Thanks to the "plastic-bags-levy" scheme, plastic bags consumption in Hong Kong has been drastically slashed in the past 12 months, a senior HK official said Sunday.

Registered retailers in Hong Kong distributed 90 percent fewer plastic bags in the past 12 months in comparison with the situation before the scheme, a clear sign of the effectiveness of the scheme, which was put into force in July, 2009, Edward Yau, the city's environment secretary, said during an event marking the first anniversary of the scheme's implementation.

Yau said the scheme had also successfully transformed shopping habits, aside from cutting down the number of plastic bags used.

"Many people are putting green living into practice by using fewer plastic shopping bags and bringing their own shopping bags," said Yau.

Noting that the indiscriminate use of plastic shopping bags had always been one of Hong Kong's major waste-management problems, Yau called on people to continue their support for the scheme by not asking for plastic shopping bags, to make good use of every environmental shopping bag, and to think twice before disposing of them.

He said that the HKSAR government is now consolidating and analyzing relevant data and materials, and studying the experiences of other places.

For the scheme's next phase, the government will present different options for discussion by the public and the trade and will gather views to help draw up details for a feasible proposal.

The environmental levy scheme on plastic shopping bags is the first statutory producer responsibility scheme implemented under the Product Eco-responsibility Ordinance. It now covers about 3,000 major or chain supermarkets, convenience stores and personal health and beauty stores.