The Environmental Protection Department today announced that designated bags and labels for municipal solid waste (MSW) charging will be available for sale at around 3,000 retail points including supermarkets, convenience stores, pharmacies and online platforms from the second half of January to February.

It has been setting up a citywide retail network to facilitate the public to purchase designated bags and labels for the implementation of MSW charging on ​​April 1.

The department has signed contracts with major chain retailers. Details of the retail points are available online and will be updated as appropriate.

To promote waste reduction and reuse, retailers selling designated bags are encouraged to place some single designated bags at checkout counters to replace plastic shopping bags, with a view to achieving the effect of one bag for two uses.

Shoppers can choose to bring their own shopping bags, buy a plastic shopping bag for at least $1 or designated bags to contain goods at the statutory sale price.

In addition to chain retailers, the department is processing applications from hundreds of pharmacies for being authorised retailers, and will complete the approval process and update the list of authorised retailers as soon as possible.

Moreover, since late 2023, the department has been accepting bulk purchase applications from organisations and companies. As of mid-January, it has received about 6,300 applications.

Applicants mainly include property management companies and residential residents' organisations or owners' corporations as well as cleaning companies, catering premises, hotels, social service organisations and schools.

The vetting of applications is about to be completed. The department will open online accounts for the organiations progressively, so that they can make bulk orders of designated bags and labels directly via the department's online platform to meet their daily operational needs.