Thursday, January 26, 2006

The beautiful plastic bags or, the beauty of the plastic bags…or just plastic bags…(primera parte)

La sociedad de consumo nos está invadiendo…con o sin conciencia de ello, nos llenamos cada vez mas de objetos innecesarios y para mas, de gadgets que cuestan una miseria, pagados una miseria y vuelven el medio ambiente una miseria…cada uno de ellos como el resto de objetos que compramos compulsivamente, son empacados en bellas bolsas de tamaños y diseños diferentes, en general son plásticas…y he ahí el principal problema…las bolsas nos están invadiendo la casa, la ciudad, el entorno…atención que no nos invadan la mente!
Isabel
Enero-26-2006
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The beautiful plastic bags or, the beauty of the plastic bags…or just plastic bags…(first part)
The consumer society is invading us... whether we are aware of it or not, we are getting increasingly inundated with unnecessary objects and moreover with gadgets that cost the earth, we pay a fortune and they return to the environment ... each one of them like the other objects that we buy compulsively, are packaged in beautiful bags of different sizes and designs, usually plastic... and that’s the problem... the bags are invading our home, our city, our surroundings... be careful they do not invade our minds!
Isabel
January-26-2006

3 comments :

Anonymous said...

hola que tal

Anonymous said...

It’s about time HK tackled the question of energy waste, in particular the overuse of air conditioning. After more than 10 year in the city, I still have not got used to he extremely cold temperatures in trains, buses, cinemas, restaurants, offices, schools, etc. Many shops such as Giordano and shopping centres such as Lee Gardens and Landmark have open fronts and the aircon blasts out onto the streets making me hurry past as I find the blasts of icy air unpleasant.
Being a foreigner I have not complained until now, thinking that perhaps I was more sensitive than the locals, however I’m sure there are other people who would like to see a more moderate use of air conditioning. Like many other people, I constantly carry a jacket with me so that I can wear it indoors or on public transport and I find this unnecessary and ridiculous. In Shenzhen, a city I often visit, I do not have this problem and find the environment quite comfortable. Could it be that HK considers aircon to be an expensive luxury that poor areas in China and other Third World countries cannot afford and it is thus a matter prestige and snobbery?
Apart from the effect on one’s health, (surely the constant change between hot and cold is unhealthy), the costs of keeping buildings and vehicles this cold are enormous. Government departments alone could save millions if they used air-conditioning more wisely. I resent the fact that my children have to pay $50 each term for the aircon which they don’t want; they say the classroom is too cold and they have to wear their jackets inside. And as young children sometimes forget to bring a sweater or jacket they can easily catch cold.
The other point is the effect such a waste of energy has on the environment. We all know that the HK Government is not very pro-active when coming to environmental issues but I feel it is high time they addressed this problem.

Mary Lee
Hong Kong
Juin-2006

Anonymous said...

Recycling

When is Hong Kong going to have a decent recyling and waste disposal policy? It is way behind other developed countries; in Europe, particularly Germany, who have been recycling and sorting waste for many years. Having lived in several European countries I noticed at least 10 or 20 years ago that every town had facilities for sorting waste into glass, paper, metal, etc. which were accessible to most of the population. Those kind of rubbish bins are hard to find in Hong Kong, especially in the New Territories (in my case I would have to put take a bus or taxi for about 15 minutes to the nearest recycling point). In UK have also seen points for collecting used glasses, shoes etc. which are collected by charities and distributed to the Third World. Hong Kong is a small and prosperous place, it should be able to implement a better system than the one we have now.

Mary Lee
Hong Kong
Juin-2006