Hong Kong’s waters are polluted – meet the couple who are trying to rid them of marine plastic

Angus Harris and Ellen Ogren founded non-profit organisation Clean Waterways Initiative two years ago. With the backing of HSBC, two zero-emissions boats have hit Aberdeen Harbour to help keep the seas clean

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Ellen Ogren and Angus Harris, founders of the Clean Waterways Initiative. Photo: SCMP / Xiaomei Chen

Kylie Knott

Published: 10:45am, 7 Jan 2021Updated: 10:45am, 7 Jan 2021

Living beachside in Shek O village, on the southern coast of Hong Kong Island, offers an idyllic natural environment for Angus Harris and Ellen Ogren to raise their young family. It also provides reminders of the city’s plastic pollution, with waste washing up on our shorelines and choking marine ecosystems (Hong Kong supports more than 6,000 marine species).

And it’s not just on a macro level: studies have shown that microplastics – pieces of plastic less than 5mm in length – found on Hong Kong beaches now stand at 5,500 pieces per square metre, 40 per cent more than the global average. A 2019 study by Greenpeace East Asia found the average concentration of plastic particles in Hong Kong’s waters had increased elevenfold in just three years.

United efforts by governments, both locally and globally, are needed to find solutions. But there is a growing movement of citizens at the grass-roots level who are doing their bit. Harris and Ogren are part of it.

Two years ago the couple founded non-profit organisation Clean Waterways Initiative (CWI) after Harris hand-sketched drawings of a boat that he thought would be an improvement on the vessels cleaning Hong Kong’s heavily polluted waterways. In November, with support from banking giant HSBC, his vision became a reality when two solar-powered, zero-emission vessels hit the water, in Aberdeen Harbour.

Trash floats in Victoria Harbour. Photo: SCMP / Nora Tam

Two more boats are scheduled for launch in Victoria Harbour next month. The harbours are two of the most polluted waterways in Hong Kong.