Ep. 10 Cleaning Up Hong Kong: Community Action for a Greener Future w/ James Marlow-Smith

Episode Transcript
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Hoiki Liu (00:34):
Welcome back to the Conscious Cut.
Today, we have with us JamesMarlow-Smith from Green Hour
Hong Kong.
We're going to jump straightinto it and I'm going to ask
James when are you from?

James Marlow-Smith (00:45):
first of all , From the UK Okay, From
Birmingham born and raised.

Hoiki Liu (00:48):
Born and raised.
So when did you come to HongKong and why did you come to
Hong Kong?

So I moved here, so I'll go back a little
bit.
So I graduated in 2024, sorry,2014, it's real, I'm real decent
.
I age terribly, no, 2014.
And then I didn't know what todo.
Afterwards I studied theater.
So after studying drama, Iwanted to be an actor, but then
I was like, okay, it's verydifficult, so what do I do?

(01:15):
So I had a classmate who wasteaching drama teaching English
in mainland China.
So I lived in mainland Chinafor a year and then, 2016, I
decided to move to Hong Kong andI teach, I taught drama, I
still teach drama part-time.
So I initially came here to bea drama teacher and the plan was
to stay for a year and that wasin 2016.

(01:36):
And here I am today, almostnine years later.

Hoiki Liu (01:39):
So, yeah, I think the majority of the people that
I've asked so far they eitherwere.
Most of them had the same ideaas you.
Like, I'm just going to stop byand experience Asia for a year
or two and ended up being inHong Kong for like the next 10
years or more.

It's just I don't know.
At one point it just it was Istayed here because I thought,
okay, I'm not tired of thisplace, yeah, I want to keep
going.
And now it's kind of at thepoint where I've been here so
long that this just feels likemy home, and when I go back to
the UK it doesn't feel right, itfeels a little bit off.

Hoiki Liu (02:15):
Yeah, like something's missing, yeah, yeah,
yeah, there's a drawback todraw you back, that's why my
friends are here.

You know, I think I've built a life here.

Hoiki Liu (02:21):
Yeah well, you've definitely built a life here
because you've built Green Hourhere.
So let's jump in and talk alittle bit about what you do at
Green Hour, because that's howwe met.
I met you when I joined Bun Runwith my kid and let's talk a
bit more about Bun Run and alsowhat else you guys do at Green
Hour.

Sure, I'll start with the Bun Run.
So the Bun Run is basically afood redistribution project
where we collect surplus foodfrom bakeries and hopefully,
soon we might be able to startgetting vegetarian meals from a
Hindu temple in Wanchai Do youknow which one?
I'm on about the really big one.
So they reached out andactually said that they have a
lot of surplus cooked meals andwe can help them to redistribute

(03:04):
it.
Yeah, surplus cooked meals andthey can help us to.
We can help them toredistribute it.
Yeah, um, so basically the bunrun started when.
So we got, uh, contacted by,like, a big bakery in hong kong.
Am I allowed to mention?
yes yes, so maxims.
Yeah, so maxims reached out tous and they said we see that you
do plugging.
We would like to combine thisis.
It didn't didn't work out forvery long, combined plugging and
a food program at the same time, but I thought, okay, this

(03:27):
isn't going to make sense, it'snot going to work because of the
food hygiene and everything.
We tried it once.
It didn't work out.
But I like the idea of stilldoing a running activity and the
food thing.
Actually, it started as arunning thing.
It was a running project wherewe had 10, 15 bakeries all along
Hong Kong Island and each ofthese bakeries is probably about

(03:51):
I don't know maybe 700 metersto a kilometer apart and they
all close at different times.
So what we would do is we'dcall them all and say, hey, have
you got any surplus?
And they say yep, so we would gohere at 7.30.
, we'd go to the next one at 8o'clock and 8 30 and we're just
literally just like running allover the place, yeah, filling up
big bags of you know with bread, and then we'd go to like a

(04:11):
partner in shekit me and then wedrop everything off there.
It's changed a lot since then,um, namely, I mean mainly
because the the, the um, thepandemic, because this partner
we had in shekit me, they sortof closed their doors to us.
They said we don't want to.
You know, we don't want tocollect anything.
So I thought, okay, I don'twant to give up on this.
So what can we do?
We don't have an office, wedon't have anywhere where we can

(04:33):
store this stuff.
So why don't we just collect itand then just distribute it the
same evening?
That way we don't have to worryabout storing it, we can just
give it straight out.
So it's kind of like it's goodfor volunteers, because
volunteers can actually do thecollection site and the
distribution site in the sameevening.
It means, in terms of scale, itcan be a little bit smaller and
maybe sometimes volunteersmight not have anything to

(04:54):
collect, so it can be a littlebit, you know, up and down.
But I mean, you know, that'sjust a scalability thing, right?
If we get 20 more bakeries or100 more bakeries, then it's
easy.
Yeah, um, I mean, then there'salso the scalability of having
volunteers and you know umservices so on.
But but I mean, you know, thosethings I think are the easier

(05:14):
sides of the of the uh of theissue.
I think finding the bakeries isthe hardest one.

Hoiki Liu (05:18):
So yeah, if there are any bakeries out there that are
interested in have surplus food, just get in touch yeah,
because I mean, I, I do realize,uh, food waste is the number
one um in in terms of quantity.
I like to say, definitely it'sthe biggest amount of waste we
have anywhere all over the world.
Actually, even though there'speople starving, food waste is

(05:39):
still the number one waste.
So we really do need to dosomething about that now, the
way we do bun run now, wherewe're actually picking up the
surplus beds at the same nightand distributing them at the
same night For us as a volunteerand for my son, who joins me on
this distribution route.

(06:00):
He has a great time.
He feels really good aboutgiving back to the community and
the people that we're giving itto, that's receiving these
funds.
They are usually cleaningworkers.
Often there are the cardboardnannies, the cardboard grannies
that we see collecting cardboardoff the streets.

(06:20):
Occasionally it might be asecurity guard from obviously a
relatively more run-down estate,things like that, and everyone
that we've given it to has beenso thankful.

And it's not just about the items of food
that we're giving, becausethat's ultimately not like a
huge amount.
It can be maybe two or threeitems, maybe like a cake and
some bread and things like that.
It's not a lot in the grandscheme of things.
But it's also about buildingthat connection with someone.
And if you see some people onlike a weekly basis, you know
you get to build that connectionwith them.

(06:53):
And even if you only see themonce or twice, if they have
every week different volunteerstalking to them, especially for
street cleaners, you know theydon't really have many people to
talk to.
Cleaners, you know they don'treally have many people to talk
to.
It can be quite a lonely job itis, and people don't appreciate
them.
Yes, you know, and I think ifwe can just take some time just
to stand there and, you know,just have a little chat with
them, yeah, Ultimately whatwe're doing is we're just giving
them some food and having aconversation, but that's a lot

(07:15):
to them.

Hoiki Liu (07:22):
It's also bringing the cleaning ladies.
She was so happy and sothankful.
She's like there's also alittle kid here who's doing this
and she just wanted to chatwith him.
After he passed her the buns,he asked her to make her
selection.
You know, like what?
Would you like?
What can I give you?
You know, after he gave it toher, you can tell she was so
thankful and she really wantedto shake his hand.

(07:43):
But she was so thankful and shereally wanted to shake his hand.
But she was also very worriedthat, you know, my hands are not
clean.
They might be a bit wet frompicking this up or that up.
So her hands were literallylike you know, like oh, I want
to touch you but I shouldn't.
Like I'm not sure if I should.
And my son just grabbed herhand and shook it and said, you
know, in a very happy way.
It's like oh, I'm happy you gotlike what you want, you know,

(08:05):
and like what you got, like whatI can give you here.
I'm happy about that.

It's a nice way just to have a conversation
and connect with someone.

Hoiki Liu (08:11):
Even for me at the time I was after we walked away,
I was just like, oh, like I'mvery proud that you just took
her hand and shook it.
I wasn't, I didn't want to giveany instructions of what you
guys should do.
You know, I, I, I didn't knowhow to react.
Honestly, at that time I didn'tknow.
I mean, I would love for my sonto shake her hand, but at the
same time I didn't know, Ididn't want him to be like, oh,

(08:31):
I, I don't want you to touch me.
You know, I just want to.
I didn't know how he was goingto react, but I realized from
doing these walks it's reallyopened up his mind yeah and
empathy, you know, for him torealize, they to realize there
are just people like us, yeah.

