COVID versus Single-use Plastics

This set combines a reusable respirator with reusable goggles. The use of such items in general has caused concerns that the coronavirus pandemic is impeding the move away from single-use plastics.

One important step in moving away from single-use plastics is the emergence of shops that enable ‘naked buying’ by avoiding packaging, as customers bring their own reusable containers to fill with food and other household products. Hong Kong’s first packaging-free, zero-waste store is Live Zero Bulk Beauty in Sai Ying Pun. Gradually, other shops with similar Bring Your Own Bag demands have opened in various parts in Hong KongIncluding Slowood (Kennedy Town), Lively Life (Wan Chai), Primary (Tai Po), Organic We (Mong Kok) and many others.

Although “naked buying” is a recent trend, it is not a new phenomenon in Hong Kong at all. Many people think it’s only possible to “buy naked” at “naked buying specialty stores”, when in fact bringing your own containers had been the norm in Hong Kong before the invention and spread of individual plastic packaging for grocery shopping and take-away food from restaurants. The Wong Kar-wai-directed Hong Kong film In the Mood for Love (2000), that is staged in 1960s Hong Kong, illustrates earlier habits of packaging avoidance in several scenes which show the female protagonist carrying a thermos containing wonton noodles and soup as part of her daily routine.

In contemporary Hong Kong, old-style shops that sell dry foods and Chinese medicine by the pound and wet markets continue to offer plastic bags, but equally enable naked shopping and welcome the use of containers brought by customers.

Fong Yik-hang’s works raise awareness on the contemporary abundance of single-use packaging. By transforming things such as Tetra Paks and pick-up food containers into COVID protection wearables, the toy designer creates a message that is both playful and strong.