Research Design Proposal
Topic: Throughout the past year, Hong Kong government held activities to promote environmental protection; have the activities changed Hong Kong people’s habit of creating rubbish?
Task 1: Introduction
The world is now becoming more aware about the current status of the environment and how its deterioration can affect the life of each and every individual in the world. That is the reason why there have been many organizations, governmental and non-governmental that focuses on the different environmental issues of a certain place or country as well as focuses on the different global issues. More and more huge and multinational companies are also practicing their corporate social responsibility in terms of application of different programs and activities that will help to maintain the balance of the environment.
Furthermore, more and more government programs are also implemented in order catch the attention of the citizen, in order for them to become aware about the negative impact that might happen in the future deterioration of the environment. They are also deploying and presenting different programs that will make the citizen of the world to become aware of their role or responsibilities in maintain the balance of nature, therefore, preventing those negative phenomenon to happen such as global warming.
Environmental protection has been considered as one of the most important as well as hot topic in Hong Kong. It also has become the main agenda of the Government towards a green capital city that was announced by the Chief Executive’s 1999 policy Address (Yang & Burnett 2000, p. 257). This is due to the fact that the improvement of the economy of Hong Kong as well as the presence of different international companies had affected the environment of the said country.
The main reason of the government in planning, implementing as well as applying different environmental protection program is to ensure the health as well as living situation of their citizens. The government is doing its job in improving its service in order to maintain the healthy lifestyle of their citizens as well as to develop its image in the global market. Unfortunately, the interests and the reactions of the citizens are also important in order to make sure that the programs and activities that are being deployed by the government will be successful.
This study will focus on the impact of the effort and endeavor of the governments towards the behavior and habit of the Hong Kongers in managing and doing their creation of rubbish or garbage.
Task 2: Rationale for Choosing to Research the Topic
The main reason for choosing the topic or the subject of this study is to focus on the impacts or the effects of the effort and endeavor of the government of Hong Kong to the behavior or habit of its citizens in managing their garbage. The said relationship is important because, no matter how hard the government tried, if its citizens are not cooperating or not involving them selves in the programs and the processes of the government, chances are, the project will fail, and the effort of the government will go to the drain. This is also important because it will be able to show the important role of the citizen of Hong Kong in order to improve their lifestyle by becoming aware of what is happening in the environment and how it can be helped via self-discipline.
It is also important to focus on the activities and the behavior of the Hong Kongers as a whole in order to know if the government is in great need of more enlightening program towards their citizens. The habits of the Hong Kongers in terms of their production as well as creating rubbish or garbage are important factor in developing awareness in environmental protection. Proper management of garbage is considered as the primary task that must be done by each and every citizen in the world in order to help the environment, especially now that it is facing different dilemma.
Another important thing is that the subject or the topic of the study is also connected to the public participation that can help the government to implement different environmental programs and plans with the help of their citizens that will make it more effective.
In general, the study will focus in answering the following questions:
Task 3: Critical Analysis of Literature
During the early 1970’s the country had faced one major environmental problem that had affected the marine aspect of the country by the different factors such as the creation of new cities as well as coastal reclamation. In order to prevent further problem to happen, the government had decided to establish a Secretary for the Environment as well as an Environmental Protection Unit. The said unit has four professional staff that focuses on the responsibility of developing different policies that will handle the different issues regarding the water pollution, waste management, air pollution as well as the noise and vibration pollution. The said unit had grown and become an independent Environmental Protection Agency during 1981 that has more or less 100 staffs (Morton & Morton 1990, p. xiv).
The Secretary for the Environment is that one that handles all the policy responsibility for the environment protection, but receives assistance from the Permanent Secretary for the Environment, about the formulation of the new policies, together with the different environmental issue. On the other hand, the Advisory Council handles the different advises to the government regarding the measurement of preventing pollution (Information Services Department 2007).
Furthermore, the Environmental Campaign Committee is the one that organize the different happenings and events that will help to encourage the awareness to the different environmental issues. The government is also implementing its Environmental Education and Information Counter, together with its Mobile Environmental Resource Center that will give their citizens more information regarding the different issues of the environment (Information Services Department 2007).
The government is also into implementation of different activities and control legislation with regards to the 4 main pollutions: Air, Waste, Water, and Noise (Information Services Department 2007).
In terms of air pollution, the government is implementing its control in air pollution under its Air Pollution Control Ordinance. The said ordinance focuses on the different establishments and businesses that are producing different harmful and hazardous materials that can affect the air that the citizens will be breathing. This is to ensure that the air in Hong Kong is healthy and that it may not lead to a more serious problem such as acid rain (Information Services Department 2007).
The government is also implementing their Water Pollution Control Ordinance that had caused for the declaration of the 10 Water Control Zones as well as 4 supplementary Water Control Zones. All of the charges that will be done in all of the said zones are in great need of licensing control in order to make sure that it will not affect the water system of the country (Information Services Department 2007).
The government is also focusing on the Noise Control Ordinance that focuses on controlling the different noises from different construction sites, domestic premises as well as public places. Furthermore, it also focuses on the industrial as well as commercial premises, motor vehicles and intruder alarm, together with other gadgets and equipment that will create noise. A permit system is also implemented to control the different noises that can be created by construction works at night as well as public holidays (Information Services Department 2007).
