The Conscious Cut
This podcast is dedicated to re-thinking sustainability in fashion and beyond. As a second-generation garment manufacturer, host Hoiki Liu has seen the challenges of overproduction, greenwashing, and unsustainable business models firsthand. Through conversations with entrepreneurs, innovators, and changemakers—especially those driving sustainable practices here in Hong Kong—we’ll explore real solutions for a more responsible and transparent future. Let’s cut through the noise and redefine sustainability together.
The Conscious Cut
Ep. 10 Cleaning Up Hong Kong: Community Action for a Greener Future w/ James Marlow-Smith
In this empowering episode of The Conscious Cut, host Hoiki Liu sits down with James Marlow-Smith, founder of Green Hour Hong Kong, a community-driven NGO tackling urban waste and environmental challenges. Hailing from the UK and settling in Hong Kong in 2016 as a drama teacher, James shares his evolution into a passionate advocate for sustainability, inspired by litter-strewn streets and surplus food going to waste. From launching "plogging" runs—jogging while picking up trash—to the Bun Run project redistributing bakery goods to street cleaners and the elderly, he discusses innovative ways to combat food waste, foster community connections, and inspire mindful habits. James also dives into beach and kayak cleanups, the realities of recycling in Hong Kong, and how small actions can build a greener city. Tune in for motivating insights on turning awareness into action and joining the fight for a cleaner, more conscious Hong Kong.
James Marlow-Smith is the founder of Green Hour Hong Kong.
Thank you for listening!
Welcome back to the Conscious Cut. Today, we have with us James Marlow-Smith from Green Hour Hong Kong. We're going to jump straight into it and I'm going to ask James when are you from?
James Marlow-Smith:first of all, From the UK Okay, From Birmingham born and raised.
Hoiki Liu:Born and raised. So when did you come to Hong Kong and why did you come to Hong Kong?
James Marlow-Smith:So I moved here, so I'll go back a little bit. So I graduated in 2024, sorry, 2014, it's real, I'm real decent.
James Marlow-Smith:I age terribly, no, 2014. And then I didn't know what to do. Afterwards I studied theater. So after studying drama, I wanted to be an actor, but then I was like, okay, it's very difficult, so what do I do? So I had a classmate who was teaching drama teaching English in mainland China. So I lived in mainland China for a year and then, 2016, I decided to move to Hong Kong and I teach, I taught drama, I still teach drama part-time. So I initially came here to be a drama teacher and the plan was to stay for a year and that was in 2016. And here I am today, almost nine years later.
Hoiki Liu:So, yeah, I think the majority of the people that I've asked so far they either were. Most of them had the same idea as you. Like, I'm just going to stop by and experience Asia for a year or two and ended up being in Hong Kong for like the next 10 years or more.
James Marlow-Smith:It's just I don't know. At one point it just it was I stayed here because I thought, okay, I'm not tired of this place, yeah, I want to keep going. And now it's kind of at the point where I've been here so long that this just feels like my home, and when I go back to the UK it doesn't feel right, it feels a little bit off.
Hoiki Liu:Yeah, like something's missing, yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a drawback to draw you back, that's why my friends are here.
James Marlow-Smith:You know, I think I've built a life here.
Hoiki Liu:Yeah well, you've definitely built a life here because you've built Green Hour here. So let's jump in and talk a little bit about what you do at Green Hour, because that's how we met. I met you when I joined Bun Run with my kid and let's talk a bit more about Bun Run and also what else you guys do at Green Hour.
James Marlow-Smith:Sure, I'll start with the Bun Run. So the Bun Run is basically a food redistribution project where we collect surplus food from bakeries and hopefully, soon we might be able to start getting vegetarian meals from a Hindu temple in Wanchai Do you know which one? I'm on about the really big one. So they reached out and actually said that they have a lot of surplus cooked meals and we can help them to redistribute it. Yeah, surplus cooked meals and they can help us to. We can help them to redistribute it. Yeah, um, so basically the bun run started when. So we got, uh, contacted by, like, a big bakery in hong kong. Am I allowed to mention?
James Marlow-Smith:yes yes, so maxims. Yeah, so maxims reached out to us and they said we see that you do plugging. We would like to combine this is. It didn't didn't work out for very long, combined plugging and a food program at the same time, but I thought, okay, this isn't going to make sense, it's not going to work because of the food hygiene and everything. We tried it once. It didn't work out. But I like the idea of still doing a running activity and the food thing. Actually, it started as a running thing. It was a running project where we had 10, 15 bakeries all along Hong Kong Island and each of these bakeries is probably about I don't know maybe 700 meters to a kilometer apart and they all close at different times. So what we would do is we'd call them all and say, hey, have you got any surplus?
James Marlow-Smith:And they say yep, so we would go here at 7.30., we'd go to the next one at 8 o'clock and 8 30 and we're just literally just like running all over the place, yeah, filling up big bags of you know with bread, and then we'd go to like a partner in shekit me and then we drop everything off there. It's changed a lot since then, um, namely, I mean mainly because the the, the um, the pandemic, because this partner we had in shekit me, they sort of closed their doors to us. They said we don't want to. You know, we don't want to collect anything. So I thought, okay, I don't want to give up on this.
James Marlow-Smith:So what can we do? We don't have an office, we don't have anywhere where we can store this stuff. So why don't we just collect it and then just distribute it the same evening? That way we don't have to worry about storing it, we can just give it straight out. So it's kind of like it's good for volunteers, because volunteers can actually do the collection site and the distribution site in the same evening. It means, in terms of scale, it can be a little bit smaller and maybe sometimes volunteers might not have anything to collect, so it can be a little bit, you know, up and down.
James Marlow-Smith:But I mean, you know, that's just a scalability thing, right? If we get 20 more bakeries or 100 more bakeries, then it's easy. Yeah, um, I mean, then there's also the scalability of having volunteers and you know um services so on. But but I mean, you know, those things I think are the easier sides of the of the uh of the issue. I think finding the bakeries is the hardest one.
Hoiki Liu:So yeah, if there are any bakeries out there that are interested in have surplus food, just get in touch yeah, because I mean, I, I do realize, uh, food waste is the number one um in in terms of quantity. I like to say, definitely it's the biggest amount of waste we have anywhere all over the world. Actually, even though there's people starving, food waste is still the number one waste. So we really do need to do something about that now, the way we do bun run now, where we're actually picking up the surplus beds at the same night and distributing them at the same night For us as a volunteer and for my son, who joins me on this distribution route.
Hoiki Liu:He has a great time. He feels really good about giving back to the community and the people that we're giving it to, that's receiving these funds. They are usually cleaning workers. Often there are the cardboard nannies, the cardboard grannies that we see collecting cardboard off the streets. Occasionally it might be a security guard from obviously a relatively more run-down estate, things like that, and everyone that we've given it to has been so thankful.
James Marlow-Smith:And it's not just about the items of food that we're giving, because that's ultimately not like a huge amount. It can be maybe two or three items, maybe like a cake and some bread and things like that. It's not a lot in the grand scheme of things. But it's also about building that connection with someone. And if you see some people on like a weekly basis, you know you get to build that connection with them. And even if you only see them once or twice, if they have every week different volunteers talking to them, especially for street cleaners, you know they don't really have many people to talk to. Cleaners, you know they don't really have many people to talk to. It can be quite a lonely job it is, and people don't appreciate them. Yes, you know, and I think if we can just take some time just to stand there and, you know, just have a little chat with them, yeah, Ultimately what we're doing is we're just giving them some food and having a conversation, but that's a lot to them.