Yeah, honestly, like I see people
littering and I think to myselflike to them it's just dropping
something on the floor and it'sout of sight, out of mind, but
like it's so disrespectful tostreet cleaners because I mean,
yes, they still have to go andpick up the rubbish from the
bins and stuff.
Yeah, yeah, and there's alwaysgoing to be some trash.

(09:05):
But just be a little bit moreconscious, you know, and I've
seen cigarette butts, incheslike meters from bins.
Yes, and I think to myself,like you just take a few more
steps and you just do that onesmall thing.
And actually the thing I'venoticed as well, which I really
want to do something about, istrash in areas where people are

(09:27):
driving and they just throw itout the window.
So you say, on the side of theroad you've got two streets, one
going one way, one going theother, and there's always that
little barrier in the middle.
There's always a huge buildupof trash there.

Hoiki Liu (09:37):
And the kind of trash you see is really gross.

It's not safe for them.

Hoiki Liu (09:40):
No, exactly.
So I mean yeah, it also makesme wonder, because who do we
expect to go out there and clean?

in danger.
Yeah, and the thing is like themore trash there is, the more
work we're giving to thesecleaners.
Many of them are in their youknow 60s, 70s, 80s, you know
some of them, you know, I meanall of them get paid.
They don't get paid very well,yes, and if they don't do a good
enough job cleaning up after us, they're the ones that get the

(10:08):
blame, not the people that arelittering, even though it should
be the other way around.

Hoiki Liu (10:11):
Yeah, I mean that's.
I think one of the things thatwe've been talking a lot on my
podcast is the sense ofresponsibility.
Yeah, it's, a lot of people arestarting to lose sight of their
sense of responsibility.
They they make a very clearline of what they feel they're
responsible for and what they'renot, but they forget what they
don't feel that they'reresponsible for.
Then who's responsible for?
Someone else is responsible forit?

(10:35):
I was talking to a group of kidsyesterday, so I was, you know.
I saw a lot of them had plasticbottle drinks single use
bottles and I just asked themwhat do you guys do with these
bottles when you're done?
I wasn't asking to shame themor anything.
I'm just asking to highlighthow easy it is for you to
recycle a plastic bottle,because usually the recycling is
likely right next to thegarbage bin.

(10:57):
It's just a choice of which holeof the container you're going
to put it into.
So why not put it in the onethat makes a difference, right?
You know of the containeryou're going to put it into, so
why not put it in the one thatmakes a difference?
Right?
And I'm just highlighting thatbecause actually, recycling
facilities for things likeplastic bottles, it's so easy.
But for things like clothes,like nobody knows what to do
with their clothes when it comesto the end of its days, like if

(11:19):
it's good enough, maybe youresell it, you donate it, but
what if it it's not even what ifit's so run down?
The fabrics are fraying.

You know you don't want to be disrespectful
and give that to somebody whenit's so used right, we've had a
project before where wecollected clothes to give to the
homeless people during thewinter period.
Yeah, we've had moldy jackets,we had stained t-shirts and
everything like that and I thinkyeah, I think it's.
It's one of those things out ofmy thing as well.

(11:47):
It's like, well, I've alreadygiven it away, I've done
something good, but this is whatI always call wish wishful
thinking.

Hoiki Liu (11:54):
Basically, wish donation, wish recycling.
This is all wishful thinking.

Actually, you haven't done enough well,
it's the same as well withpeople who think that they're
recycling properly, they'll havesomething that's made of
plastic, but they think, oh well, it's just plastic.
Plastic is plastic.
Plastic can be recycled.
There are so many differenttypes of plastic.
Some of them can, some of themcan't.
In hong kong, um, I mean, thereare some plastics that can be
recycled, probably more likelyin, you know, like maybe places

(12:20):
like the us or or places thatwell, anywhere other than Hong
Kong, because Hong Kong is sosmall we don't really have the
facilities.

Hoiki Liu (12:28):
Most of our recycling goes abroad, goes back to China
.

But yeah, I wanted to go back to the point
about.
We were talking about people,the kids, not knowing how to
recycle or not being consciousof it.
I think this is something thatis very, very it's a big problem
in hong kong and I, I don't,I'm not going, I don't want to
name names.
We've even had like corporateactivities where we've said

(12:55):
again and again please bring arecycle, a reusable bottle,
please bring a reusable bottle,and then people will turn up
with like the small, you knowlittle bon aqua bottles and
stuff, and I think to myselfwell, first of all, this is not
enough for a five kilometer hikeyou're going to get, you're
going to be dehydrated, yeah,second of all, you know it's a
very simple request and I don'tknow.

(13:15):
I don't want to feel like I'mshaming people over and over
again yeah but I think you knowit.
It's a very easy thing to do.
You just have a reusable bottle, put it in your bag, you go out
.

Hoiki Liu (13:25):
And that's why I think it is so easy, but at the
same time, it's something in themindset that needs to change
right.
I always say buying drinks outof a convenience store, out of a
plastic bottle.
This was an education process.
We were taught to do this theseconvenience stores with plastic

(13:47):
bottle drinks.
It didn't pop up because wewanted it.
It popped up because someonewanted to do this as a business,
and then we started buying intoit because they educated us
that this is a convenient, easyway to go, that you know we
should all be more efficientwith our life and this is what
we should do.

It's just like there are so many coffee
stores but people alreadyautomatically think of Starbucks
.
You think of fast food, youthink of McDonald's, because
it's just something that's it'sconditioned.
You're conditioned intothinking like I'm going to go
there, I'm going to go here andyou want to work somewhere, you
think Starbucks.
You know, if you need a coffeeshop, go to starbucks, get a
pacific coffee.
Um, like it's.
It's just something.
I think it's it's a culturalthing and I think they've done a

(14:30):
really good job at it.
They have yeah they have.

Hoiki Liu (14:32):
And I want to say, like globally, we've all been
easily brainwashed and you knowit is time for everyone to kind
of I like this world culture.
I like that people are digginga little deeper, looking a
little further of looking alittle further of what should
really matter to you.
Besides Bun Run, you weretalking about the hikes.

(14:55):
I want to get into the cleanupsthat you guys do too.
What cleanups do you do aroundin Hong Kong?

The way I always say it is wherever
there's trash, we'll go Anywhere.
So we do beach cleanups, so wedo stuff on coastal areas, we do
hiking cleanups, so we go alongtrails, and then we also do
something called plogging, whichis the one I mentioned earlier,
which is like running andpicking up trash.
We do that in urban areas.
We can do that here in SampoGong, we can do that in one chai

(15:27):
, we can do it in.
We have one on saturday intaikok choy, the following the
next saturday uh, two saturdayslater, so two weekends after, on
the 28th, we have one that'sgreat, like it's actually in the
local cities communities yeah,so it's basically running
picking up trash.
it's good for your physicalwell-being.
It's good for your mentalwell-being because most of the
time when we do, we're in niceareas Not nice as in well-to-do

(15:51):
areas, but somewhere wherethere's some level of visual
beauty.
So, like promenades and placeslike that, we like to run in
areas where there's maybesomething to see, because it's
nice to have layers to what wedo.
So we're running, but we'realso getting some places where
we can take some pictures.

Hoiki Liu (16:08):
You can actually appreciate the beauty around you
and then see the church andthen realize you don't want this
here, where it's such abeautiful space for you to take
your photos and enjoy thescenery.

Even in places like this, you could run,
like the Tsim Sha Tsuipromenade, and you might not
think that there's a lot oftrash in terms of like size, but
volume, in terms of like eachindividual item Lots of little
things, a lot of little things.
So cigarette butts maybe, likedrinks, bottles, things like
that.