Hong Kong has its well established as well as efficient solid waste management infrastructure that had been developed for past fifteen years (Mottershead 2004, p. 483). The Waster Disposal Ordinance had provided a framework that is used in order to control the different collection as well as treatment and disposal of all the types of waste. Over 90% of the livestock wastes are being disposed in an environmental acceptable way (Information Services Department 2007).
The effort of the government had been able to create different important impact to the lifestyle of the Hong Kongers, due to the fact that they had been protected by the incorrect practice of different small and large companies in disposing and implementing their transaction that might affect the environment. Unfortunately if we are going to look at the statistics of the waste generation of the country, we can see that, the effort of the government in environmental awareness had not been successful. This is due to the fact that the government is one of the countries that are having a problem in disposing their waste.
The solid waste generation of Hong Kong is increasing much more quickly than the population of the country (see appendix A). During the span of 1986 up to the year 2001, the amount of the domestic, commercial as well as industrial waste had increased. The domestic waste had increased by 71%, commercial or industrial waste had increased by 22%, and the municipal waste in total had increased by 58%. The said statistics is somewhat alarming compare to the 22% increase to the population of the country (Mottershead 2004, p. 484).
Furthermore, in the country, all of the solid wastes are all disposed to the landfill, including the municipal solid waste, non-inert construction as well as the demolition waste, together with the special wastes. In 2001, the amount of the solid wastes that are being disposed in a day was about 16,820 tonnes, which is far compared to the 12,500 tonnes during 1989 (Mottershead 2004, p. 484).
The waste that is being produced by the municipal is consisted of different components such as: bulky waste, glass, metals, paper, plastics, putrescibles, textiles, wood or rattan and others. Furthermore, majority of the waste that is being produce by the country is mostly from the domestic or from the household of the citizen of Hong Kong.
Another important factor that describes the current practice and habit of the Hong Kongers with regards to the waste management and waste creation of Hong Kong is the lesser production of plastic waste than paper. We all know that plastic causes harmful effects to the environment and it is non-biodegradable, meaning it will not decay and will stay here in earth for a long time. It may cause negative effect to the health of plants as well as animals, particularly those aquatic animals. The country’s domestic waste had a total of 1,827 or 24.2% of paper while had a 1,198 or 15.9% of plastic.
Task 4: Research Objective
The objectives of the study are:
Task 5: Choice of Research Approach, Methods and Sampling Approach
In order to get to know more about the evolution of the habit of the Hong Kongers regarding the waste management, a Historical research must be done. It can also be helpful in creating the study about the different effort and programs that had been done by the government of Hong Kong in order to improve the environmental condition of the country. The primary reason for using the Historical Research is that that study will focus in gathering different data from the different situations and events that had already happened. One of the advantages of this kind of research is that the data that will be gathered will not be manipulated due to the fact that the study will rely on the data from the past. That is why it can be a great research method that will help to explore the present situation of topic via the use of past data and information (AIIPsych Online 2004).
The study will also use the survey method in order to handle the different reaction and the reasons of the citizens. Survey is applicable in gathering information and data from a specific or entire group that is called sample. The data that had been gathered from the reactions or answers of the group will be useful in order reveal some unsuspected fact about the study (Swetnan 2006, p. 33).
The survey will be done in two ways: questionnaire and interviews. The said two approaches are used in order to make sure that other information that will not be gathered from the survey questionnaire will be gathered from the interview.
In terms of sampling, the study will focus on the adult, due to the fact that they are the one who has enough knowledge regarding the different activities and programs regarding environmental issues that had been done by the government as well as. The study will focus on its sample age that ranges from 21 – 60. It will cater to the reaction of about 500 respondents. This is due to the fact that the population of Hong Kong is too large in order to get its 60%.
The respondents will be chosen in random manner.
Task 6: Summary of the Difficulties
One of the difficulties that the author can faced during the actual study is the difficulty in comparing different data, more specially those numerical data that describe the evolution of the production or creation of the wastes of the Hong Kongers.
In addition to that, it will also be hard to convince other prospect respondent to join or to participate in the study. That is the reason why there are some ethical considerations that must be set during the initial process of the research. The process of negotiation with people is always one of the most important problems that are faced by many researchers. This is due to the fact that not all of the people that the researcher will going to approach are all willing to give his or her time.
In addition to that, there will also be some respondents who will give wrong answer regarding to the questionnaire. The said reason will limit the credibility and reliability of the study. That is why it is important to create an error gap.
References
Hong Kong: The Facts: Environmental Protection 2007, Information Services Department, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, viewed 23 April 2008, <http://www.gov.hk/en/about/abouthk/factsheets/do cs/environmental_protection.pdf>
Monitoring of Solid Waste in Hong Kong: Waste Statistic for 2001 2001, Environmental Protection Department, viewed 23 April 2008, <https://ww w.wastereduction.gov.hk/en/materials/info/msw2001.pdf>
Morton, B & Morton J E 1990, The Sea Shore Ecology of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong
Mottershead, T 2004, Sustainable Development in Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong
Research Methods 2004, AIIPsych Online, viewed 23 April 2008, <http://allps ych.com/researchmethods/historicalresearch.html>
Swetnam, D 2006, Writing your Dissertation, 3rd ed., Oxford, United Kingdom
Yang, H X & Burnett, J 2000, ‘Renewable Energy Applications and Impacts on Environmental Protection in Hong Kong’, in X Hu & Yue P L (ed.), Proceedings of the Third Asia-Pacific Conference on Sustainable Energy and Environmental Technologies (pp. 257-260).
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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