Hoiki Liu:It's also bringing the cleaning ladies. She was so happy and so thankful. She's like there's also a little kid here who's doing this and she just wanted to chat with him. After he passed her the buns, he asked her to make her selection. You know, like what? Would you like? What can I give you? You know, after he gave it to her, you can tell she was so thankful and she really wanted to shake his hand.
Hoiki Liu:But she was so thankful and she really wanted to shake his hand. But she was also very worried that, you know, my hands are not clean. They might be a bit wet from picking this up or that up. So her hands were literally like you know, like oh, I want to touch you but I shouldn't. Like I'm not sure if I should. And my son just grabbed her hand and shook it and said, you know, in a very happy way. It's like oh, I'm happy you got like what you want, you know, and like what you got, like what I can give you here. I'm happy about that.
James Marlow-Smith:It's a nice way just to have a conversation and connect with someone.
Hoiki Liu:Even for me at the time I was after we walked away, I was just like, oh, like I'm very proud that you just took her hand and shook it. I wasn't, I didn't want to give any instructions of what you guys should do. You know, I, I, I didn't know how to react. Honestly, at that time I didn't know. I mean, I would love for my son to shake her hand, but at the same time I didn't know, I didn't want him to be like, oh, I, I don't want you to touch me. You know, I just want to. I didn't know how he was going to react, but I realized from doing these walks it's really opened up his mind yeah and empathy, you know, for him to realize, they to realize there are just people like us, yeah.
James Marlow-Smith:Yeah, honestly, like I see people littering and I think to myself like to them it's just dropping something on the floor and it's out of sight, out of mind, but like it's so disrespectful to street cleaners because I mean, yes, they still have to go and pick up the rubbish from the bins and stuff. Yeah, yeah, and there's always going to be some trash. But just be a little bit more conscious, you know, and I've seen cigarette butts, inches like meters from bins. Yes, and I think to myself, like you just take a few more steps and you just do that one small thing. And actually the thing I've noticed as well, which I really want to do something about, is trash in areas where people are driving and they just throw it out the window. So you say, on the side of the road you've got two streets, one going one way, one going the other, and there's always that little barrier in the middle. There's always a huge buildup of trash there.
Hoiki Liu:And the kind of trash you see is really gross.
James Marlow-Smith:It's not safe for them.
Hoiki Liu:No, exactly. So I mean yeah, it also makes me wonder, because who do we expect to go out there and clean?
James Marlow-Smith:in danger. Yeah, and the thing is like the more trash there is, the more work we're giving to these cleaners. Many of them are in their you know 60s, 70s, 80s, you know some of them, you know, I mean all of them get paid. They don't get paid very well, yes, and if they don't do a good enough job cleaning up after us, they're the ones that get the blame, not the people that are littering, even though it should be the other way around.
Hoiki Liu:Yeah, I mean that's. I think one of the things that we've been talking a lot on my podcast is the sense of responsibility. Yeah, it's, a lot of people are starting to lose sight of their sense of responsibility. They they make a very clear line of what they feel they're responsible for and what they're not, but they forget what they don't feel that they're responsible for. Then who's responsible for? Someone else is responsible for it?
Hoiki Liu:I was talking to a group of kids yesterday, so I was, you know. I saw a lot of them had plastic bottle drinks single use bottles and I just asked them what do you guys do with these bottles when you're done? I wasn't asking to shame them or anything. I'm just asking to highlight how easy it is for you to recycle a plastic bottle, because usually the recycling is likely right next to the garbage bin.
Hoiki Liu:It's just a choice of which hole of the container you're going to put it into. So why not put it in the one that makes a difference, right? You know of the container you're going to put it into, so why not put it in the one that makes a difference? Right? And I'm just highlighting that because actually, recycling facilities for things like plastic bottles, it's so easy. But for things like clothes, like nobody knows what to do with their clothes when it comes to the end of its days, like if it's good enough, maybe you resell it, you donate it, but what if it it's not even what if it's so run down? The fabrics are fraying.
James Marlow-Smith:You know you don't want to be disrespectful and give that to somebody when it's so used right, we've had a project before where we collected clothes to give to the homeless people during the winter period. Yeah, we've had moldy jackets, we had stained t-shirts and everything like that and I think yeah, I think it's. It's one of those things out of my thing as well. It's like, well, I've already given it away, I've done something good, but this is what I always call wish wishful thinking.
Hoiki Liu:Basically, wish donation, wish recycling. This is all wishful thinking.
James Marlow-Smith:Actually, you haven't done enough well, it's the same as well with people who think that they're recycling properly, they'll have something that's made of plastic, but they think, oh well, it's just plastic. Plastic is plastic. Plastic can be recycled. There are so many different types of plastic. Some of them can, some of them can't. In hong kong, um, I mean, there are some plastics that can be recycled, probably more likely in, you know, like maybe places like the us or or places that well, anywhere other than Hong Kong, because Hong Kong is so small we don't really have the facilities.
Hoiki Liu:Most of our recycling goes abroad, goes back to China.
James Marlow-Smith:But yeah, I wanted to go back to the point about. We were talking about people, the kids, not knowing how to recycle or not being conscious of it. I think this is something that is very, very it's a big problem in hong kong and I, I don't, I'm not going, I don't want to name names. We've even had like corporate activities where we've said again and again please bring a recycle, a reusable bottle, please bring a reusable bottle, and then people will turn up with like the small, you know little bon aqua bottles and stuff, and I think to myself well, first of all, this is not enough for a five kilometer hike you're going to get, you're going to be dehydrated, yeah, second of all, you know it's a very simple request and I don't know. I don't want to feel like I'm shaming people over and over again yeah but I think you know it.
James Marlow-Smith:It's a very easy thing to do. You just have a reusable bottle, put it in your bag, you go out.
Hoiki Liu:And that's why I think it is so easy, but at the same time, it's something in the mindset that needs to change right. I always say buying drinks out of a convenience store, out of a plastic bottle. This was an education process. We were taught to do this these convenience stores with plastic bottle drinks. It didn't pop up because we wanted it. It popped up because someone wanted to do this as a business, and then we started buying into it because they educated us that this is a convenient, easy way to go, that you know we should all be more efficient with our life and this is what we should do.
James Marlow-Smith:It's just like there are so many coffee stores but people already automatically think of Starbucks. You think of fast food, you think of McDonald's, because it's just something that's it's conditioned. You're conditioned into thinking like I'm going to go there, I'm going to go here and you want to work somewhere, you think Starbucks. You know, if you need a coffee shop, go to starbucks, get a pacific coffee. Um, like it's. It's just something. I think it's it's a cultural thing and I think they've done a really good job at it. They have yeah they have.
Hoiki Liu:And I want to say, like globally, we've all been easily brainwashed and you know it is time for everyone to kind of I like this world culture. I like that people are digging a little deeper, looking a little further of looking a little further of what should really matter to you. Besides Bun Run, you were talking about the hikes. I want to get into the cleanups that you guys do too. What cleanups do you do around in Hong Kong?
James Marlow-Smith:The way I always say it is wherever there's trash, we'll go Anywhere. So we do beach cleanups, so we do stuff on coastal areas, we do hiking cleanups, so we go along trails, and then we also do something called plogging, which is the one I mentioned earlier, which is like running and picking up trash. We do that in urban areas. We can do that here in Sampo Gong, we can do that in one chai, we can do it in. We have one on saturday in taikok choy, the following the next saturday uh, two saturdays later, so two weekends after, on the 28th, we have one that's great, like it's actually in the local cities communities yeah, so it's basically running picking up trash.
James Marlow-Smith:it's good for your physical well-being. It's good for your mental well-being because most of the time when we do, we're in nice areas Not nice as in well-to-do areas, but somewhere where there's some level of visual beauty. So, like promenades and places like that, we like to run in areas where there's maybe something to see, because it's nice to have layers to what we do. So we're running, but we're also getting some places where we can take some pictures.