Hoiki Liu (16:42):
So many cigarette butts, so many cigarette butts,
so many cigarette butts and yeahthe only time it's really the
trash cleaners really made animpact on my son was actually
during COVID times.
It was after a typhoon.
The tides brought all thisgarbage in, but what really made
an impact on him that time wasjust the sheer amount of
disposable masks yeah lots of usnow, nowadays, we're spending
money without thinking about the, the end product responsibility

(17:07):
, which is what actually, in thegarment and the fashion
industry we've been talkingabout, because clothes, like I
said, there's nowhere for it togo at the end of the day.
So where does to this, thatresponsibility fall on?
Who should it fall on and whereshould it go right, um you see
those videos of like um.

I think it's like places like in Southeast
Asia, like the mountains.

Hoiki Liu (17:26):
Yes, yes, yes.
And then there's in SoutheastAsia, in Chile, in Africa.
There's so many parts of theworld that's got these, you know
, clothing deserts already.
It really can't go on.
Like the sausage reminding thechildren I was like you know,
whatever environmentalresponsibility and this doesn't
go for just clothing, foreverything that we do
environmental responsibility,and this doesn't go for just
solving, for everything that wedo, whatever environmental
responsibility that we are notpaying for today.

(17:48):
We're all paying for it.

forward, going forward in consequence
every single thing that you'rebuying has an end life.

Hoiki Liu (17:57):
I guess exactly and I told them, like yesterday was
in Hong Kong, the hottest day inhistory for June.
It got up to 38 degrees, 38.5degrees at the mountaintop it's
the hottest it's ever been.
This is a very clear sign ofglobal warming.
So I told the kids that youknow maybe you guys wouldn't
even realize this yet but youare already suffering from what

(18:21):
we didn't pay for in historicaltimes.
It's already been paid for.
We're already suffering fromthis climate change pay for in
historical times.
It's already been paid for.
We're already suffering fromthis climate change Like it's
June.
It shouldn't be this hot inHong Kong at least you know and
it's only going to get worse ifwe don't take action now.

Yeah, it doesn't feel like there's like
an exact connection between whatwe're doing and like preventing
climate change, like there'slike an exact connection between
what we're doing and likepreventing climate change.
But I think if we can encouragepeople to be sort of more
conscious as consumers, thenhopefully we can encourage less
things to be produced, becausetaking the trash from the
beaches and stuff is good forprotecting the local environment

(19:00):
and the local creatures andstuff.
But in terms of the warming upof the planet, I mean maybe to
the degree that trash isaffecting the ocean, I guess you
could argue that trashaffecting the ocean and killing
species means that the ocean isslowly quote-unquote dying.

(19:21):
And if the ocean is suffering,then it means that it's
absorbing less oxygen, becausethe ocean is absorbing more
carbon dioxide they take in morecarbon than the Amazon
rainforest.
So maybe you could argue thatwhat we do does help with
climate change Also.

Hoiki Liu (19:37):
I want to say that you guys raise awareness as the
main thing, yeah.

We need to make sure that people buy less
and are more conscious consumers, because if you're a conscious
consumer and you're buying less,that means that those who are
producing it will produce lessand the amount of emissions that
are coming out from all ofthese things being produced,
especially nowadays.
I mean, western countries havejumped on this, on the we've had
, obviously, we've got taobao,yeah, and people have been using

(20:03):
taobao for, you know, quite along time in in hong kong and in
in mainland china.
But now that you know peopleare becoming more aware of it in
in western countries.
You know, there's like timu andum sheen and things like that.
More and more people are buyingthese like super cheap items
which are being produced andpeople think, oh, it's cheap

(20:26):
because of the cheap labor inchina.
It's not just because of that,it's because of the lax, um, of
the environmental, exactly.
Yeah, because you see it, likecompanies in china, they'll
produce things and then all ofthe chemicals and the waste just
gets poured into the riversit's.

Hoiki Liu (20:42):
I think it's getting better now.
It depends on where you are so,but yeah, like I would have to
say, I pretty much know like thefactories start making things
for the really cheap markets.

Don't trust them.

Hoiki Liu (20:54):
I'd say no, like there's regulation in China, but
like any other country, it's ahuge place.
If there's people that's goingto try to jump through loopholes
, there's probably ways to do itone way or the other.
Mainly that you know, if we'retalking policy-wise and this is
where it stands becausepolicy-wise even though I'll
have to say the China governmentI can see them doing a lot on

(21:16):
the environmental front for thecountry, but that's very much on
the government end.
For example, if you look on asatellite map now, china looks
very green compared to 10, 20years ago.
It's because they're plantingso many trees.
But the policies for thepolicies for the businesses,

(21:38):
it's not quite there yet.

Yeah.

Hoiki Liu (21:41):
I think going back to the trees Mainly for the
policies is for theenvironmental stuff, even even
though, because they were veryforward in the Paris agreement,
the Basel agreement, china waslike one of the ones that said
they're going to do all this andI can say firsthand, I've had
factories in the main city zoneswhere China doesn't want it
anymore because they want tochange this area into a more

(22:03):
green area.
I had to leave basically withinthe month.
It was an instant cut.
So the difference there is whenthey want to make a change on
something, it can happen veryfast.
You might not even have time toadapt to it.
I like to say for people who areforward thinking, as running a
business in China, they need tobe forward thinking so they
don't just suddenly get shutdown when the government catches

(22:26):
them.
They might not even be catchingyou for doing the wrong thing,
it's just you're not in theright area at the right time and
you've got some wastewaterissues or whatever, and this is
not the type of industry we wantin this area.
So if you don't want to bestuck in that, you need to think
forward because they arechanging.

You say this , but I've seen videos from
people sharing things on, maybelike Douyin and stuff like that.
And they're calling outfactories in their area that
have been polluting rivers andstuff.
So that's what I mean by.

Hoiki Liu (22:56):
It depends on which area you're in.

This was in Guangzhou.

Hoiki Liu (22:58):
So if you're in a first tier city, because even if
in the cities they'll have theoutskirts and their main
internal city right.
So this internal city, they'regoing to make it as clean as
possible.
Usually you find thosefactories are slightly towards
the outskirts and more ruralareas where the local
governments haven't cracked downon them as tough as they should

(23:19):
.

Which is a real shame.
And this is the thing, Like Ithink, because of the scale, of
how many factories there arethat are breaking the rules, it
really is like unprecedented.

Hoiki Liu (23:33):
And I also want to say it's also often we think
it's the younger generationthat's shopping on Shein, you
know like, and it is truebecause a lot of kids haven't
figured out quite what they.
They want to look like it.
You know what I want to dressin and unfortunately secondhand

(23:53):
fashion is hasn't taken offquite as fast as someone like
shin you know, both are cheap,both are full of fashion cloth
treasures for you to find, youknow.
But one is making products thatyou can only wear twice, two,
three times.
One is a timeless product, youknow.
You can wear it and you canprobably resell it if you want,

(24:14):
but a lot of kids haven't gottenquite to that yet.
But with that said, what I'mtrying to state here is it's not
just children that's theproblem, that's buying shin.
A lot of the older generationsare the ones that shopping off
timu and taobao, and you knowwhy.
I actually I spoke to my dadabout this this morning.
He wanted to buy a discountedcoffee.
You know, like I'm gonna getthis coffee today because
they're on discount.

(24:35):
I'm like, is that a really goodcoffee?
It's like.
No, I'm like, but we havecoffee at home, like we have
great coffee at home.

You have great coffee at home people are
so absorbed, like taken in bycheap.
Yeah, I see, like, discount 50off this, this, this even big
companies, I think is um, Ithink I saw an image recently it
was on.
It was walmart in the us and um, the caption was saying
something like you know, all ofthese companies talk about their
sustainability goals and at thesame time, they're selling all

(25:01):
of these products at such adiscounted, cheap price.
And it's like like I think itwas like swimming, those things
when you go swimming, not anoodle, but like the floaty type
thing.
Yes, yes, yes and yeah.
I think to myself like but thisis the thing companies can get
away with it, because, insteadof saying we will do this, they
say we aim to do this by 2030.
Not everybody can get away by2050.

Hoiki Liu (25:22):
So I was highlighting to the children yesterday.
Actually, then you won't findthis in mainstream news, that's
why most people don't see it,but actually just to search
online, you'll find Adidas.
At the beginning of April Ibelieve it was April 2nd, april
3rd in Germany they got sued byan NGO for basically

(25:42):
greenwashing and the NGO won, soGermany had banned Adidas from
advertising anything aboutcarbon neutrality.
You know going green.
You're not allowed to say thatbecause there's no evidence and
there's no proof and there's nosuggestion in anything that
you're doing company-wise thatshows us that you're actually

(26:02):
trying to move towards this goal, besides using this as an angle
to do more sales.

