HOW TO HELP SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT

Reduce, reuse and recycle metal, paper and plastic.

Reduce: Try to use less (for example, use both sides of paper). Reuse: Try to use again (for example, reuse your plastic bags.). Recycle: Put in the recycling bin (for example, save your empty drink cans to put in the recycling bin.

You can find recycling bins in your building or on the street

Set up special bins at home

Hong Kong produces more than 6 million tonnes of waste - let's try and cut it down! Our landfills will be full in the next few years. We can also recycle some bigger things. Give old toys to friends and go to gov.hk/en/residents/environment/waste to see how we can recycle these things

* Computers * Rechargeable batteries * Televisions * Refrigerators * Washing machines * Video or audio equipment * Microwave ovens * Fans * Water heaters * Rice cookers * Air-cons and heaters

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Use energy saving light bulbs.

Low-energy light bulbs use 5 times less power than old-fashioned ones. That means they also produce less harmful CO2 emissions from power stations. They are cheaper - over the lifetime of an energysaving bulb, you can save over $600. They last longer - usually, a low-energy bulb will last around 6 years!

Heat is wasted energy. Energysaving bulbs give more light, and give out less heat.

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Turn off things you are not using.

What uses the most power in our homes?

We can turn off things at night, when we are out and when we are not using them. Even if some things are off, they may be using some power take your TVs plug out of the wall socket as it will still be on standby mode. Buy things which have a high (A rated) energy efficiency. Use heating and air-con on a low setting.

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Write to our leaders to tell them to help protect the environment.

Write to our leaders in Hong Kong. For example, you could ask them to *Spend more money on green energy like windmills and solar power. *Stop buses and taxis from running their engines when they are waiting. *Clean up our water and beaches. *Stop shops from selling old style light-bulbs. *Make everyone recycle more. Or any other issues you can think of!

Mr Donald Tsang,
PRC SAR Chief Executive's Office, 1109-1111 Asia Pacific Finance Tower, Citibank Plaza, 3 Garden Rd, Hong Kong.

Environmental Protection Department,

Southorn Centre, 24/F, 130 Hennessy Road, Hong Kong

Agriculture, Fisheries, and Conservation Department,

Cheung Sha Wan Government Offices, 303 Cheung Sha Wan Road, Hong Kong

Dear Donald Tsang

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Use public transport and avoid cars and aeroplane travel.

CO2 emissions are much lower for buses and the MTR, and they are cheaper!

A car with 1 driver Go to An aeroplane cleartheair.org.hk A car with 3 people inside A bus An MTR train Walking/bicycle How much CO2 for each passenger for every mile

You need to breathe to stay alive. But how clean is the air in Hong Kong? If you breathe dirty air, you may become sick when you are older. Plants and animals need clean air too! Using buses and the MTR means there are fewer cars on the road, which means less pollution. If you go on holiday to another country, think about if it is possible to go by train. Or maybe go somewhere else which is nearer! You can get trains all over China, or a ferry to Macau.

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Save water by using less.

How we use water 97.5% of the worlds water is sea water which we cannot use - only 2.5% is fresh water, which is ok for people to use. Hong Kong has few natural lakes and not enough rain, so we need to take 70% of our water from China. For many years, the government stopped Hong Kongers from using too much through rationing.

Did you know? You can put a brick or plastic bottle in your toilet, so that it will refill using less water! It will still work fine.

So remember Only boil as much water as you need in the kettle or when cooking or cleaning. Take short showers and try to avoid taking baths. Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth. Wash fruits and vegetables in a bowl, not under the tap. Turn off the tap when washing dishes. Reuse water from washing food to water your plants.

How water gets to you in Hong Kong

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Use less air-con and turn on fans instead.

Hong Kong is the coldest air-conditioned place in the world says the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Air-conditioning takes up 60% of Hong Kong's electricity in summer. We can save 3% of this power for each degree we turn it down. We could save 233,000 tonnes of CO2 - 330 million electricity units.

Remember to...

Wear light clothes in the hot weather. Turn the air-con to a warmer setting 25c is fine. Use the fan setting - especially at night. Fans use only 10% of the electricity aircons does. Turn on the air-con to cool the room and Remember that power in Hong Kong then turn it off or use fans instead. comes from dirty coal. It causes Close doors and windows when the airpollution and is very high in CO2 when con is on. it is burnt at the power station. So Clean the filter so your air-con won't lets use less power! need to work so hard.

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Eat less meat to reduce global heat!

Eat less dairy Eat less meat

Eat more fruit and vegetables

It takes a long time for animals to grow ready for us to eat them! They need lots of water, land and food and often a lot of rainforest is cut down for farms. Many animals (especially cows) also like to burp and break wind. This makes lots of methane which is very bad for the environment, like CO2! Cows alone give off more dangerous gases than all planes, trains, cars and buses put together! 37% of methane comes from farm animals, and is it 23% more dangerous than CO2! Lets try and cut this down.
Eat more fruit and vegetables and reduce meat. If you want to eat meat, try to eat more fish and chicken and less beef and pork!

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Learn more
Learn more about helping the environment at these English websites.

www.greenpeace.org

www.foe.org.hk

www.cleartheair.org.hk

www.wwf.org.hk

New words
Here are some of the more difficult words to learn about
CO2 Carbon Dioxide is a gas. We breathe it out and also release it when we burn things. It can cause big problems for the world, as it can stop the Earth from protecting us from the sun. Climate Change When we talk about climate change, we are talking about how the Earths weather is changing, and how the things in the air are changing, over time. Global Warming This is about how the temperature and sea levels on Earth are slowly rising, with more floods and big storms. Environment Our environment includes everything around us animals, plants, the oceans, mountains and the weather. It is important to protect these things. Pollution Pollution is something we do not want which causes damage. For example, there can be light, noise or air pollution.