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 Introduction  

We are the member of Pollution Officer for a marine conservation charity which are concerning on marine Micro-plastic pollution in Hong Kong. Below will be talking about the microplastic in the ocean in Hong Kong. We have to admit that marine microplastic pollution are concern by researchers, regulatory authorities, and even local and global public. The main reason will be microplastic in the ocean has been assumed contain toxic and it will produce negative effect to organism in food-web. In addition, some of the researchers has been conduct field survey on marine microplastic pollution in their countries and trust that Hong Kong is also one of the region that subject to marine microplastic pollution. In 2011, Hong Kong as been discover that there are high concentration of PCB with 757 ng/g-pellets in Sam Pak Wan. In rain season (6/2014-8/2014) and dry season (1/2015-3/2015), the average amount of microplastic are 5595 ± 3950 items/m2 and 889 ± 350 items/m2 respectively, but the severity of microplastic pollution to the local marine environment, or even human health is still unknown. So marine conservation charity have conducted a survey to elevate the distribution of microplastic in marine and sediment. The situation will be discuss below. 

Extent of marine microplastics pollution 

The extent of marine microplastics pollution can be view by season and the water control zone. 4 control zone (Tolo Harbor, Deep Bay, Western Buffer and Victoria Harbour) in dry season (11/2015-3/2016) and wet season (6/2015-7/2015),are monitored. According to the result, microplastic pollution in dry season is serious than in wet season and Victoria Harbor are the most serious extent in microplastic pollution among 4 water control zone with average of 3 measuring point17346 per 100m3 and 35788 per 100m3 with highest point in abundance of marine microplastic, and view by the microplastic abundance in sediments was 263 ±83 particles per kilogram, average microplastic abundance of all the water control are over 200 particles per kilogram., higher than other zone with 11-33%. The high concentration of marine microplastic in Victoria Harbor are detected as 27,909 ± 7407 particles per 100 m3, still higher than 11,222 ± 5087 particles per 100 m3 which is the microplastic concentration in Deep Bay at the same time with 148.7%1. The result shows that the marine plastic concentration are concentrate on some of the water control zone and trend to more serious after dry season depends on the amount of rainfall and windspeed in wet season because rainfall on the marine environment plays an important role on the distribution of plastic debris because wind and rain can exacerbate land Transfer of plastic debris to the marine environment.2 

Comparison of the marine microplastic pollution in Hong Kong with the world 

Comparison of the marine microplastic pollution in Hong Kong with the world3’4
Place		Hong Kong	Salford Quays basins
Average microplastic concentration	Surface water (m^-2)	0.0032-3.5	>100->500000
	Sediment (kg;kg/m^-2)	44-458	>0.1- >500,000
Microplastic type of (marine and coastal water from June  2015 to March 2016 of Hong Kong)  (river before 2015/16 winter of Salford Quays basins)		Pellet and pellet like; fragment and fragment like; line and line like; fiber and fiber like	Fragments, fibers, microbeads and others
	percentage	Pellet and pellet like(96.8% in coastal water,23.2% in marine water)   fragment and fragment like(2.7% in coastal water, 63.6% in marine water)  line and line like(0.2% in coastal water,6.9% in marine water)  fiber and fiber like(0.4% in costal water,6.3%in marine water)	Fragments(19-57%)  Fibers(3-9%)  Microbeads(33-77%)  Others(1%)
Particle size of  (μm)	river for world; coastal and for Hong Kong	30-4960μm(Fragment & fragment Like)  200-4900μm (Line & line-like)  400-4900μm (Fiber & fiber-like)  50-2400μm (Pellet & pellet-like)	79-585μm(microbeads); 107-4301μm(fragments);  94-4779 μm(fibers)
	sediment	10-4600μm(Fragment & fragment Like)  100-4600μm (Line & line-like)  100-4700μm (Fiber & fiber-like)  20-1800μm (Pellet & pellet-like)	/

Table 1. Comparison of the marine microplastic pollution in Hong Kong with the world 