I think even in Hong Kong there's
greenwashing.
I mean definitely there's a lotof greenwashing in Hong Kong.

Hoiki Liu (26:14):
I think more governments and more
policymakers need to really takethat stand and be like you.
Can't just blatantly tell liesto push more sales, especially
when it's totally like you said.
It's 100 percent in opposingdirections of what you claim
that you're going to be doing.

For us.
We have a lot of like companiesthat join us for like corporate
activities, which I reallyenjoy because it's a nice way to
Well, I like meeting new people.
What we do is really good forlike team building and stuff.
This is not like a shamelessplug, I promise yeah, yeah, yeah
but, um, I like doing it.
But I think when we get thatsort of initial contact with a
company and they say we'relooking to do some sort of

(26:55):
corporate social responsibilityprogram, like an activity or
something, what, what do youguys do?
And we say what we do and thenyou can hear them, sort of like
you, what they'll respond, andthey say like, oh, can we just
do it for this little?
You know, like they want to cutthe amount of time or they want
to do it for, like you know,they want to basically go take
some pictures and then leave andand yeah, I think companies

(27:17):
like that.
I try and either stay clear ofthem as much as I can or just
try to explain to them like look, what we do is not just a
publicity stunt for you guys.
What we want to do is we wantto educate people.
We want us and our events to bea platform for people to learn
not just about what the problemsare but how they can fix it,
what they can do, maybe as a asa company, within their

(27:38):
organization.
So many companies say that theyhave, you know, they recycle.
They don't recycle yeah.
I've been, I yeah, I've spokento, we've had so many corporate
events and stuff.
And there are always peoplewithin the companies who will
say, actually we don't do thisor we don't do that, or we could
do this more, we could do thatbetter.
And I think to myself, maybe Ican just go in and actually just

(27:59):
sit down with them and make alittle action plan for them,
because I think it would help.
And some companies, you know, Imean credit where credit's due.
You know, some companies havebeen amazing, like the
communication between us andthem is amazing.
When they get involved in ouractivities.
They get stuck in Because Imean, you know, we do a lot of
cleanup activities that are inthe heat in the summer.

(28:22):
You know it's not easy work,but we still make it fun.
We make it, you know, anenjoyable event.
No, but we still make it fun.
We make it, you know, anenjoyable event.
Usually we finish by going tolike and sometimes, you know,
maybe go to a bar or something,yeah, and it's always nice
because companies will like havetheir little sort of get
together afterwards andsometimes they'll ask me if I

(28:42):
want to join, which means freedrinks, which is nice, which is
nice, yeah, and it's nicebecause then I get to sort of
connect with them after theevent to sort of learn a bit
more about what they thoughtbefore and what they thought
after.
And for those people who dobring plastic bottles and stuff
like I said, you know it doeshappen I think it's just a good
way for them to sort of makethat connection between.

(29:02):
This is the problem and this ishow I'm contributing to it and
then you know breaking that sortof cycle of me contributing to
it, because I think, to behonest, okay, fine, Things like
Pocari, sweat, things like that,if you're feeling, you know,
dehydrated, get a bottle If youreally need one or something
like that.
Or you know, sometimes you knowI've been in this situation

(29:24):
where I haven't been fullyprepared and I'm in like an area
where there isn't reallyanything to buy, that's like
plastic free, so I might buy asandwich or something, and you
can't avoid it.
It's not completely unavoidable, but you know at least water.
You know you can just bring areusable bottle.

(29:44):
There are water fountainseverywhere.
You can go into a restaurant,ask them to fill up their water
bottle and stuff you know.
Go into a Starbucks or a coffee, any coffee shop, and just say,
can I get ice water?
And they'll do it.

Hoiki Liu (29:55):
I think this is a habit.
The problem probably with theparticipants that's bringing the
plastic bottle is it didn'teven cross their mind that they
can do that.

Even after being reminded a few times.

Hoiki Liu (30:05):
Yes, yes, yes.
But I think it's just this butbeing on the cleanup probably
made a bigger impact on them.
Yeah.

Because you see just how bad it can be.
I think the most we'vecollected in one beach cleanup
was 750 kilograms.
That's crazy.
Usually it's between maybe like80 to 150.

Hoiki Liu (30:26):
Yeah, 700 is really.
It's a lot yeah.

And that was in Shekau.
And the funniest thing well,it's not funny, actually, it's
quite depressing.
The same area we did twocleanups within a month and a
half and we collected just over1.2 tons in that one area and
that's already a governmentbeach.

Hoiki Liu (30:45):
No, it's not.

It's not it's second at all.
So you've got sheko, the mainbeach, right.
You've got like the back areaand then there's like a little
rocky sort of area where peoplesometimes go like over there to
like go like maybe like kayakingor like like do the paddle
boarding and stuff and that'swhy you've started kayak
cleanups, because you're goingto where the the cleaners can't
go right exactly, and it's it'sfun and it's fun, it's really

(31:08):
fun.
Yeah, we we did one recently insaikung and we've got another
one on the 22nd of june okay,yes, you're welcome to join.

Hoiki Liu (31:15):
I love to bring my kids here.

Yeah, definitely it's kid friendly, we
do.
If, um, what we do is we havethere's like two people kayaks.
The reason being is because youcan put more trash on the
kayaks, but also for people whoare not so confident, you can
have one person at the frontwho's like the experienced rower
and one person at the back justbasically taking it easy and
looking like they're doing.
Yeah, yeah, so I, the kayakingevent, the most recent one we

(31:38):
did um, we, I, the person whowas with me amazing person,
don't get me wrong like she'sreally committed to the cause
yeah but um, I was like, I waskayaking at the front and this
person, I, I was like was shecracking at one side?
I stopped for a while and I wasjust thinking, okay, let's, I'll
just stop and see what happens.

Hoiki Liu (31:58):
We weren't moving, but, um, I had one time where I
had a friend in the back whoonly kayaked on one side and so
we kept spinning.

I think that was what was happening with us
as well, but, um, but be fair,we managed to get to where we
needed to and it was nice,because we obviously have so
many different kayaks and we'reall racing to see who can have
fun.
While some people are racing,some people are taking it easy.
But yeah, we went from Sai Kung, we went to Beach Cool Lapsap

(32:26):
Town.
Oh wow, what a name yeah yeah,only a little bit of Lapsap Town
.
Oh wow, what a name.
Yeah, yeah, only a little bitof Lapsap.

Hoiki Liu (32:30):
Okay.

It's not really that Lapsap yeah.

Hoiki Liu (32:32):
So in English that would be Garbage Bay, trash Bay,
garbage Bay, trash Bay.

Or Rubbish Bay, yeah, if you're British.
So we went there and then weprobably collected about two
bags full, oh, and from there wefilled up maybe, I think, eight
bags.

Hoiki Liu (32:50):
I was going to say two bags is not too bad.
Yeah, yeah, it was 60.
But eight on the next part,yeah.

It was just under 70 kilograms when we
finished, and what else?
We went to another island.
We didn't do any trash pickingup there because I was worried
that with the number of peoplewe wouldn't be able to carry it
all back.

Hoiki Liu (33:13):
Yeah.

Although in hindsight I think we could have
and then we went from there toanother place.
So we went to four differentlocations and there's like a
little rocky area.
It's like a little.
It's meant to be a sandbar, butit's just rocks.
But we went there and it wasreally nice.
We took some photos at thelighthouse, walked around a
little bit and it was just aperfect day.

(33:35):
It was a little bit overcast,so it wasn't sunny, it wasn't
super hot, but yeah, and then wefinished and then we went to
grab some food afterwards.
It's nice, you can just make aday of it.
Yeah and yeah.
So I want to start doing thosemore and more.
We've just applied for somegovernment funding for that.
Okay, great, so we canhopefully start to do that on a

(33:55):
regular basis.
But the project is targetedtowards working with domestic
helpers, basically, oh, okay.
So the plan is every otherweekend we will have a kayaking
event.
Right, provided that we get thefunding we can do, because I
mean renting them and everything.

