This month's deluge of plastic comes after trash blanketed beaches on the outlying islands of Cheung Chau and Lantau in July. In that instance, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) said the trash had come from mainland China, washed out of the Pearl River Delta by intense flooding in the Guangdong area in June. "Due to the effects of rainfall, marine currents and southwest monsoon wind, more marine refuse would be found during summer than other seasons," the EPD said. The latest problems, however, cannot be blamed on mainland China. Christine Loh, Under Secretary for the Environment in Hong Kong, told CNN: "In general, most of the marine trash in our waters originated in Hong Kong." A government study found that less than 5% of marine refuse in Hong Kong had labels in the simplified Chinese characters that are used in mainland China, suggesting Hong Kong is to blame for its own ocean trash. "There are two challenges for the governments in terms of marine trash The first is that we have to clean it up; and the second is to reduce the problem. The first challenge requires an understanding of how marine litter moves around in our waters and efficient coordination for the government team to clean-up quickly. "The second challenge mainly requires people to change their on-land habits so waste doesn't end up in the water."