Territory				Size of microplastics of  concern (mm)	Mean abundance in water samples  (particles per 100m3	Maximal abundance in water samples  (particles per 100 m3)
Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong				<5	106 to 27,909	224 to 35,642
Tolo Harbor, Hong Kong				<5	65 to 1308	98 to 2484
Tsing Yi, Hong Kong				<5	847 to 5469	1187 to 5728
Deep Bay, Hong Kong				<5	51 to 11,222	68 to 14,819
Nakdong, Southeastern Coast of Korea				<2	58,200 to 92,400	141,000
Northeastern Pacific Ocean				2–5	1000 to 37,500	782,000
West Coast Vancouver Island				<5	27,900	–
Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand				<5	171,000	–
Strait of Georgia				<5	763,000	–
Yangtze Estuary, China				<5	321,000	–
East China Sea, China				>0.5 to 5	413,730	1,020,000
Costa Vicentina, Portugal				>0.5 to 5	17	46
Goiana Estuary, Brazil				<5	–	4
Oyster Bay, South Africa				<5	26	–
North Pacific Ocean				<5	–	121,500
				0.3 to 1	220	–
Territory				Size of microplastics  of  concern (mm)	Mean abundance in sand or  sediment  (particles per kilogram)	Maximal abundance in sand or  sediment  (particles per kilogram)
Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong				<5	77 to 263	88 to 417
Tolo Harbor, Hong Kong				<5	132 to 279	154 to 458
Tsing Yi, Hong Kong				<5	49 to 198	54 to 210
Deep Bay, Hong Kong				<5	67 to 237	74 to 302
Wanning, China				<5	6923	8714
Halifax Harbor, Canada				<5	–	8000
Mangrove habitats, Singapore				3 to 6	9	63
Singapore				>0.0016	1	11
Geoje Island, South Korea				<1	–	211
Belgium				<1	13	48
Nieuwpoort, Belgium				<1	213	390
French, Belgian and Dutch North Sea Coast				<1	6	23
Lagoon of Venice, Italy				<1	1455	2175
Norderney, Germany				<1	1 to 2	4
Norderney, Germany				<1	169	234
Debeli Rtic, Yugoslavia				<1	–	444
Lower Saxony, Germany				<0.5	4040	6400

Table 2-3. Mean abundance and maximal abundance of microplastics in coastal waters and marine water of different areas5 

To compare with different place in the world by criteria like size of microplastic, average concentration, mean and maximal abundance in marine and coastal water sample. Result reflect that the microplastic size of Hong Kong are competitive larger than world no matter in marine or coastal water with <5mm. And the mean abundance of microplastic in coast water are higher than marine water with average 13980 particles per 100m3. But the abundance of microplastic in coastal water of Hong Kong are competitively low compare with some of the place in the world like China can be over 300000 microplastic particles per 100m3,. The fragment in coastal water and pallet like microplastic in marine water in Hong Kong are high with occupy 63.6% and 96.8% represitively, those become the main type of microplastic in Hong Kong.  

Importance risks to local river and ocean ecosystem health 

Toxic substances will attach on the surface of microplastic, but microplastics are difficult to degrade or remove in the nature environment after discharge with sewage. Microplastic will go into ecosystem by ecosystem organisms mistaking microplastic, it is sure that microplastic will case health risk to organisms. In the aspect of ocean ecosystem, organism for example fish, microplastic accumulate in the gut of fish cause starvation and malnourishment and even lead to die case by intestinal blockage then decrease nutrition.6 In addition, planktons which is the lowest level in ecosystem are also influent by microplastic pollution. A study indicated that planktons will adsorb Latex beads when they expose under the marine microplastic with dimension 1.7−30.6 μm, case to loss the feeding ability and bring negative impact to their health or even die. Another ocean organism that influent by microplastic are coral. Coral will retain plastic fragment in mesenterial which will case reduce in feeding ability and energy reserves. To view in food-chain, coral are award nutrients from adsorb planktons, once planktons die, coral cannot adsorb enough nutrients and energy to maintain their growth. It is sure that this is a risk to their health, and also the ecosystem health. It can see that the risk of microplastic to ocean ecosystem health can be lead the organism to endangerous by killing the organism continuous. On the other hand, the risk of microplastic are influent to the ocean ecosystem from upper level to lower level, lead the food-chain of ocean ecosystem to be destroyed.  7 