Hoiki Liu (34:11):
Yeah, because exactly I was gonna say, at the end of
the day, transportation costs,all this needs to be factored in
somehow, right?
Yeah, well, maybe people forgetthat with um ngos, it's great
that sometimes we physicallyit's actually not.
Sometimes it's always great forus to physically go and do
something, because that's whereyou get the awareness and the

(34:31):
impact.
But at the same time, thedonations is just as important,
often because you need people torun the operation.

People donate their time and that's
amazing, but we need people todonate their money as well.

Hoiki Liu (34:44):
Yes, for me, I've always been very uncomfortable
asking for money, because it'slike you know this is so mean
probably on my part, but Ialways like to say like after a
trash cleanup, sort the trashand take pictures of where it's
from and ask those companies forthe end product responsibility.

They should do, they should do.
Yeah, but then this is thething Once you buy the product,
they will just argue that it'son the consumer's.
Yeah, you know, it's on theconsumer to deal with the trash,
because they have it all on thepackaging, right?
Please recycle responsibly.

Hoiki Liu (35:20):
And bottle recycling.
Like I said, it's already aseasy as it can get.
Yeah.

Yeah, which is why I don't understand why
most of the trash that we findis stuff that, if it was clean,
if it wasn't contaminated by allof the stuff in the ocean and
everything, or had been therefor so long that we could
recycle it yeah, plastic bottles, styrofoam, things like that.

Hoiki Liu (35:41):
The only thing that's not is cigarette butts.
Probably right, can we recyclecigarette butts?

This is something I've really wanted to
do for a long time.

Hoiki Liu (35:48):
Yeah.

But I need some help with it.
I don't have the scientificbackground.
Cigarette butts are made ofcellulose acetate.

Hoiki Liu (35:57):
Yes, yes, it's polyester still right.

It's basically, you could
hypothetically purify it, removethe chemicals and then just
turn it into fiber and you canmake it into bags.
You can make it into bags, youcan make it into clothes, you
can make it into whatever youwant.

Hoiki Liu (36:11):
Hong Kong doesn't have the the idea still seems
gross with the tar andeveryone's, but 100% it's fibers
, yes, and you can clean it ifyou do it.

I mean to be honest.
The only thing is, I think inHong Kong it would be difficult
because the facilities and therentals and everything for that
would be so expensive.

Hoiki Liu (36:30):
Yeah, we would definitely have to be a project
that's with probably the GreaterBay Area Like the facilities
will need to be in the GreaterBay Area, where the collection
can be out of Hong Kong.
Of course you know theorganization.

Yes, yeah, but the problem is with that.
There's different jurisdictions.

Hoiki Liu (36:48):
We need government policymakers to jump in and help
us.

Yeah, you can't shift cigarette butts that
are covered, you know, filledwith toxins and you know all
these different chemicals.
You can't even import it.

Hoiki Liu (36:59):
No, yeah, Actually my son's school.
There was one time where wejust cleaned up the area around
the school.

Yeah, that's what we do sometimes.

Hoiki Liu (37:08):
And the amount of cigarette butts absolutely
turned the kids off.
They were like why are so manypeople smoking?

and it made me feel like I'm like yes,
because my son's never gonnahave a cigarette after this and
the funniest thing is, as well,we're not funny um, the
interesting thing is you can seeall the different brands and
you can actually see like whichbrands you know are the most
popular and stuff.
One thing that's holdingcigarette recycling back, I
think, in hong kong, if wewanted to do it, is the amount

(37:36):
that are like flavored, you know, the ones with the little
cookie things inside.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, because Imean, ultimately you could just
take the entire cigarette, butif you wanted to throw it in
with the paper and everything,just grind it down and then
purify it that way, those littleballs inside, that's kind of
affecting the process, I wouldsay, to some degree.

(37:56):
But I mean, I'm not a scientist, I'm not an expert.
If there's anybody who'swatching who would love to get
involved, because I think, yeah,I mean, to be honest, even the
first thing that we could do andone thing I really want to do,
uh, like a project that I'm I'mhoping to get started is having

(38:18):
more tactfully placed cigarettebins, because this is the thing,
like, what do we have in hongkong?
we've got some of those binswhich people can put them in,
but for every one of thosethere's probably like five or
six bins, where it's just thetiny little one yeah and for
every one of those, or everylike sort of 10 of those,
there's like another 20 whichare not right, suitable for

(38:39):
cigarettes yeah, and then, andeven the ones that has that on
top, you often find peoplethrowing different types of
trash in it.

Hoiki Liu (38:46):
So it's not not just cigarette butts.
And then sometimes you see,like I've seen people, just you
know, maybe they're from a shopby the street and the garbage
can is just near outside theshop.
So occasionally I've seen likeshopkeepers come out and just
pour water onto the top becausepeople throw so much garbage in
it, and then somebody elsethrows a cigarette, and then
it's like you know smoky andit's gross, yeah, and also like

(39:16):
the heavy metals as well.

Like if we are filling trash bags with
cigarette butts and they're notbeing properly treated and
they're going to landfill, likeall of that is just adding to,
like the all of that have allthose heavy metals will be just
leaching into the ground, whichis just not good for the local
environment really.
But um, but yeah, I mean,cigarettes are terrible.
I honestly I don't know why wehave so many bans.

(39:37):
I mean I don't support vaping,but we've got, you know, these
new government bans on on vapingand yet, at the same time, it's
okay to smoke cigarettes it's'spowerful.
I'm always saying yeah cigarettelobbies have been around for a
much longer time and I thinkthis is the thing it's easier to
regulate with cigarettes.

(39:57):
It's not as easy to regulatewith electronic cigarettes.
So, that's why they wouldrather just have the traditional
cigarettes.
I mean, I haven't always beeneco-conscious yes, no, no,
because I mean honestly, evenjust't always been eco-conscious
yes, no, no, because I meanhonestly, even like just before
I started Green Hour, I'd neverdone any charity work.

Hoiki Liu (40:15):
Yes, I was going to say how did you let's jump back
to that.
I totally almost missed thatquestion how did you even start
Green Hour?
And before that, why did youwant to give back to society?
Like what was that?

It was, honestly, it was just like that,
like um.
So, I think, prior to then, theonly volunteering I had ever
done, I joined a running, sortof like a little mini marathon.
I think I ran like fivekilometers and it was like
raising money for um, likeleukemia research or something
like that, because my thenlecturer at university, his

(40:53):
youngest daughter, had leukemia.
Okay, so I raised some fundsfor that and that was the only
volunteering I had done prior toGreen Hour.
Okay, and then it was like 2017, it was like New Year's Eve and
I was with my friend and wewere just having a few drinks
and talking about what we wantedto do in the new year.
Um, and I just thought, okay, Iwant to do something when I go

(41:14):
back to Hong Kong Cause this waswhen I was in the UK visiting
family and I came back to HongKong I joined a few different
volunteering events.
Um, I did a couple of likedifferent activities.
A couple of them were likebeach cleanups and stuff, and
actually the thing that reallyset me off was we joined this

(41:35):
event with a charity I won'tname names, which will become
apparent as to why so they didthis big event.
I think it was like 100 people.
We had people from the EuropeanChamber of Commerce for Hong
Kong and Macau, big, big event,big party afterwards.
But then, after the event hadfinished, all of the volunteers

(41:58):
well, not all, but most of thevolunteers were having their own
little meals and picnics andstuff with single-use lides and
forks, plastic, the gloves toeat, things like this.
And I thought you know there'ssuch a huge disconnect that I
thought you know I want to dothis.
But, having worked as a teacherfor a few years already, I
thought I can hopefully get thismessage across better.

