Hong Kong duo pushes for city to start sharing umbrellas, now synonymous with protest but always good against rain
- Umbrellas placed at designated spots, allowing anyone to grab one during a downpour and return it later
- Co-Umbrella aims to reduce thousands of unwanted umbrellas that go to waste in Hong Kong each week, clogging up landfills
When 22-year-olds Winky Law Wing-ki and Jeffrey Kwong Ka-lok started their experimental umbrella-sharing project at Chinese University three years ago, they weren’t expecting the results to be so frustrating: the 40 umbrellas, meant to be returned and reused, disappeared in a month never to return.
In the beginning, the project – known as Co-Umbrella – situated labelled umbrellas at spots around campus, allowing anyone to grab one during a downpour and return it later to be used by others.
“If everyone bought a new umbrella when there was sudden rain, a lot of spare umbrellas would be wasted. We hoped the unused umbrellas could be reallocated and shared by the public,” Kwong says.
Hong Kong people are used to taking, but not sharing. It’s going to be a long journey for us [to change those habits]
As the first attempt showed, there was a lack of awareness on campus – and at this point, they were out of umbrellas.