For the aspect of river ecosystem, invertebrates organism, microplastic suspended will be adsorb by invertebrates through prey apart from adsorb in river environment, and stick at the digestion organs than retain. Thus, microplastic will cause risk to organisms that without rejection ability. Retain and adsorb microplastic cause risk to organisms because microplastic adsorption will decrease the feeding rate of organisms lead to reduced growth, maturity, reproduction, and somatic maintenance under the situation of energy reservation decreasing.8  

Policies changes suggestion 

To view the policies changes, marine microplastic pollution should be solve from the source. Some of the policies like EPR (extended producer responsibility) are encourage to implement to utilize other material as packaging material of food or drink packages without plastic, this called “reduce waste at source”. Reduce plastic waste through reduce the number of product produce by plastic, then reduce the plastic product requirement of customers. Thus, EPR can be implement by other method, like encourage producers to design the eco-friendly product which have less harmful to environment, like reusable containers, decrease the amount of material that send to landfill or incinerator. The benefit of EPR can be categorize as economic, environmental and society. For the aspect of economic, EPR can be refer the waste disposal responsibility to producer by relative costs, this way may be cause producer, cause producers to consider the method of reduce waste disposal cost. At the same time, waste disposal cost refer can cause producers to reflect their production method and material used. The result of waste disposal cost refer can be stimulate producer to invent, design new eco-friendly products to decrease the influent risks to environment.  

For the aspect of environment, EPR can stimulate producers to design recyclable products, increase the recyclability of products by decrease the toxic component in product material. This way producers produce recyclable products are satisfy the principle of producer’s best interest because producer need to response for the disposal by cost and manpower put in. 9 

 

 Reference 

1. Tsang, Y.Y., Mak, C.W., Liebich, C., Lam, S.W., Sze, E.T. and Chan, K.M., 2017. Microplastic pollution in the marine waters and sediments of Hong Kong. Marine Pollution Bulletin, [e-journal] 115 (1-2), pp.20-28. 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.11.003. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.11.003> 

2. .Lam Wing Ling, Ng Ka Lok, Li Hin kit, Yeung Lin Chun and Jia Zhong Nan, 2018. Microplastics and large plastic debris in Hong Kong waters 2018. Hong Kong: Greenpeace. 

3. Tsang, Y.Y., Mak, C.W., Liebich, C., Lam, S.W., Sze, E.T. and Chan, K.M., 2017. Microplastic pollution in the marine waters and sediments of Hong Kong. Marine Pollution Bulletin, [e-journal] 115 (1-2), pp.20-28. 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.11.003. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.11.003> 

4. Hurley, R., Woodward, J. and Rothwell, J.J., 2018. Microplastic contamination of river beds significantly reduced by catchment-wide flooding. Nature Geoscience, [e-journal] 11 (4), pp.251-257. 10.1038/s41561-018-0080-1. <https://search.proquest.com/docview/2021753846> 

5. Tsang, Y.Y., Mak, C.W., Liebich, C., Lam, S.W., Sze, E.T. and Chan, K.M., 2017. Microplastic pollution in the marine waters and sediments of Hong Kong. Marine Pollution Bulletin, [e-journal] 115 (1-2), pp.20-28. 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.11.003. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.11.003 

6. 2017. LCQ5: Impacts of microplastics on the ecosystem and human health. [on-line] Available at: <https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201711/22/P2017112200631.htm> [Accessed: 29-4-2020] 

7. Subhankar Chatterjee and Shivika Sharma, 2019. Microplastics in our oceans and marine health. [on-line] Available at: <https://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/5257> [Accessed: 30-4-2020] 

8. Natalie Prinz and Špela Korez, 2019. Understanding How Microplastics Affect Marine Biota on the Cellular Level Is Important for Assessing Ecosystem Function: A Review. [on-line] Available at: <https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-20389-4_6> [Accessed: 10-5-2020].  

9. Sarah M. Surak, 2018. Extended producer responsibility 

ENVIRONMENTAL PRACTICE AND POLICY. [on-line] Available at: <https://www.britannica.com/topic/extended-producer-responsibility> [Accessed: 30-4-2020]