Hong Kong recovered 32 per cent of its municipal waste in 2022, as an NGO said the city still has a long way to go in reaching its sustainability goals.
The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) on Friday released the city’s waste statistics for 2022. The city generated 5.97 million tonnes of municipal solid waste – including domestic, commercial, and industrial trash – last year, among which 1.91 million tonnes or 32 per cent was recovered.
The figure represented a slight increase compared to 2021, when 31 per cent of waste was recovered. The rest of the waste – 4.06 million tonnes, or 68 per cent – was brought to the city’s three landfills last year, a 2 per cent decrease from 2021.
On average, residents disposed 1.51 kilograms of waste into the city’s landfills per day in 2022, compared to 1.53 kilograms in 2021.
In response to the waste figures, environmental group The Green Earth said on Friday that the city’s handling of waste was still far from the sustainability goals outlined in a 2013 government blueprint. The blueprint said Hong Kong aimed to reduce per capita waste disposal to 0.8 kilograms per day, and to raise the recycling rate to 55 per cent by 2022.
“The amount of trash we throw away every day is still shocking,” Steven Chan, an assistant environmental affairs manager at the Green Earth, told HKFP in Cantonese.
While authorities said that the government had implemented policies – including the expansion of the community recycling network Green@Community in 2020 – to reduce waste heading for landfills and increase the recycling rate, Chan said that priority should be given to source reduction, or reducing waste before it is created.
“It is best to reduce waste from the source by promoting reusable systems [for tableware] and cutting [down on] the use of disposable items,” he said. “Downstream measures such as recycling, incineration, and disposal should not be prioritised.”
According to the latest figures, the amount of municipal solid waste recovered for local recycling was about 420,000 tonnes last year, up 51 per cent from 2021.
But Chan said the increase was only limited to the local recycling industry, and that the overall recycling rate did not reflect such improvement.
“If the huge amount of waste cannot be reduced at the source, the recycling system would be heavily burdened in the long run,” he added.
The environmental group urged authorities to promptly enforce the pay-as-you-throw waste levy when it comes into effect next April, referring to a new scheme that will see the public charged for rubbish disposal. The initiative is aimed at encouraging trash reduction.
Under the new scheme, Hongkongers have to purchase designated bags for rubbish disposal or face a HK$1,500 fine. However, authorities earlier said there would be a six-month “adjustment period,” during which officers will issue warnings instead of take enforcement action when the rules are breached.
Chan said that while the adjustment period was necessary, “tougher” enforcement was needed to raise the public’s awareness of how to effectively reduce waste.
The Green Earth also suggested that authorities set up a review mechanism of the waste levy scheme and periodically release figures relating to waste reduction and the recycling rate, so that the public can be informed about the outcomes of such policies.
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