(42:20):
And, yeah, so I just thoughtI'd give it a try.
And I can't remember our firstevent actually, I don't remember
when it was.
I think it was May 2018 and itwent well, I guess, because I'm
still doing it and then westarted doing the plogging in

(42:40):
like September 2018 and theplogging really took off because
it was so.
Plogging is it comes from aSwedish term which is plocka up,
which means to pick up, yeah,and that's the PL.
And then the ogging is jogging.
Right, so picking up litter andjogging.
That started around 2017, 2016in like Sweden and some other

(43:04):
places, and it became verypopular in 2018.
And I just saw it on myFacebook feed and I thought why
not try it?
In Hong Kong, the first event,we only had one person turn up
and it was okay.
And actually that guy has hejoined quite a lot of times.
I haven't seen him for a while.
I think, yeah, I'm going tohave to go.
I want to get back in touch withhim because he joined almost

(43:24):
every event for a while, I think, until, like I think, the
pandemic Okay.

Hoiki Liu (43:29):
Yeah.

Our volunteer audience changed a lot
, I think, because we stoppedfor a couple of months or maybe
like half a year.
We didn't really have a lot, soit sort of died down Right, we
had like a new core volunteergroup, but I mean, we've still
got some people who've beenthere since the beginning.
But yeah, I have been theresince the beginning.

(43:53):
But, um, but yeah, I justwanted to do something and I I
liked meeting new people.
I still like meeting new people.
I think it's.
It's nice.
You know most of my friends I'vemet through through green hour,
like I have, you know, somereally good friends because of
it.
Um, in fact, my birthday is onthursday tomorrow.
Yeah, early, it's on the earlybirthday, thank you.
So my birthday's tomorrow.
And one of my friends I knowbecause she joined a

(44:14):
volunteering event and we didn'tknow each other that well the
first time we met Well, I mean,prior to that, we didn't know
each other, but we didn't get toknow each other that much.
But then she was one of thevolunteers who joined for our
booth at the Coldplay class.
Oh, okay, yeah, so we got toknow each other quite well then.
And then she joined thekayaking event recently and so
we're going to go for somedrinks together tomorrow with

(44:36):
her boyfriend and a few otherpeople.
So it's nice, nice.
I feel like I've built a goodcommunity of people and,
honestly, my favorite thing isthat there are people who join
and they meet other people andthen they go off and hang out
together themselves, so I'mhelping people to build
friendships, which I'm reallyproud of.

Hoiki Liu (44:56):
It's also a great way to get a community that has the
same passion for the samethings to come together.
So I don't have to explain toyou about sustainability anymore
.
It kind of makes a differenceif you just go and do it right.
It's like what you said at thebeginning there are companies
that join and they just wantpicture offs yeah you go to
certain um events where you feelthis like they're doing

(45:18):
something great, and the end ofthe day, there's this huge
disconnect and you don'tunderstand why I've gone to
those things too.
Um, I was at a round table.
At it, I was just going to sayI was in roundtable Italy last
year.
It was a sustainable roundtablewhere we're discussing about
sustainability and, you know, inItaly everyone drinks out of
plastic.
Nobody drinks tap water forsome reason, even though, like,

(45:41):
we buy Italian water.
But they get the waters in abottle.

So but when we have my grandmother's from
Italyaly.

Hoiki Liu (45:49):
yeah, we don't drink it from the tap either it's like
unheard of for some reason,right, but we're at this.
There's a lot of distrust.

Just like hong kong, tap water is is
drinkable, yes, but people don'tthink that it's okay to drink
because it's just theirperception.
Yeah, but actually most modernbuildings in hong kong, from
like yes, 20, from like 1995onwards, any of those buildings
1995 is considered modern.
Most of those buildings thewater is completely fine to
drink from as long as you runthe tap for a while.

(46:18):
But sorry, carry on.

Hoiki Liu (46:19):
No, I'm just saying even if you add a filter right,
and I would assume if I can adda filter to my filter in Hong
Kong and then get filtered waterand just you know if I need
boil it I should be able to dothe same in Italy.
But I was at this round tableand this entire Italy trip I've
never seen a single Italiandrink from tap water.

(46:39):
Everyone drinks from a bottle.
But what I think I was mostshocked was when we were here to
sit down to discuss aboutsustainability and what we
should do about it.
In front of each participantthere was a bottle of water, but
not a glass bottle, a plasticbottle of water.

That surprises me, because San
Pellegrino is a very famousItalian brand and they're all in
glass bottles.

Hoiki Liu (47:01):
Exactly so.
We got a plastic bottle ofwater and then next to that
plastic bottle of water we got alittle plastic cup water and
then next to that plastic bottleof water we got a little
plastic cup right and you'relike that's the kind of
disconnect that is like what amI doing here, like why am I?

even people will just argue because you can
recycle it.

Hoiki Liu (47:18):
So it's like I'm sure like, why are we like, why are
we even having this discussion,if this most basic bottom line
hasn't even been considered?
Yeah, which it's kind of crazy,but people talk so much about.

You can recycle something, but instead
of recycling, you just refuse itin the first place, and then
that's the thing.
First thing is refuse recycling.
Something still takes, you know, energy, energy and power.

Hoiki Liu (47:40):
Yeah and also, I mean I, I showed up just as I said.
Well, given you need to give usa bottle of water, I'll give
you that, but, like you, itcould have been a glass bottle.
It's not.
Then why the plastic cup,though?
Like, if I already need todrink out of plastic, I might as
well drink out of the plasticbottle.
Why would you give me an extraplastic cup?
And it's like a dingy, flimsycup.

(48:01):
Makes no sense.
But there's something else thatyou were saying earlier that
caught my attention and I wantto go back to.
It is the coldplay concert.
Okay, I know you guys got abooth at the coldplay concert.
That's super fun.
Can you tell us more about it?
Um, what happened there?
Uh, how did you get the boothand how was it?
How were the the attendantsreceiving the booth?

well, basically I got a message.
So there's a charity calledGlobal Citizen and Coldplay is,
I guess, like a member, likebasically they have big
celebrities who are globalcitizens and I guess maybe Chris
Martin and the rest of Coldplay.
I saw them three times.
I should know their names bynow.

Hoiki Liu (48:42):
I think one's called Johnny, one's called Guy and the
other one I forget the name Ilistened to the music, but I
have to tell you like I was like, oh, I'll pass on a concert.
I'm sure you have enoughvolunteers.
That's what I said, right, um.
But now that I realize howgreen and what a sustainable
message they're carrying across,I'm becoming more of a fan yeah

(49:04):
, that was such good music, Ididn't listen, I've always liked
the music, but I didn't thinkanything more than I'll listen
to it every now and then.

But yeah.
So they reached out, globalCitizen, and they asked they
said, oh, we're reaching out tocharities in Hong Kong.
We have two spaces available tohold a booth.
Tell us a bit about yourselves.
So I just told them and theywere like, yeah, cool, we'll
pick you guys.
And so I just told them andthey were like, yeah, cool,

(49:39):
we'll pick you guys.
And I was like, okay, cool,that's great.
So we got picked and we had abooth there for the four days
and we had a few differentactivities there.

Hoiki Liu (49:42):
First of all, we had face painting.

so after all the crowd, yeah, and that was
that.
That got a little bit out ofcontrol on the first two days
because we had a huge row ofpeople and for us we wanted to
try to reach, connect more with,like the Hong Kong audience,
because we want people who canjoin us as volunteers.
But there were people from allover and we sort of adapted very
quickly and we were like, well,you know, it's fine, we can get
people to subscribe to ournewsletter and stuff.

Hoiki Liu (50:06):
Just get the message out is always a good thing too.

The biggest difficulty was when we had
people from the mainland whodon't have Instagram and only
have, like, a QQ email, and soit was very difficult because I
thought, well, we don't, reallythere's no way we can.
We don't have much of apresence in mainland China, but
it was nice because we got toconnect with different people

(50:30):
and I think it was nice to talkto people from different
backgrounds.
We met people from Central Asia, india, australia.
There were some people from theUK because they couldn't get
tickets in London, so theytraveled to Hong Kong.

