What China’s waste import ban teaches Hong Kong about recycling and resource use

Barely any outreach was done to educate the public on what recyclables are accepted. Nor did the department seem to have coordinated with the Community Green Station network. Even though the department said the stations will accept everything, each has its own list of accepted recyclables. The campaign feels like a major step back in the government’s waste reduction efforts – especially when the waste-charging scheme is expected to roll out in 2019.

But Hong Kong is not alone in being stumped by the import ban. Municipalities around the world that had been reliant on China for their recycling are also scrambling to find a solution. Some, like Hong Kong, responded by stopping the collection of certain recyclables and sending them to landfills or incinerators. Others decided to seek importers elsewhere, while developing local recycling capacity.

Though the Environmental Protection Department has reserved HK$20 million to upgrade recyclers’ capability for processing plastics into pellets, they should not be content with simply being reactive to new developments.

24 reasons why China’s ban on foreign trash is a wake-up call for global waste exporters

Hong Kong must reduce its dependence on exporting waste by greatly expanding its ability to reuse resources locally, through investing in processing and manufacturing capacity, and creating a circular economy with green procurement to support the local industry. This should be supported by producer responsibility schemes to reflect the true environmental cost from production to disposal.