The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong was a proud Supporting Organization of ReThink 2021. CanChamHK Member Anne Copeland (Copeland & Partners Ltd.) moderated the RETHINKING SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING SOLUTIONS panel alongside speakers Dr Peter Lee (Nano and Advanced Materials Institute), Tim Parker, (Circular City) and Rob Garrett (Black Sheep Restaurants).
While enjoying various aspects of the Conference, CanChamHK connected with Sidhant Gupta, Founder and CEO of local start up – Clearbot – an AI enabled, self-navigating, self-charging, robot that could collect trash found in the sea.
With an aim to have an educational element to their event, CanChamHK invited Clearbot to be their community partner for the CanChamHK Annual Clean Up in November 2021, attended by Rachael Bedlington, Consul General of Canada in Hong Kong and 50 volunteers from RBC, CIBC, Canadian University Association and the CanChamHK community.
While Butterfly Beach appeared to be clean at first glance, microplastics were hidden from plain sight and plenty of rubbish was waiting to be collected along the rocky shoreline and the non-gazetted beach further down the coast. CanChamHK volunteers collected 14 garbage bags of trash. Clearbot conducted a demo and workshop on marine waste giving Volunteers a glimpse of the unending task that clean-up crews face and encouraged them to be more mindful of their waste.
Co-organized by CanChamHK and the Sustainable Development Committee, the Event was sponsored by RBC. Supporting organizations included the Consulate General of Canada in Hong Kong & Macao, CLP and the Canadian University Association with food provided by Morty’s.