Hoiki Liu:You can actually appreciate the beauty around you and then see the church and then realize you don't want this here, where it's such a beautiful space for you to take your photos and enjoy the scenery.
James Marlow-Smith:Even in places like this, you could run, like the Tsim Sha Tsui promenade, and you might not think that there's a lot of trash in terms of like size, but volume, in terms of like each individual item Lots of little things, a lot of little things. So cigarette butts maybe, like drinks, bottles, things like that.
Hoiki Liu:So many cigarette butts, so many cigarette butts, so many cigarette butts and yeah the only time it's really the trash cleaners really made an impact on my son was actually during COVID times. It was after a typhoon.
Hoiki Liu:The tides brought all this garbage in, but what really made an impact on him that time was just the sheer amount of disposable masks yeah lots of us now, nowadays, we're spending money without thinking about the, the end product responsibility, which is what actually, in the garment and the fashion industry we've been talking about, because clothes, like I said, there's nowhere for it to go at the end of the day. So where does to this, that responsibility fall on? Who should it fall on and where should it go right, um you see those videos of like um.
James Marlow-Smith:I think it's like places like in Southeast Asia, like the mountains.
Hoiki Liu:Yes, yes, yes. And then there's in Southeast Asia, in Chile, in Africa. There's so many parts of the world that's got these, you know, clothing deserts already. It really can't go on. Like the sausage reminding the children I was like you know, whatever environmental responsibility and this doesn't go for just clothing, for everything that we do environmental responsibility, and this doesn't go for just solving, for everything that we do, whatever environmental responsibility that we are not paying for today. We're all paying for it.
James Marlow-Smith:forward, going forward in consequence every single thing that you're buying has an end life.
Hoiki Liu:I guess exactly and I told them, like yesterday was in Hong Kong, the hottest day in history for June. It got up to 38 degrees, 38.5 degrees at the mountaintop it's the hottest it's ever been. This is a very clear sign of global warming. So I told the kids that you know maybe you guys wouldn't even realize this yet but you are already suffering from what we didn't pay for in historical times. It's already been paid for. We're already suffering from this climate change pay for in historical times. It's already been paid for. We're already suffering from this climate change Like it's June. It shouldn't be this hot in Hong Kong at least you know and it's only going to get worse if we don't take action now.
James Marlow-Smith:Yeah, it doesn't feel like there's like an exact connection between what we're doing and like preventing climate change, like there's like an exact connection between what we're doing and like preventing climate change. But I think if we can encourage people to be sort of more conscious as consumers, then hopefully we can encourage less things to be produced, because taking the trash from the beaches and stuff is good for protecting the local environment and the local creatures and stuff. But in terms of the warming up of the planet, I mean maybe to the degree that trash is affecting the ocean, I guess you could argue that trash affecting the ocean and killing species means that the ocean is slowly quote-unquote dying. And if the ocean is suffering, then it means that it's absorbing less oxygen, because the ocean is absorbing more carbon dioxide they take in more carbon than the Amazon rainforest. So maybe you could argue that what we do does help with climate change Also.
Hoiki Liu:I want to say that you guys raise awareness as the main thing, yeah.
James Marlow-Smith:We need to make sure that people buy less and are more conscious consumers, because if you're a conscious consumer and you're buying less, that means that those who are producing it will produce less and the amount of emissions that are coming out from all of these things being produced, especially nowadays. I mean, western countries have jumped on this, on the we've had, obviously, we've got taobao, yeah, and people have been using taobao for, you know, quite a long time in in hong kong and in in mainland china. But now that you know people are becoming more aware of it in in western countries. You know, there's like timu and um sheen and things like that. More and more people are buying these like super cheap items which are being produced and people think, oh, it's cheap because of the cheap labor in china. It's not just because of that, it's because of the lax, um, of the environmental, exactly. Yeah, because you see it, like companies in china, they'll produce things and then all of the chemicals and the waste just gets poured into the rivers it's.
Hoiki Liu:I think it's getting better now. It depends on where you are so, but yeah, like I would have to say, I pretty much know like the factories start making things for the really cheap markets.
James Marlow-Smith:Don't trust them.
Hoiki Liu:I'd say no, like there's regulation in China, but like any other country, it's a huge place. If there's people that's going to try to jump through loopholes, there's probably ways to do it one way or the other. Mainly that you know, if we're talking policy-wise and this is where it stands because policy-wise even though I'll have to say the China government I can see them doing a lot on the environmental front for the country, but that's very much on the government end. For example, if you look on a satellite map now, china looks very green compared to 10, 20 years ago. It's because they're planting so many trees. But the policies for the policies for the businesses, it's not quite there yet.
James Marlow-Smith:Yeah.
Hoiki Liu:I think going back to the trees Mainly for the policies is for the environmental stuff, even even though, because they were very forward in the Paris agreement, the Basel agreement, china was like one of the ones that said they're going to do all this and I can say firsthand, I've had factories in the main city zones where China doesn't want it anymore because they want to change this area into a more green area. I had to leave basically within the month. It was an instant cut. So the difference there is when they want to make a change on something, it can happen very fast. You might not even have time to adapt to it.
Hoiki Liu:I like to say for people who are forward thinking, as running a business in China, they need to be forward thinking so they don't just suddenly get shut down when the government catches them. They might not even be catching you for doing the wrong thing, it's just you're not in the right area at the right time and you've got some wastewater issues or whatever, and this is not the type of industry we want in this area. So if you don't want to be stuck in that, you need to think forward because they are changing.
James Marlow-Smith:You say this, but I've seen videos from people sharing things on, maybe like Douyin and stuff like that. And they're calling out factories in their area that have been polluting rivers and stuff. So that's what I mean by.
Hoiki Liu:It depends on which area you're in.
James Marlow-Smith:This was in Guangzhou.
Hoiki Liu:So if you're in a first tier city, because even if in the cities they'll have the outskirts and their main internal city right. So this internal city, they're going to make it as clean as possible. Usually you find those factories are slightly towards the outskirts and more rural areas where the local governments haven't cracked down on them as tough as they should.
James Marlow-Smith:Which is a real shame. And this is the thing, Like I think, because of the scale, of how many factories there are that are breaking the rules, it really is like unprecedented.
Hoiki Liu:And I also want to say it's also often we think it's the younger generation that's shopping on Shein, you know like, and it is true because a lot of kids haven't figured out quite what they. They want to look like it. You know what I want to dress in and unfortunately secondhand fashion is hasn't taken off quite as fast as someone like shin you know, both are cheap, both are full of fashion cloth treasures for you to find, you know.
Hoiki Liu:But one is making products that you can only wear twice, two, three times. One is a timeless product, you know. You can wear it and you can probably resell it if you want, but a lot of kids haven't gotten quite to that yet. But with that said, what I'm trying to state here is it's not just children that's the problem, that's buying shin. A lot of the older generations are the ones that shopping off timu and taobao, and you know why. I actually I spoke to my dad about this this morning. He wanted to buy a discounted coffee. You know, like I'm gonna get this coffee today because they're on discount. I'm like, is that a really good coffee? It's like. No, I'm like, but we have coffee at home, like we have great coffee at home.
James Marlow-Smith:You have great coffee at home people are so absorbed, like taken in by cheap. Yeah, I see, like, discount 50 off this, this, this even big companies, I think is um, I think I saw an image recently it was on. It was walmart in the us and um, the caption was saying something like you know, all of these companies talk about their sustainability goals and at the same time, they're selling all of these products at such a discounted, cheap price. And it's like like I think it was like swimming, those things when you go swimming, not a noodle, but like the floaty type thing. Yes, yes, yes and yeah. I think to myself like but this is the thing companies can get away with it, because, instead of saying we will do this, they say we aim to do this by 2030. Not everybody can get away by 2050.
