- Pack food in reusable containers instead of one-off plastic bags and cling film, cutting disposable waste.
- Bring drinking water in a thermos flask and a cup for each person instead of buying bottled water, so no plastic bottles are left behind.
- Take stainless-steel forks and spoons and cloth napkins to avoid disposable tableware and paper tissues.
- When packing up, sort the rubbish and take it away: bring boxes and bottles home to clean and recycle, bag the food waste, and leave nothing behind.
- Answer: Yu should use reusable containers instead of disposables, bring his own cup and cutlery, and take the sorted rubbish away for proper handling — a green picnic that leaves no trace and protects the country park with real action.
6Common mistakes Mistakes
7Quick check Quick check
Q1Where does Hong Kong's waste finally go?
Q2What are the four principles of green living?
Q3What do the three-colour recycling bins collect?
Q4What is food waste, and how can we reduce it?
Q5Why turn off the tap while brushing your teeth?
8Recap Recap
- Hong Kong's three landfills are nearly full, so waste must be cut at the source.
- Four principles: reduce, reuse, recycle and replace.
- Blue bins take paper, yellow bins metal and brown bins plastic.
- Cut food waste: order by your appetite, use leftovers well and make compost.
- Save energy and water; green living is a habit a whole family can build together.