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HK$888,888 for a set of plastic utensils? Hongkongers have some fun with ban
- As city bans single-use plastic, some residents are offering ‘out-of-production’ items for eye-watering prices online
- Facebook users discussing sales offer enthusiastic support, with one urging people to buy it quickly as ‘prices will rise further’
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Hongkongers were quick to respond to Monday’s ban on single-use plastics in creative if not mocking ways, taking to online trading platforms to sell off unused disposable utensils made from the synthetic material.
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While major fast food chains switched to providing reusable non-plastic utensils for takeaways, some online traders moved swiftly to try and profit from the ban, posting items on popular trading platforms such as Carousell even before the prohibition started.
A day before the ban, one user was already selling transparent orange plastic utensils commonly used by fast-food chain Fairwood, describing them as “discontinued”.
They were listed for sale at HK$10 (US$1.30).
On Monday, another user was selling just a single plastic spoon from the chain, promoted as “out of production”. The fork was missing because the seller used it to “eat noodles when I was hungry”.
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