Hoiki Liu:So I was highlighting to the children yesterday. Actually, then you won't find this in mainstream news, that's why most people don't see it, but actually just to search online, you'll find Adidas. At the beginning of April I believe it was April 2nd, april 3rd in Germany they got sued by an NGO for basically greenwashing and the NGO won, so Germany had banned Adidas from advertising anything about carbon neutrality. You know going green. You're not allowed to say that because there's no evidence and there's no proof and there's no suggestion in anything that you're doing company-wise that shows us that you're actually trying to move towards this goal, besides using this as an angle to do more sales.
James Marlow-Smith:I think even in Hong Kong there's greenwashing. I mean definitely there's a lot of greenwashing in Hong Kong.
Hoiki Liu:I think more governments and more policymakers need to really take that stand and be like you. Can't just blatantly tell lies to push more sales, especially when it's totally like you said. It's 100 percent in opposing directions of what you claim that you're going to be doing.
James Marlow-Smith:For us. We have a lot of like companies that join us for like corporate activities, which I really enjoy because it's a nice way to Well, I like meeting new people. What we do is really good for like team building and stuff. This is not like a shameless plug, I promise yeah, yeah, yeah but, um, I like doing it.
James Marlow-Smith:But I think when we get that sort of initial contact with a company and they say we're looking to do some sort of corporate social responsibility program, like an activity or something, what, what do you guys do? And we say what we do and then you can hear them, sort of like you, what they'll respond, and they say like, oh, can we just do it for this little? You know, like they want to cut the amount of time or they want to do it for, like you know, they want to basically go take some pictures and then leave and and yeah, I think companies like that. I try and either stay clear of them as much as I can or just try to explain to them like look, what we do is not just a publicity stunt for you guys. What we want to do is we want to educate people. We want us and our events to be a platform for people to learn not just about what the problems are but how they can fix it, what they can do, maybe as a as a company, within their organization.
James Marlow-Smith:So many companies say that they have, you know, they recycle. They don't recycle yeah.
James Marlow-Smith:I've been, I yeah, I've spoken to, we've had so many corporate events and stuff. And there are always people within the companies who will say, actually we don't do this or we don't do that, or we could do this more, we could do that better. And I think to myself, maybe I can just go in and actually just sit down with them and make a little action plan for them, because I think it would help. And some companies, you know, I mean credit where credit's due. You know, some companies have been amazing, like the communication between us and them is amazing.
James Marlow-Smith:When they get involved in our activities. They get stuck in Because I mean, you know, we do a lot of cleanup activities that are in the heat in the summer. You know it's not easy work, but we still make it fun. We make it, you know, an enjoyable event. No, but we still make it fun. We make it, you know, an enjoyable event. Usually we finish by going to like and sometimes, you know, maybe go to a bar or something, yeah, and it's always nice because companies will like have their little sort of get together afterwards and sometimes they'll ask me if I want to join, which means free drinks, which is nice, which is nice, yeah, and it's nice because then I get to sort of connect with them after the event to sort of learn a bit more about what they thought before and what they thought after. And for those people who do bring plastic bottles and stuff like I said, you know it does happen I think it's just a good way for them to sort of make that connection between.
James Marlow-Smith:This is the problem and this is how I'm contributing to it and then you know breaking that sort of cycle of me contributing to it, because I think, to be honest, okay, fine, Things like Pocari, sweat, things like that, if you're feeling, you know, dehydrated, get a bottle If you really need one or something like that. Or you know, sometimes you know I've been in this situation where I haven't been fully prepared and I'm in like an area where there isn't really anything to buy, that's like plastic free, so I might buy a sandwich or something, and you can't avoid it. It's not completely unavoidable, but you know at least water. You know you can just bring a reusable bottle. There are water fountains everywhere. You can go into a restaurant, ask them to fill up their water bottle and stuff you know. Go into a Starbucks or a coffee, any coffee shop, and just say, can I get ice water? And they'll do it.
Hoiki Liu:I think this is a habit. The problem probably with the participants that's bringing the plastic bottle is it didn't even cross their mind that they can do that.
James Marlow-Smith:Even after being reminded a few times.
Hoiki Liu:Yes, yes, yes. But I think it's just this but being on the cleanup probably made a bigger impact on them. Yeah.
James Marlow-Smith:Because you see just how bad it can be. I think the most we've collected in one beach cleanup was 750 kilograms. That's crazy. Usually it's between maybe like 80 to 150.
Hoiki Liu:Yeah, 700 is really. It's a lot yeah.
James Marlow-Smith:And that was in Shekau. And the funniest thing well, it's not funny, actually, it's quite depressing. The same area we did two cleanups within a month and a half and we collected just over 1.2 tons in that one area and that's already a government beach.
Hoiki Liu:No, it's not.
James Marlow-Smith:It's not it's second at all. So you've got sheko, the main beach, right. You've got like the back area and then there's like a little rocky sort of area where people sometimes go like over there to like go like maybe like kayaking or like like do the paddle boarding and stuff and that's why you've started kayak cleanups, because you're going to where the the cleaners can't go right exactly, and it's it's fun and it's fun, it's really fun.
James Marlow-Smith:Yeah, we we did one recently in saikung and we've got another one on the 22nd of june okay, yes, you're welcome to join.
Hoiki Liu:I love to bring my kids here.
James Marlow-Smith:Yeah, definitely it's kid friendly, we do. If, um, what we do is we have there's like two people kayaks. The reason being is because you can put more trash on the kayaks, but also for people who are not so confident, you can have one person at the front who's like the experienced rower and one person at the back just basically taking it easy and looking like they're doing. Yeah, yeah, so I, the kayaking event, the most recent one we did um, we, I, the person who was with me amazing person, don't get me wrong like she's really committed to the cause yeah but um, I was like, I was kayaking at the front and this person, I, I was like was she cracking at one side?
James Marlow-Smith:I stopped for a while and I was just thinking, okay, let's, I'll just stop and see what happens.
Hoiki Liu:We weren't moving, but, um, I had one time where I had a friend in the back who only kayaked on one side and so we kept spinning.
James Marlow-Smith:I think that was what was happening with us as well, but, um, but be fair, we managed to get to where we needed to and it was nice, because we obviously have so many different kayaks and we're all racing to see who can have fun. While some people are racing, some people are taking it easy. But yeah, we went from Sai Kung, we went to Beach Cool Lapsap Town. Oh wow, what a name yeah yeah, only a little bit of Lapsap Town. Oh wow, what a name. Yeah, yeah, only a little bit of Lapsap.
Hoiki Liu:Okay.
James Marlow-Smith:It's not really that Lapsap yeah.
Hoiki Liu:So in English that would be Garbage Bay, trash Bay, garbage Bay, trash Bay.
James Marlow-Smith:Or Rubbish Bay, yeah, if you're British. So we went there and then we probably collected about two bags full, oh, and from there we filled up maybe, I think, eight bags.
Hoiki Liu:I was going to say two bags is not too bad. Yeah, yeah, it was 60. But eight on the next part, yeah.
James Marlow-Smith:It was just under 70 kilograms when we finished, and what else? We went to another island. We didn't do any trash picking up there because I was worried that with the number of people we wouldn't be able to carry it all back.
Hoiki Liu:Yeah.
