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City proceeds green action
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Han Ximin
CEREMONIES were held across the city yesterday to publicize consumer's rights and shape public consumption patterns, with the largest ceremony being held at the Shenzhen Grand Theatre.
The theme this year is "Green Consumption", which is meant to encourage consumers to buy green products that do not pollute and are healthy.
The effort will hopefully guide consumers to make better choices in the products they buy by showing a preference for organically-grown vegetables and healthy green products, paying more attention to environmental protection, reducing consumption of energy and resources; in short, to attain sustainable consumption.
"Green consumption must be supported because China generates an estimated 155 million tons of urban refuse annually, which cannot be handled properly by the country's underdeveloped recycling system," said Peng Shuxi, vice-chairman of the Shenzhen Consumers' Association.
"If every individual citizens willingly reduced waste of water and electricity; used recyclable products instead of plastic shopping bags and food cartons; sorted their recyclable waste; and refused to eat wild animals, the nation's 1.2 billion people would surely become the world's most mighty army in the struggle to protect the environment," said Peng.\
Over 22 government departments and nearly 30 enterprises offered advice and helped spread the message at the Shenzhen Grand Theatre.
Generally speaking, damage to the environment is caused by two factors. One is unsustainable production practices and the other is inadequate measures to protect the environment, which, in many cases, is related to consumption patterns.
Wu Yi'an of the Shenzhen Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau was invited to give a lecture on green consumption. He suggested that consumers should adopt attitudes and consumption patterns that contribute to the reduction of pollution.
Consumers often believe that their personal contribution to the environment is limited to waste separation and disposal arrangements. They fail to recognize the wider sphere of influence their individual decisions and actions can have --consumption determines the levels of production. "Consumers not only have buying patterns but also discharge patterns," Wu said.
During the activity, nine citizens were recruited to the first batch of green volunteers by the association. They are qualified professionals in law, media, real estate and product quality control. They will conduct market research on certain products, address complaints and offer legal services.
Song Jinjing, secretary-general of the Shenzhen Consumers' Association, said the volunteers will be helpful in spreading "green" ideas and promoting environmental awareness.
Property developers slammed
Han Ximin
THEY came back on March 15, which was International Consumers' Day, to express their anger towards the Jinglong Property Development Co for its crooked sales and administration practices.
The property owners of Shenzhen Jinglong Housing on Fuqiang Road, Futian District, about 20 in number, have complained to governmental departments concerned since they moved in two years ago.
Though they have lived in the new houses for over three years, they still don't have housing certificates. Though they have paid for their homes in full up front, they haven't received invoices.
Though their homes have proven to be smaller than they were told at the time of purchase, they haven't received any money back.
On consumers' day last year, nearly 100 owners handed a dossier on the problems at their estate to Vice-Mayor Zhuo Qinrui and visited related departments, but their problems persist.
Li Wen, one of the property owners, hopes their efforts will attain a result soon, now that the government has stated its intention to improve operational efficiency and brush up its image.
These complaints were not the only ones in Shenzhen. Indeed, the Shenzhen Consumers' Association says it received 335 real estate-related complaints last year covering delayed delivery, size discrepancy, overcharging and low quality.
Secretary Song Jinjing of the association said the association is powerless in mediating these disputes. About all they can do is pass on the complaints to related government departments. But many of the conflicts, especially where reimbursement is concerned, remain unresolved.
"Real estate market practices should be standardized," said Song, adding government departments should be tougher on some real estate developers, who carry out blatantly illegal practices.
Background
ACCORDING to the United Nations Statistics Programme, global green consumption in 1999 reached US$300 billion. Ninety per cent of German people and 89 per cent of Americans tend to consider environmental protection standard in consumption, 85 per cent of Swedish don't mind paying for environmental cleanups and 80 per cent Canadians are willing to pay 10 per cent more for environmental and healthy products.
China issued its environmental logo in 1993, which is used to authenticate green products. But only about 270 enterprises, over 500 products in 40 categories have been certified as green, far from enough to fill people's need for green products.
The number of enterprises products approved of using green food logo has increased form 1997's 320 to today's 1300. The produce volume has increased to over 10 million tonnes.
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