Hong Kong’s fisheries blame lack of recycling facilities for polystyrene litter disaster of ‘crisis proportions’
Urban planning concern group Designing Hong Kong inspected the Aberdeen Wholesale Fish Market and described the inundation of coastlines with floating polystyrene as an environmental disaster
Fisheries representatives have blamed a lack of on-site recycling facilities for the city’s chronic problem of polystyrene boxes ending up in the sea.
This comes as an urban planning concern group described the latest inundation of coastlines with floating polystyrene as an environmental disaster of “crisis proportions”.
Designing Hong Kong inspected the Aberdeen Wholesale Fish Market earlier this month, revealing a worrying scene that showed mounds of foam boxes being laid out haphazardly by the roadside or around waste bins.
Chunks of them were flattened or broken by the trucks moving in and out of the facility. Boxes or fragments were seen floating in the typhoon shelter or clogged in drains.
“It starts here in the fish market,” said Southern district councillor Paul Zimmerman, who heads the group, calling the lack of care from the industry “criminal”.
“This stuff ends up in the water, ends up in the sea, ends up being eaten by fish,” he said.
Hong Kong Fishermen Consortium chairman Cheung Siu-keung, a representative of the Aberdeen fisheries trade, rejected claims all traders were irresponsible.
While it could not be ruled out that some unscrupulous operators were allowing boxes to topple into the sea, most would not as polluted seas affected their livelihoods, he said.
“The problem is there are too few recycling points near the ports at the wholesale market and the ones that they have are not in convenient or suitable locations,” he said. “The boxes just pile up on the shore and they are light enough to get blown in the water.”
He suggested the government add more recycling facilities and collection points nearer to the port where fishermen load and offload produce.
The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, which regulates the market, said it was concerned about the problem and its operator, the Fish Marketing Organisation, had stepped up efforts to clear up foam box debris.
Other measures include adding another temporary foam box collection point to the existing two, more rubbish bins in the market, erecting nets along the seafront and around bins to catch the stray debris, and installing drain strainers. Patrols, warning issuances and enforcement against littering have also been stepped up.
Greeners Action senior project manager Thomas Choi Ka-man said similar problems occurred at wet markets but many vegetable vendors often found ways to reuse them.
“The government needs to provide clear information to vendors on how and where they can leave the stuff for recycling,” he said. “Few people actually even know styrofoam can be recycled.”
Jacky Lau Yiu-shing, who chairs the Recycled Materials and Reproduction Business General Association, said the problem reflected a wider market-based problem – polystyrene’s low value and high costs for logistics and recovery.
“A box in good condition can be recovered but it costs about HK$10 to actually recycle it into new plastic and can only be resold for about 30 per cent of this cost,” he said.
An additional headache at fish markets was that boxes tended to get smelly, soiled or damaged, reducing their value further. Lau urged the government to introduce a producer responsibility scheme for polystyrene containers.
A report on marine refuse commissioned by the Environmental Protection Department last year said foam plastic comprised about a fifth of shoreline and floating refuse.