Hoiki Liu (50:44):
I didn't know.
Hong Kong was already hard toget tickets.

from what I heard, Already not as hard as
London, even though London's gotlike 10 dates, yeah, um, but
yeah so.
So we had a booth there, we dida couple of activities.
We just sort of shared a littlebit about who we were, um, had
lots of nice conversations.
The face painting was nicebecause, as someone's having
their face painted, you know youcan talk a little bit about the
charity, because they're not,they can't go anywhere no,

(51:08):
they're stuck yeah, yeah, andthe more elaborate the face
paint is, the longer you cantalk to yeah so yeah, um, so
that was fun.
We we did some activities.
We did like a little thingwhere so it's like you know,
there's like basketball, tossthings.
So we had something similar,but we had like a little basket
yeah and they had like a litterpicker and people had to like
try and throw some trash into it, and if they did it they get

(51:29):
like a little badge and stuffyeah yeah, yeah, um, just little
things like that.
My favorite part of it, to behonest, was seeing them seeing
Coldplay live.
Not sure, no, I say that myfavorite part was being with the
volunteers, because we got toconnect, which is really nice.
I think if I saw Coldplay threetimes just by myself, I
wouldn't enjoy it.
Yeah, um, but being with themwas nice and each evening was a

(51:51):
different experience because wewere with different people.
Um, and yeah, I honestly likeit's so nice to see how much
people will go above and beyondas well, not just because
they're getting to see coldplay,but, like after the Coldplay
thing.
You know a lot of the volunteersthat joined and we've, you know

(52:12):
, formed a connection.
Um, you know, they're stillwilling to help.
You know, some people will say,like, you know, like, if I just
reach out and say, oh, I needhelp with this or I need help
with that, they'll be like, yeah, yeah, I can do this, I can do
that, right, and and it's it'snice to feel that you know, like
, people have faith in what wedo, people believe in what we do

(52:32):
, which is nice, becausesometimes I don't really have
full confidence in what we'redoing Every now and then we'll
get a little burnt out, rightyeah?
definitely.

Hoiki Liu (52:45):
Yeah, especially on days where you have a bun run
surplus but there's novolunteers, you're kind of just
like oh, this is a little bitdiscouraging and I'm sure we'll
all feel that.
But yeah, I hope the wholeColdplay experience will get the
awareness of Green Hour outthere to generate more
volunteers to come in.

Yeah, I think we managed to get a lot of
people interested.
So far we haven't had any Imean, I don't think so any
volunteers who were at theColdplay concert, who who are
joining because they saw usthere, but it's still early days
yes, and hopefully theawareness is slowly seeping in.

Hoiki Liu (53:24):
how?
For the audience who are alsocurious if they want to join or
they might want to start theirown thing, first of all, how
would they join Green Hour ifthey want to join?

So all of our events are on our website so
you can go to wwwgreenhourhkcom.
We also post everything.
We share all the information onour Instagram page, which is
Green Hour HK.
We do have a WhatsApp communityas well, so people can just
directly join and theneverything is also shared in
there.
I think we've got about 520,530 people just in the WhatsApp

(53:56):
group, so that's good.
Every day I'll post something,or maybe every two or three days
I'll just share.
Oh, we've got an event, I think, in the next five, six weeks
We've got about yeah maybe nextfour or so weeks.
We've got like five or sixevents, some plugging activities
.
We've got a beach cleanup,we've got a trail cleanup.
We're doing a beach cleanup inMacau on the 29th of June.

Hoiki Liu (54:22):
Are you guys also in Macau, or is it like a Hong Kong
NGO going to Macau today?

We're just going to go to Macau and just do
a little bit there, Just have alittle day trip.
Go there, do some sightseeing,pick up some trash and then
maybe go for some foods.

Hoiki Liu (54:38):
It's a good experiment, community building,
giving back to society all inone go.

Honestly, I want to make sure that what we
do is not just about doing abeach cleaner.
I want it to be more than that.
I want it to be more than justpicking up trash, because you
can do that by yourself.
Yeah, if you wanted to, yeah,why join us?
So the reason why I thinkpeople should join us is because
, well, I think we're quite nicepeople, our team are quite nice

(55:07):
, our volunteers are good andour core volunteers, the ones
who join very regularly, they'revery friendly people and I
think I mean maybe I'm biasedbecause I mean I just like them
I think most of our volunteersnot most, all of our volunteers-
I believe, and we have goodvolunteer retention as well.
We've got people who join andthen they'll join again and

(55:29):
again, and again, yeah, yeah, soyeah, I think I just want it to
be more and more engaging andmore fun and I want to be more
adventurous as well.
So we've got the kayaking stuff.
In the future, we want to domore things like go take a junk
boat, go out.
So that's probably the plan forlike maybe October time We'll
take a a junk boat, go out.
Um, so that's probably the planfor like maybe october time

(55:50):
we'll take a big junk boat.
We'll get like maybe like 40 50people right head out, go to
like a beach, clean that beachup, have a little party go back
so it's like for me.
I think we want to just have anevent and then have some added
value.
So, for example, um, there's anorganization called the bird
watching.
It's the hong kong birdwatching association.

(56:11):
We've recently reached out tothem and hopefully we can create
like a project together wherewe can do a trail cleanup and do
bird watching at the same time.
So it's always like a cleanupplus something, yeah, so, um,
that's great.

Hoiki Liu (56:24):
so, beyond just having the everyday activities
that we've already known, we areadding more activities.
So your volunteers not only getto, they're not becoming only
environmentally aware orsocially aware, it's even
opening up the world ofenjoyment of things they can do.

And it's so good for your physical
well-being and your mentalwell-being being out in nature
but also doing something that isI mean, it is quite a
physically intense activity.
Hiking, you know, is good foryour legs.
Beach cleanups, or any cleanup,actually is good for your arms,
because you're carrying thetrash, the plugging, you know
we're going running, thekayaking, all these things.
It is kind of a little bit of afitness thing.

Hoiki Liu (57:04):
It's a fitness thing and I also think like we
probably won't think about thisor relate this naturally, but
it's also very much for, like,your mental clarity of just
mental awareness of what'sactually happening around you,
right, and being aware that youcan find a balance in life, like
you can have fun and do thingsthat's good for the world all at

(57:26):
the same time.
Yeah, you don't have to havefun and enjoyment at the cost of
our environment.

And I think some people I mean for me I
would be fine just picking uptrash on my own at the beach,
like I'm okay with that.
Because, I have no shame, Iguess.

Hoiki Liu (57:40):
I have to tell my son to stop doing that.

But some people are scared of doing it on
their own.
So it's a way for them to dosomething that they want to do,
but maybe they don't feel likethey have the confidence to do
it on their own.
So, yeah, and I think I meanfor us.
You know, our name is GreenHour and we would love if we
could encourage people just totake an hour out of their week
or an hour out of their monthjust to do something small.
You know, it could be likeyou're walking home from work or

(58:06):
you're commuting from work.
Just take a small bag and justfill it up.
Once that bag's full, you'redone.
You know, like you can do smallactions and if a hundred people
do something small, like it'snot small anymore, you know it's
huge and um, and so, like Imean for us, it's a good way for
us to.

Hoiki Liu (58:30):
our events are a good way for people to get that hour
or two in without feeling maybea little bit conscious about
doing it, because I mean, for meI mean, and if it, if it, if it
becomes more normalized, rightyeah then more people start
doing it regularly and morepeople start seeing others doing
it, then the stigma will belifted.

Yeah, that's why I like doing plugging,
because it's like an urban area.
Everyone sees what we're doing.
You know, it's very, veryobvious what we're doing,
because we're running, we'repicking up rubbish and and I
will hope it makes the people,that's just what.

Hoiki Liu (58:55):
Maybe they haven't taken a part yet, but just
seeing what you're doing will beimpactful enough for them to be
more mindful about what they dowith their garbage, like should
they litter for somebody elseto pick it up for them you know,
like you know, the buildingwhere I live.

There's no waste management.
Oh, okay, it's one of those,like you know, tongs.
Yes, yes, yes.
So where I live, I asked theguy before I moved in where do I
put my rubbish?
He literally said, just put itoutside on the floor and I was
like I'm not going to do that.

Hoiki Liu (59:26):
Yeah, does somebody pick it up from the building?

No, okay, so that makes no sense, and
sometimes you put it in thebuilding, like literally on the
stairwell.

Hoiki Liu (59:34):
Yeah, this is your own home, exactly so, like who
would expect to take it up foryou, it was an apple, like
someone had eaten an apple andleft it on the handrail.

