Hong Kong - A tax on plastic bags given out by supermarkets will be introduced in Hong Kong by the middle of 2009, a government minister said Saturday.

Legislators approved the "green tax" days ago and environment secretary Edward Yau told reporters Saturday it would be put in place by the middle of next year.

The tax of 50 Hong Kong cents (6 US cents) on each plastic bag was agreed after a long, stormy debate over how to cut the use of plastic bags in the city of 6.9 million.

Littering is a major problem in the former British colony, a notoriously environmentally unfriendly, densely populated city which has one of the world's largest per capita carbon footprints.

Around 30 million plastic bags a day are thrown away in Hong Kong - more than four per person - accounting for some 6 per cent of the daily 17,500 tonnes of rubbish sent to the city's landfills.

One Hong Kong supermarket chain introduced a trial scheme of charging for plastic bags last November but abandoned it after just five days because of an outcry from shoppers who refused to pay.

Many plastic bag manufacturers with factories in China are based in Hong Kong and they have argued against the tax, saying many of the alternatives to plastic bags are even less environmentally friendly. (dpa)