James Marlow-Smith:Although in hindsight I think we could have and then we went from there to another place. So we went to four different locations and there's like a little rocky area. It's like a little. It's meant to be a sandbar, but it's just rocks. But we went there and it was really nice. We took some photos at the lighthouse, walked around a little bit and it was just a perfect day. It was a little bit overcast, so it wasn't sunny, it wasn't super hot, but yeah, and then we finished and then we went to grab some food afterwards. It's nice, you can just make a day of it. Yeah and yeah. So I want to start doing those more and more. We've just applied for some government funding for that. Okay, great, so we can hopefully start to do that on a regular basis. But the project is targeted towards working with domestic helpers, basically, oh, okay. So the plan is every other weekend we will have a kayaking event. Right, provided that we get the funding we can do, because I mean renting them and everything.
Hoiki Liu:Yeah, because exactly I was gonna say, at the end of the day, transportation costs, all this needs to be factored in somehow, right? Yeah, well, maybe people forget that with um ngos, it's great that sometimes we physically it's actually not. Sometimes it's always great for us to physically go and do something, because that's where you get the awareness and the impact. But at the same time, the donations is just as important, often because you need people to run the operation.
James Marlow-Smith:People donate their time and that's amazing, but we need people to donate their money as well.
Hoiki Liu:Yes, for me, I've always been very uncomfortable asking for money, because it's like you know this is so mean probably on my part, but I always like to say like after a trash cleanup, sort the trash and take pictures of where it's from and ask those companies for the end product responsibility.
James Marlow-Smith:They should do, they should do. Yeah, but then this is the thing Once you buy the product, they will just argue that it's on the consumer's. Yeah, you know, it's on the consumer to deal with the trash, because they have it all on the packaging, right? Please recycle responsibly.
Hoiki Liu:And bottle recycling. Like I said, it's already as easy as it can get. Yeah.
James Marlow-Smith:Yeah, which is why I don't understand why most of the trash that we find is stuff that, if it was clean, if it wasn't contaminated by all of the stuff in the ocean and everything, or had been there for so long that we could recycle it yeah, plastic bottles, styrofoam, things like that.
Hoiki Liu:The only thing that's not is cigarette butts. Probably right, can we recycle cigarette butts?
James Marlow-Smith:This is something I've really wanted to do for a long time.
Hoiki Liu:Yeah.
James Marlow-Smith:But I need some help with it. I don't have the scientific background. Cigarette butts are made of cellulose acetate.
Hoiki Liu:Yes, yes, it's polyester still right.
James Marlow-Smith:It's basically, you could hypothetically purify it, remove the chemicals and then just turn it into fiber and you can make it into bags. You can make it into bags, you can make it into clothes, you can make it into whatever you want.
Hoiki Liu:Hong Kong doesn't have the the idea still seems gross with the tar and everyone's, but 100% it's fibers, yes, and you can clean it if you do it.
James Marlow-Smith:I mean to be honest. The only thing is, I think in Hong Kong it would be difficult because the facilities and the rentals and everything for that would be so expensive.
Hoiki Liu:Yeah, we would definitely have to be a project that's with probably the Greater Bay Area Like the facilities will need to be in the Greater Bay Area, where the collection can be out of Hong Kong. Of course you know the organization.
James Marlow-Smith:Yes, yeah, but the problem is with that. There's different jurisdictions.
Hoiki Liu:We need government policymakers to jump in and help us.
James Marlow-Smith:Yeah, you can't shift cigarette butts that are covered, you know, filled with toxins and you know all these different chemicals. You can't even import it.
Hoiki Liu:No, yeah, Actually my son's school. There was one time where we just cleaned up the area around the school.
James Marlow-Smith:Yeah, that's what we do sometimes.
Hoiki Liu:And the amount of cigarette butts absolutely turned the kids off. They were like why are so many people smoking?
James Marlow-Smith:and it made me feel like I'm like yes, because my son's never gonna have a cigarette after this and the funniest thing is, as well, we're not funny um, the interesting thing is you can see all the different brands and you can actually see like which brands you know are the most popular and stuff.
James Marlow-Smith:One thing that's holding cigarette recycling back, I think, in hong kong, if we wanted to do it, is the amount that are like flavored, you know, the ones with the little cookie things inside. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because I mean, ultimately you could just take the entire cigarette, but if you wanted to throw it in with the paper and everything, just grind it down and then purify it that way, those little balls inside, that's kind of affecting the process, I would say, to some degree. But I mean, I'm not a scientist, I'm not an expert. If there's anybody who's watching who would love to get involved, because I think, yeah, I mean, to be honest, even the first thing that we could do and one thing I really want to do, uh, like a project that I'm I'm hoping to get started is having more tactfully placed cigarette bins, because this is the thing, like, what do we have in hong kong?
James Marlow-Smith:we've got some of those bins which people can put them in, but for every one of those there's probably like five or six bins, where it's just the tiny little one yeah and for every one of those, or every like sort of 10 of those, there's like another 20 which are not right, suitable for cigarettes yeah, and then, and even the ones that has that on top, you often find people throwing different types of trash in it.
Hoiki Liu:So it's not not just cigarette butts. And then sometimes you see, like I've seen people, just you know, maybe they're from a shop by the street and the garbage can is just near outside the shop. So occasionally I've seen like shopkeepers come out and just pour water onto the top because people throw so much garbage in it, and then somebody else throws a cigarette, and then it's like you know smoky and it's gross, yeah, and also like the heavy metals as well.
James Marlow-Smith:Like if we are filling trash bags with cigarette butts and they're not being properly treated and they're going to landfill, like all of that is just adding to, like the all of that have all those heavy metals will be just leaching into the ground, which is just not good for the local environment really. But um, but yeah, I mean, cigarettes are terrible. I honestly I don't know why we have so many bans. I mean I don't support vaping, but we've got, you know, these new government bans on on vaping and yet, at the same time, it's okay to smoke cigarettes it's's powerful.
James Marlow-Smith:I'm always saying yeah cigarette lobbies have been around for a much longer time and I think this is the thing it's easier to regulate with cigarettes. It's not as easy to regulate with electronic cigarettes. So, that's why they would rather just have the traditional cigarettes. I mean, I haven't always been eco-conscious yes, no, no, because I mean honestly, even just't always been eco-conscious yes, no, no, because I mean honestly, even like just before I started Green Hour, I'd never done any charity work.
Hoiki Liu:Yes, I was going to say how did you let's jump back to that. I totally almost missed that question how did you even start Green Hour? And before that, why did you want to give back to society? Like what was that?
James Marlow-Smith:It was, honestly, it was just like that, like um. So, I think, prior to then, the only volunteering I had ever done, I joined a running, sort of like a little mini marathon. I think I ran like five kilometers and it was like raising money for um, like leukemia research or something like that, because my then lecturer at university, his youngest daughter, had leukemia. Okay, so I raised some funds for that and that was the only volunteering I had done prior to Green Hour. Okay, and then it was like 2017, it was like New Year's Eve and I was with my friend and we were just having a few drinks and talking about what we wanted to do in the new year. Um, and I just thought, okay, I want to do something when I go back to Hong Kong Cause this was when I was in the UK visiting family and I came back to Hong Kong I joined a few different volunteering events. Um, I did a couple of like different activities. A couple of them were like beach cleanups and stuff, and actually the thing that really set me off was we joined this event with a charity I won't name names, which will become apparent as to why so they did this big event. I think it was like 100 people. We had people from the European Chamber of Commerce for Hong Kong and Macau, big, big event, big party afterwards. But then, after the event had finished, all of the volunteers well, not all, but most of the volunteers were having their own little meals and picnics and stuff with single-use lides and forks, plastic, the gloves to eat, things like this. And I thought you know there's such a huge disconnect that I thought you know I want to do this. But, having worked as a teacher for a few years already, I thought I can hopefully get this message across better. And, yeah, so I just thought I'd give it a try.
