Umbrella Bags

During the rain season in Hong Kong, you can see a lot of these Umbrella bag stands at the entrance of most shops and buildings. Due to the crowded space of every corner of Hong Kong, for safety precautions. Although it is very useful and probably prevented a lot of accidents (slippery floors), but is it environmentally friendly?

In a poll done by an environmental group in Hong Kong, it found that 77% of citizens uses umbrella bags given by shops and shopping centres, 34% will reuse the bags, and 93% believes it is a major environmental issue. The group also estimated the rain season will use up 1,800,000 umbrella bags in Hong Kong's 554 shopping centres.

Although people knows it is not environmentally friendly, but the cost of umbrella bags is significant lower than cost of accidents and cleaners, this is why they aren't doing anything much about this issue. However, if shop and shopping centres simply place recycle bins at the entrance, then people can dispose the bags and recycle them. (It is something that the Japanese are introducing)

Something I notice about the people in UK, is that they don't really use umbrellas. Maybe because the rain levels is nothing like Hong Kong, or because people use cars a lot more frequently than people in Hong Kong while traveling from A to B. This issue does not really apply to Western countries, but it is something which Easter countries really should look into and change.