Okay, it's only now, and then it really
annoys me.
Yeah, I usually just kind ofpick it all up and do it myself,
which I shouldn't have to.
Yeah, but this is the thing,right, if you do it, if you
clean up after someone, thenthey will think, well, it's fine
for me to do it because someoneelse is cleaning it up, but

(01:00:03):
then if you leave it, thenyou're just suffering as well.
Yeah, imagine how Hong Kongwould look if all the street
cleaners just start for a week.
Just imagine.

Hoiki Liu (01:00:15):
So that's one of the things also I teach the children
to be very respectful to thecleaners, because they're
already doing a job that a lotof people don't want to do, you
know.
So, gosh, be respectful to theperson who's helping you out
doing what you don't want to doright and in the hot weather,
doing what you don't want to do?

James Marlow-Smith (01:00:29):
right and in the hot weather?
Yeah, I know I don't condoneplastic bottles, but if it's a
hot day, like it was yesterday,and you see street cleaners,
just give them a bottle of water.
Yeah, exactly, or a cari sweator a tea.
I know it's not the mosteco-friendly thing, but in terms
of from a human perspective,yes.

Hoiki Liu (01:00:50):
I think sometimes you need to take a balance in life.
Right like to see what nobody's100.
That's why I say we can'texpect everybody to be green all
the time, to be making theright decisions every moment of
their life like we're humans,you know but at the same time
just try to find a betterbalance yeah, or fruit, if you
have fruit yes, give fruit tostreet cleaners yeah that's
always good.

It's very hydrating.
A couple of oranges.

Hoiki Liu (01:01:14):
And they're always happy to get something and they
feel appreciated because thehuman aspect's been missing.

I remember New Year's Day this year.
I was walking towards Welcomeand I saw these cleaning ladies
and I thought to myself they'reworking on New Year's Day.
At like 9 am in the morning Ithought, okay, I'm going to go
and get some oranges for them.
I bought some oranges as I waswalking back I couldn't see them
anywhere.
So I was like, oh yeah, they'refast, yeah, yeah.
But yeah, I just reallyappreciate that they were

(01:01:40):
actually cleaning up like notthe street, but like in the
bushes, the bush areas and stufflike that's where most of the
trash is and usually it getsignored, yeah so, or at least it
gets left until it's built upso much.
But I mean, it's just, it's not, it's not sight, it's no, it's
very unsightly and it's.
I think if you see trash there,people are more inclined to do

(01:02:06):
the same thing.

Hoiki Liu (01:02:06):
Yes, exactly like.
Yeah, somebody else treatedthis as a trash can.
Why shouldn't I?
Kind of, how does one start anngo if they would like to start
um?

to be honest , it's actually quite easy.
Um, if you have something thatyou're working on and you've
built up, I guess, like aportfolio or like you've got
experience in it and you canshow.
This is what I've done.
The first thing you've got toobviously set up a company.
Um, once you've got yourcompanies for non-profits, it's

(01:02:39):
limited by guarantee.
So we made the mistake when wefirst started.
We we started a company whichwas limited by shares because we
were going to go down the routeof setting up as a social
enterprise.

Hoiki Liu (01:02:50):
Yeah.

But in the end we went down the nonprofit
route, which they both havetheir pros and cons.
As a nonprofit you are morelikely to get people willing to
make donations to your causebecause you're a charity Right.
But if you're a socialenterprise there's a lot more
funding opportunities becauseyou kind of consider like a
small, medium enterprise rightum.

(01:03:13):
so they have their pros and cons, because if you're for-profit
as opposed to non-profit, youget a lot more benefits in
certain things.
There are a lot of, for example,um hang long properties, right,
um, who we have as a corporatepartner.
They have a program where theywill give spaces to people for
free if they're a for-profit,but we don't get to take

(01:03:35):
advantage of that and, honestly,the paperwork side of things is
the easiest.
I think the hardest is runninga nonprofit once you've got
Section 88, because there's alot of stuff that you have to
continue to do to show that youare basically running as a

(01:03:58):
charity and you've got toprovide all the annual returns
and the audits and stuff likethat.
It's basically like running anormal company Okay, a normal
company okay.
But the only difference is,even if you're not earning
anything like if you haven'tstarted getting any donations,
or like if if you open a charityand you have a charity section
88 and then you don't doanything, you still need to

(01:04:19):
submit your annual return andhave an audit and stuff which I
mean, if you're, if you're juststarting out, you know these are
just added funds that you haveto deal with.
But, um, I mean, to be honest,it's like a few thousand maybe
at most.
So it's okay, I guess in thegrand scheme of things.
Um, for us as an organization,we rely on companies to make a

(01:04:43):
like a substantial sort ofcontribution, because that helps
us to grow.
We can do these publicactivities on a regular basis,
but we can't make them biggerand better without their support
, the company's support.
So, because we're providing aservice, it's technically not
even a donation, right?

Hoiki Liu (01:05:03):
Because I mean, if you think about it, take a
cleanup, for example, At the endof the day, we've picked up as
volunteers, you've picked up thetrash, you put it together in
bags.
Now who's going to take those820 bags away, right Like, and
where are you going to bring it?
How are you going to sort it?
Like they don't really theystill work at the end of the day
, after our end of the day, kindof thing, yeah, yeah, as an

(01:05:33):
event organizer, you have to beso like I, I mean patient
patient is true.

I would say you have to be very um, you're
like an mc or you're like a.
You know, like I mean, I workas a teacher as well.
Like you know, I work with kids.
There's a.
There's a lot of similaritysometimes between working with
kids and working with adults.
I think people think thatbecause they're a grown-up, that
like they listen better, andit's not true.
We'll give out the gloves andthe lisp because people will
start walking off and I'm likewhoa, hold on, guys, hold on and

(01:05:56):
um.
One thing about these events Ireally like with, when it comes
to like working with companies,is that the hierarchy has gone.
Yeah, you see, people who arelike you know, like um, they say
, like you've got like like the,like a ceo, something, and then
you've got someone who's likeyou know like maybe just a
junior assistant or something.
But that person gets reallystuck in and will like push the

(01:06:17):
CEO or push the head you know,the head of members of the
company, to like really go forit and like you can just see
that they just banter and theyhave a bit of fun.
But yeah, so hopefully we can,we can start working with more
organizations and um and makemore of a difference and,
fingers crossed, we get this umfunding as well yes um, because
we really want to do morekayaking events and I want to do

(01:06:38):
more to work with domesticworkers, because the, the
volunteers that we have, yeah,the ones who join, who have, you
know, like, um, you know,domestic workers, workers in
Hong Kong, mostly from thePhilippines or Indonesia.
They put in so much work, theyreally get stuck in and I
honestly, I admire it and I wantto give back to them.

Hoiki Liu (01:06:57):
So if we can have a project that's completely free
for them to join, I have anotherguest that's going to be coming
on my podcast that's veryfocused on building communities.
One of the things he does is onsundays he gets back to the
filipino helper community byteaching them free exercises,
exercise classes.

(01:07:18):
Okay, I need to connect youguys.
Uh, no, it's avi avi yeah fromus, but anyways, I need to
connect you guys so your groupscan do something together I
should put you in touch with uhwalter as well.

He does this thing called G-Class, okay, and
it's like fitness, it's like awhat's it called?

Hoiki Liu (01:07:34):
Like HIIT training for domestic workers, yeah, and
so that's why I think you knowthese kind of conversations are
so great, because buildingcommunities is also very
important, especially in thetight space in Hong Kong, where
if you really want to makesomething happen, you do need a
community support, just like Iwas saying to you prior to when
we were talking about so, likeboat sales, like ship sales, are

(01:07:56):
like a really big problem.

Once they're finished, people just discard
them.
But we can reuse them, we canrepurpose them.
I don't have the skills forthat.
I know people who do have theskills, but maybe they don't
have the facilities I do.
So we can come together andhopefully we can start making
some sale tote bags, yes, andthen we can-.

Hoiki Liu (01:08:15):
And then hopefully that can go into profits,
proceeds for Green Hour orwhatever.
And then beautiful bags as well.

Great, big, beautiful bags yes, just off the
back of Donald Trump's bigbeautiful bill.
But yeah, all right.

Hoiki Liu (01:08:28):
Thank you so much for your time today.
I think we've covered quite abit, so it's been a great talk.
Thank, you so much, james,thank you for having me.

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