James Marlow-Smith:And I can't remember our first event actually, I don't remember when it was. I think it was May 2018 and it went well, I guess, because I'm still doing it and then we started doing the plogging in like September 2018 and the plogging really took off because it was so. Plogging is it comes from a Swedish term which is plocka up, which means to pick up, yeah, and that's the PL. And then the ogging is jogging. Right, so picking up litter and jogging. That started around 2017, 2016 in like Sweden and some other places, and it became very popular in 2018. And I just saw it on my Facebook feed and I thought why not try it? In Hong Kong, the first event, we only had one person turn up and it was okay. And actually that guy has he joined quite a lot of times. I haven't seen him for a while. I think, yeah, I'm going to have to go.
James Marlow-Smith:I want to get back in touch with him because he joined almost every event for a while, I think, until, like I think, the pandemic Okay.
Hoiki Liu:Yeah.
James Marlow-Smith:Our volunteer audience changed a lot, I think, because we stopped for a couple of months or maybe like half a year. We didn't really have a lot, so it sort of died down Right, we had like a new core volunteer group, but I mean, we've still got some people who've been there since the beginning. But yeah, I have been there since the beginning. But, um, but yeah, I just wanted to do something and I I liked meeting new people. I still like meeting new people. I think it's. It's nice.
James Marlow-Smith:You know most of my friends I've met through through green hour, like I have, you know, some really good friends because of it. Um, in fact, my birthday is on thursday tomorrow. Yeah, early, it's on the early birthday, thank you. So my birthday's tomorrow. And one of my friends I know because she joined a volunteering event and we didn't know each other that well the first time we met Well, I mean, prior to that, we didn't know each other, but we didn't get to know each other that much.
James Marlow-Smith:But then she was one of the volunteers who joined for our booth at the Coldplay class. Oh, okay, yeah, so we got to know each other quite well then. And then she joined the kayaking event recently and so we're going to go for some drinks together tomorrow with her boyfriend and a few other people. So it's nice, nice. I feel like I've built a good community of people and, honestly, my favorite thing is that there are people who join and they meet other people and then they go off and hang out together themselves, so I'm helping people to build friendships, which I'm really proud of.
Hoiki Liu:It's also a great way to get a community that has the same passion for the same things to come together. So I don't have to explain to you about sustainability anymore. It kind of makes a difference if you just go and do it right.
Hoiki Liu:It's like what you said at the beginning there are companies that join and they just want picture offs yeah you go to certain um events where you feel this like they're doing something great, and the end of the day, there's this huge disconnect and you don't understand why I've gone to those things too. Um, I was at a round table. At it, I was just going to say I was in roundtable Italy last year. It was a sustainable roundtable where we're discussing about sustainability and, you know, in Italy everyone drinks out of plastic. Nobody drinks tap water for some reason, even though, like, we buy Italian water. But they get the waters in a bottle.
James Marlow-Smith:So but when we have my grandmother's from Italyaly.
Hoiki Liu:yeah, we don't drink it from the tap either it's like unheard of for some reason, right, but we're at this. There's a lot of distrust.
James Marlow-Smith:Just like hong kong, tap water is is drinkable, yes, but people don't think that it's okay to drink because it's just their perception. Yeah, but actually most modern buildings in hong kong, from like yes, 20, from like 1995 onwards, any of those buildings 1995 is considered modern. Most of those buildings the water is completely fine to drink from as long as you run the tap for a while. But sorry, carry on.
Hoiki Liu:No, I'm just saying even if you add a filter right, and I would assume if I can add a filter to my filter in Hong Kong and then get filtered water and just you know if I need boil it I should be able to do the same in Italy. But I was at this round table and this entire Italy trip I've never seen a single Italian drink from tap water. Everyone drinks from a bottle. But what I think I was most shocked was when we were here to sit down to discuss about sustainability and what we should do about it. In front of each participant there was a bottle of water, but not a glass bottle, a plastic bottle of water.
James Marlow-Smith:That surprises me, because San Pellegrino is a very famous Italian brand and they're all in glass bottles.
Hoiki Liu:Exactly so. We got a plastic bottle of water and then next to that plastic bottle of water we got a little plastic cup water and then next to that plastic bottle of water we got a little plastic cup right and you're like that's the kind of disconnect that is like what am I doing here, like why am I?
James Marlow-Smith:even people will just argue because you can recycle it.
Hoiki Liu:So it's like I'm sure like, why are we like, why are we even having this discussion, if this most basic bottom line hasn't even been considered? Yeah, which it's kind of crazy, but people talk so much about.
James Marlow-Smith:You can recycle something, but instead of recycling, you just refuse it in the first place, and then that's the thing. First thing is refuse recycling. Something still takes, you know, energy, energy and power.
Hoiki Liu:Yeah and also, I mean I, I showed up just as I said. Well, given you need to give us a bottle of water, I'll give you that, but, like you, it could have been a glass bottle. It's not. Then why the plastic cup, though? Like, if I already need to drink out of plastic, I might as well drink out of the plastic bottle. Why would you give me an extra plastic cup? And it's like a dingy, flimsy cup. Makes no sense. But there's something else that you were saying earlier that caught my attention and I want to go back to. It is the coldplay concert. Okay, I know you guys got a booth at the coldplay concert. That's super fun. Can you tell us more about it? Um, what happened there? Uh, how did you get the booth and how was it? How were the the attendants receiving the booth?
James Marlow-Smith:well, basically I got a message. So there's a charity called Global Citizen and Coldplay is, I guess, like a member, like basically they have big celebrities who are global citizens and I guess maybe Chris Martin and the rest of Coldplay. I saw them three times. I should know their names by now.
Hoiki Liu:I think one's called Johnny, one's called Guy and the other one I forget the name I listened to the music, but I have to tell you like I was like, oh, I'll pass on a concert. I'm sure you have enough volunteers. That's what I said, right, um. But now that I realize how green and what a sustainable message they're carrying across, I'm becoming more of a fan yeah, that was such good music, I didn't listen, I've always liked the music, but I didn't think anything more than I'll listen to it every now and then.
James Marlow-Smith:But yeah. So they reached out, global Citizen, and they asked they said, oh, we're reaching out to charities in Hong Kong. We have two spaces available to hold a booth. Tell us a bit about yourselves. So I just told them and they were like, yeah, cool, we'll pick you guys. And so I just told them and they were like, yeah, cool, we'll pick you guys. And I was like, okay, cool, that's great. So we got picked and we had a booth there for the four days and we had a few different activities there.
Hoiki Liu:First of all, we had face painting.
James Marlow-Smith:so after all the crowd, yeah, and that was that. That got a little bit out of control on the first two days because we had a huge row of people and for us we wanted to try to reach, connect more with, like the Hong Kong audience, because we want people who can join us as volunteers. But there were people from all over and we sort of adapted very quickly and we were like, well, you know, it's fine, we can get people to subscribe to our newsletter and stuff.
Hoiki Liu:Just get the message out is always a good thing too.
James Marlow-Smith:The biggest difficulty was when we had people from the mainland who don't have Instagram and only have, like, a QQ email, and so it was very difficult because I thought, well, we don't, really there's no way we can. We don't have much of a presence in mainland China, but it was nice because we got to connect with different people and I think it was nice to talk to people from different backgrounds. We met people from Central Asia, india, australia. There were some people from the UK because they couldn't get tickets in London, so they traveled to Hong Kong.
Hoiki Liu:I didn't know. Hong Kong was already hard to get tickets.
