Waste output records first drop in four years, green groups say

The amount of waste produced in Hong Kong dropped 9 per cent last year - the first dip in four years - but the amount of food waste, a key concern for environmentalists, increased.

The biggest drop was in waste for recycling - down 16 per cent - and the average quantity of solid waste disposed of at landfills decreased 2.6 per cent to 13,458 tonnes a day, while construction waste dropped 7 per cent, according to the government.

The reduction of recycling waste was especially obvious in plastics, with a fall of 47 per cent.

Friends of the Earth's environmental affairs manager Celia Fung Sze-lai attributed this decrease to the gloomy economy in Europe, as recycling companies tended to receive less waste when the prices were depressed.

Fung said yesterday the city was also receiving less plastic waste from overseas to be transferred to other places, such as the mainland. Her group had been told by recycling companies that the recycling price for plastic had dropped from 7,000 yuan a tonne last year to 4,500 yuan recently, due to a smaller demand in the mainland and overseas.

Fung also said the increase in food waste was worrying, and urged the government to come up with comprehensive strategies to recycle it.