S.4 Good piece of work (Writing)
Topic: Opinions on plastic umbrella covers
Genre: Letter to the editor
Student: Cheng, Hon-yi (4A 01)
Dear Editor,
I would like to share my opinions about plastic umbrella covers as it can lead to a huge environmental problem to Hong Kong.
In recent years, it has been more common than ever for some big shopping malls to distribute plastic umbrella covers on rainy days to their honourable customers for free. For customers, the free plastic cover makes them feel great that their need is in the mind of the malls. The result of this action is that the customers may prefer visiting the malls or staying there more often. For the janitors of the shopping malls, the plastic umbrella bags help make their job easier because janitors do not need to mob the wet floor all day. For the shopping malls, distributing plastic umbrella covers help the malls avoid the legal responsibility of making their customers fall on the slippery floor and requests for compensation.
However, the increasing use and demand for plastic umbrella covers may lead to serious environmental problems far beyond than we can imagine. On one hand, the waste problem will be getting more severe. Plastic umbrella covers are most likely used once only and they will be disposed after being used indoors by the customers. It is possible that a person may dispose more than one umbrella bag if they visit more than one shopping mall on rainy days. Meanwhile, as plastic umbrella bags are not reusable and recyclable, customers can only dispose the covers into rubbish bins after use. This will lead to a huge burden to Hong Kong’s landfills, which are estimated to be full in 5 years. On the other hand, if plastic umbrella covers are not properly disposed by the users, for example the covers are disposed onto soil or somewhere wildlife can pick, it can be harmful to nature and wildlife.
In the following, I would like to suggest some solutions to keep floor dry and reduce the need of plastic umbrella covers. First, shopping malls can install some strong fans at the entrances of the malls to keep the floor dry. As strong fans can help dry the floor quickly, the demand for using plastic umbrella covers will be much lower. In addition, with paving rain-absorbing carpets, most of the rainwater brought by the customers’ umbrellas into the malls can be captured and it can help keep most of the area of shopping malls dry and the risk of getting customers falling on slippery floor will be very low. Then, it is not necessary to distribute plastic umbrella covers.
Second, shopping malls can adjust the indoor air temperature to keep the floor dry. When shopping malls adjust the indoor air temperature to be lower than 23 degree Celsius, it can help evaporate rainwater quickly and effectively. It eventually helps keep the floor dry and the need for distributing plastic umbrella covers will be very low.
I hope my abovementioned opinions and ideas can let other readers know how serious the problem led by plastic umbrella covers is and what shopping mall can do to help reduce the amount of solid waste and relieve the burden of Hong Kong’s landfills. Let’s do it today!
Pat Chan
Kwai Chung
(450 words)