James Marlow-Smith:from what I heard, Already not as hard as London, even though London's got like 10 dates, yeah, um, but yeah so. So we had a booth there, we did a couple of activities. We just sort of shared a little bit about who we were, um, had lots of nice conversations. The face painting was nice because, as someone's having their face painted, you know you can talk a little bit about the charity, because they're not, they can't go anywhere no, they're stuck yeah, yeah, and the more elaborate the face paint is, the longer you can talk to yeah so yeah, um, so that was fun.
James Marlow-Smith:We we did some activities. We did like a little thing where so it's like you know, there's like basketball, toss things. So we had something similar, but we had like a little basket yeah and they had like a litter picker and people had to like try and throw some trash into it, and if they did it they get like a little badge and stuff yeah yeah, yeah, um, just little things like that.
James Marlow-Smith:My favorite part of it, to be honest, was seeing them seeing Coldplay live. Not sure, no, I say that my favorite part was being with the volunteers, because we got to connect, which is really nice. I think if I saw Coldplay three times just by myself, I wouldn't enjoy it. Yeah, um, but being with them was nice and each evening was a different experience because we were with different people. Um, and yeah, I honestly like it's so nice to see how much people will go above and beyond as well, not just because they're getting to see coldplay, but, like after the Coldplay thing.
James Marlow-Smith:You know a lot of the volunteers that joined and we've, you know, formed a connection. Um, you know, they're still willing to help. You know, some people will say, like, you know, like, if I just reach out and say, oh, I need help with this or I need help with that, they'll be like, yeah, yeah, I can do this, I can do that, right, and and it's it's nice to feel that you know, like, people have faith in what we do, people believe in what we do, which is nice, because sometimes I don't really have full confidence in what we're doing Every now and then we'll get a little burnt out, right yeah?
James Marlow-Smith:definitely.
Hoiki Liu:Yeah, especially on days where you have a bun run surplus but there's no volunteers, you're kind of just like oh, this is a little bit discouraging and I'm sure we'll all feel that. But yeah, I hope the whole Coldplay experience will get the awareness of Green Hour out there to generate more volunteers to come in.
James Marlow-Smith:Yeah, I think we managed to get a lot of people interested. So far we haven't had any I mean, I don't think so any volunteers who were at the Coldplay concert, who who are joining because they saw us there, but it's still early days yes, and hopefully the awareness is slowly seeping in.
Hoiki Liu:how? For the audience who are also curious if they want to join or they might want to start their own thing, first of all, how would they join Green Hour if they want to join?
James Marlow-Smith:So all of our events are on our website so you can go to wwwgreenhourhkcom. We also post everything. We share all the information on our Instagram page, which is Green Hour HK. We do have a WhatsApp community as well, so people can just directly join and then everything is also shared in there. I think we've got about 520, 530 people just in the WhatsApp group, so that's good. Every day I'll post something, or maybe every two or three days I'll just share. Oh, we've got an event, I think, in the next five, six weeks We've got about yeah maybe next four or so weeks.
James Marlow-Smith:We've got like five or six events, some plugging activities. We've got a beach cleanup, we've got a trail cleanup. We're doing a beach cleanup in Macau on the 29th of June.
Hoiki Liu:Are you guys also in Macau, or is it like a Hong Kong NGO going to Macau today?
James Marlow-Smith:We're just going to go to Macau and just do a little bit there, Just have a little day trip. Go there, do some sightseeing, pick up some trash and then maybe go for some foods.
Hoiki Liu:It's a good experiment, community building, giving back to society all in one go.
James Marlow-Smith:Honestly, I want to make sure that what we do is not just about doing a beach cleaner. I want it to be more than that. I want it to be more than just picking up trash, because you can do that by yourself. Yeah, if you wanted to, yeah, why join us? So the reason why I think people should join us is because, well, I think we're quite nice people, our team are quite nice, our volunteers are good and our core volunteers, the ones who join very regularly, they're very friendly people and I think I mean maybe I'm biased because I mean I just like them I think most of our volunteers not most, all of our volunteers- I believe, and we have good volunteer retention as well.
James Marlow-Smith:We've got people who join and then they'll join again and again, and again, yeah, yeah, so yeah, I think I just want it to be more and more engaging and more fun and I want to be more adventurous as well. So we've got the kayaking stuff. In the future, we want to do more things like go take a junk boat, go out. So that's probably the plan for like maybe October time We'll take a a junk boat, go out. Um, so that's probably the plan for like maybe october time we'll take a big junk boat. We'll get like maybe like 40 50 people right head out, go to like a beach, clean that beach up, have a little party go back so it's like for me.
James Marlow-Smith:I think we want to just have an event and then have some added value. So, for example, um, there's an organization called the bird watching. It's the hong kong bird watching association. We've recently reached out to them and hopefully we can create like a project together where we can do a trail cleanup and do bird watching at the same time. So it's always like a cleanup plus something, yeah, so, um, that's great.
Hoiki Liu:so, beyond just having the everyday activities that we've already known, we are adding more activities. So your volunteers not only get to, they're not becoming only environmentally aware or socially aware, it's even opening up the world of enjoyment of things they can do.
James Marlow-Smith:And it's so good for your physical well-being and your mental well-being being out in nature but also doing something that is I mean, it is quite a physically intense activity. Hiking, you know, is good for your legs. Beach cleanups, or any cleanup, actually is good for your arms, because you're carrying the trash, the plugging, you know we're going running, the kayaking, all these things. It is kind of a little bit of a fitness thing.
Hoiki Liu:It's a fitness thing and I also think like we probably won't think about this or relate this naturally, but it's also very much for, like, your mental clarity of just mental awareness of what's actually happening around you, right, and being aware that you can find a balance in life, like you can have fun and do things that's good for the world all at the same time. Yeah, you don't have to have fun and enjoyment at the cost of our environment.
James Marlow-Smith:And I think some people I mean for me I would be fine just picking up trash on my own at the beach, like I'm okay with that. Because, I have no shame, I guess.
Hoiki Liu:I have to tell my son to stop doing that.
James Marlow-Smith:But some people are scared of doing it on their own. So it's a way for them to do something that they want to do, but maybe they don't feel like they have the confidence to do it on their own. So, yeah, and I think I mean for us. You know, our name is Green Hour and we would love if we could encourage people just to take an hour out of their week or an hour out of their month just to do something small. You know, it could be like you're walking home from work or you're commuting from work. Just take a small bag and just fill it up. Once that bag's full, you're done. You know, like you can do small actions and if a hundred people do something small, like it's not small anymore, you know it's huge and um, and so, like I mean for us, it's a good way for us to.
Hoiki Liu:our events are a good way for people to get that hour or two in without feeling maybe a little bit conscious about doing it, because I mean, for me I mean, and if it, if it, if it becomes more normalized, right yeah then more people start doing it regularly and more people start seeing others doing it, then the stigma will be lifted.
James Marlow-Smith:Yeah, that's why I like doing plugging, because it's like an urban area. Everyone sees what we're doing. You know, it's very, very obvious what we're doing, because we're running, we're picking up rubbish and and I will hope it makes the people, that's just what.
Hoiki Liu:Maybe they haven't taken a part yet, but just seeing what you're doing will be impactful enough for them to be more mindful about what they do with their garbage, like should they litter for somebody else to pick it up for them you know, like you know, the building where I live.
James Marlow-Smith:There's no waste management. Oh, okay, it's one of those, like you know, tongs. Yes, yes, yes. So where I live, I asked the guy before I moved in where do I put my rubbish? He literally said, just put it outside on the floor and I was like I'm not going to do that.
Hoiki Liu:Yeah, does somebody pick it up from the building?
James Marlow-Smith:No, okay, so that makes no sense, and sometimes you put it in the building, like literally on the stairwell.
Hoiki Liu:Yeah, this is your own home, exactly so, like who would expect to take it up for you, it was an apple, like someone had eaten an apple and left it on the handrail.
James Marlow-Smith:Okay, it's only now, and then it really annoys me. Yeah, I usually just kind of pick it all up and do it myself, which I shouldn't have to. Yeah, but this is the thing, right, if you do it, if you clean up after someone, then they will think, well, it's fine for me to do it because someone else is cleaning it up, but then if you leave it, then you're just suffering as well. Yeah, imagine how Hong Kong would look if all the street cleaners just start for a week. Just imagine.
Hoiki Liu:So that's one of the things also I teach the children to be very respectful to the cleaners, because they're already doing a job that a lot of people don't want to do, you know. So, gosh, be respectful to the person who's helping you out doing what you don't want to do right and in the hot weather, doing what you don't want to do?
James Marlow-Smith:right and in the hot weather? Yeah, I know I don't condone plastic bottles, but if it's a hot day, like it was yesterday, and you see street cleaners, just give them a bottle of water. Yeah, exactly, or a cari sweat or a tea. I know it's not the most eco-friendly thing, but in terms of from a human perspective, yes.
Hoiki Liu:I think sometimes you need to take a balance in life. Right like to see what nobody's 100. That's why I say we can't expect everybody to be green all the time, to be making the right decisions every moment of their life like we're humans, you know but at the same time just try to find a better balance yeah, or fruit, if you have fruit yes, give fruit to street cleaners yeah that's always good.
James Marlow-Smith:It's very hydrating. A couple of oranges.
Hoiki Liu:And they're always happy to get something and they feel appreciated because the human aspect's been missing.
James Marlow-Smith:I remember New Year's Day this year. I was walking towards Welcome and I saw these cleaning ladies and I thought to myself they're working on New Year's Day. At like 9 am in the morning I thought, okay, I'm going to go and get some oranges for them. I bought some oranges as I was walking back I couldn't see them anywhere. So I was like, oh yeah, they're fast, yeah, yeah. But yeah, I just really appreciate that they were actually cleaning up like not the street, but like in the bushes, the bush areas and stuff like that's where most of the trash is and usually it gets ignored, yeah so, or at least it gets left until it's built up so much. But I mean, it's just, it's not, it's not sight, it's no, it's very unsightly and it's. I think if you see trash there, people are more inclined to do the same thing.
Hoiki Liu:Yes, exactly like. Yeah, somebody else treated this as a trash can. Why shouldn't I? Kind of, how does one start an ngo if they would like to start um?
James Marlow-Smith:to be honest, it's actually quite easy. Um, if you have something that you're working on and you've built up, I guess, like a portfolio or like you've got experience in it and you can show. This is what I've done. The first thing you've got to obviously set up a company. Um, once you've got your companies for non-profits, it's limited by guarantee. So we made the mistake when we first started. We we started a company which was limited by shares because we were going to go down the route of setting up as a social enterprise.
Hoiki Liu:Yeah.
James Marlow-Smith:But in the end we went down the nonprofit route, which they both have their pros and cons. As a nonprofit you are more likely to get people willing to make donations to your cause because you're a charity Right. But if you're a social enterprise there's a lot more funding opportunities because you kind of consider like a small, medium enterprise right um.
James Marlow-Smith:so they have their pros and cons, because if you're for-profit as opposed to non-profit, you get a lot more benefits in certain things.
James Marlow-Smith:There are a lot of, for example, um hang long properties, right, um, who we have as a corporate partner. They have a program where they will give spaces to people for free if they're a for-profit, but we don't get to take advantage of that and, honestly, the paperwork side of things is the easiest. I think the hardest is running a nonprofit once you've got Section 88, because there's a lot of stuff that you have to continue to do to show that you are basically running as a charity and you've got to provide all the annual returns and the audits and stuff like that. It's basically like running a normal company Okay, a normal company okay. But the only difference is, even if you're not earning anything like if you haven't started getting any donations, or like if if you open a charity and you have a charity section 88 and then you don't do anything, you still need to submit your annual return and have an audit and stuff which I mean, if you're, if you're just starting out, you know these are just added funds that you have to deal with.
James Marlow-Smith:But, um, I mean, to be honest, it's like a few thousand maybe at most. So it's okay, I guess in the grand scheme of things. Um, for us as an organization, we rely on companies to make a like a substantial sort of contribution, because that helps us to grow. We can do these public activities on a regular basis, but we can't make them bigger and better without their support, the company's support. So, because we're providing a service, it's technically not even a donation, right?
Hoiki Liu:Because I mean, if you think about it, take a cleanup, for example, At the end of the day, we've picked up as volunteers, you've picked up the trash, you put it together in bags. Now who's going to take those 820 bags away, right Like, and where are you going to bring it? How are you going to sort it? Like they don't really they still work at the end of the day, after our end of the day, kind of thing, yeah, yeah, as an event organizer, you have to be so like I, I mean patient patient is true.
James Marlow-Smith:I would say you have to be very um, you're like an mc or you're like a. You know, like I mean, I work as a teacher as well. Like you know, I work with kids. There's a. There's a lot of similarity sometimes between working with kids and working with adults. I think people think that because they're a grown-up, that like they listen better, and it's not true. We'll give out the gloves and the lisp because people will start walking off and I'm like whoa, hold on, guys, hold on and um. One thing about these events I really like with, when it comes to like working with companies, is that the hierarchy has gone. Yeah, you see, people who are like you know, like um, they say, like you've got like like the, like a ceo, something, and then you've got someone who's like you know like maybe just a junior assistant or something.
James Marlow-Smith:But that person gets really stuck in and will like push the CEO or push the head you know, the head of members of the company, to like really go for it and like you can just see that they just banter and they have a bit of fun.
James Marlow-Smith:But yeah, so hopefully we can, we can start working with more organizations and um and make more of a difference and, fingers crossed, we get this um funding as well yes um, because we really want to do more kayaking events and I want to do more to work with domestic workers, because the, the volunteers that we have, yeah, the ones who join, who have, you know, like, um, you know, domestic workers, workers in Hong Kong, mostly from the Philippines or Indonesia. They put in so much work, they really get stuck in and I honestly, I admire it and I want to give back to them.
Hoiki Liu:So if we can have a project that's completely free for them to join, I have another guest that's going to be coming on my podcast that's very focused on building communities. One of the things he does is on sundays he gets back to the filipino helper community by teaching them free exercises, exercise classes. Okay, I need to connect you guys. Uh, no, it's avi avi yeah from us, but anyways, I need to connect you guys so your groups can do something together I should put you in touch with uh walter as well.
James Marlow-Smith:He does this thing called G-Class, okay, and it's like fitness, it's like a what's it called?
Hoiki Liu:Like HIIT training for domestic workers, yeah, and so that's why I think you know these kind of conversations are so great, because building communities is also very important, especially in the tight space in Hong Kong, where if you really want to make something happen, you do need a community support, just like I was saying to you prior to when we were talking about so, like boat sales, like ship sales, are like a really big problem.
James Marlow-Smith:Once they're finished, people just discard them. But we can reuse them, we can repurpose them. I don't have the skills for that. I know people who do have the skills, but maybe they don't have the facilities I do. So we can come together and hopefully we can start making some sale tote bags, yes, and then we can-.
Hoiki Liu:And then hopefully that can go into profits, proceeds for Green Hour or whatever. And then beautiful bags as well.
James Marlow-Smith:Great, big, beautiful bags yes, just off the back of Donald Trump's big beautiful bill. But yeah, all right.
Hoiki Liu:Thank you so much for your time today. I think we've covered quite a bit, so it's been a great talk. Thank, you so much, james, thank you for having me.
