After years of writing off the recycling business as unviable, it appears an urgent need to deal with the huge amount of waste this society generates has finally driven the Government to warm to the idea of supporting the trade.
The details of a plan to set up a recovery park in Tuen Mun remain sketchy, and recyclers have doubts whether it will be practical for all of them to operate at one site. But the measure is a breakthrough for a trade that has encountered serious difficulties finding suitable sites to process their haul.
The SAR already has a thriving industry recycling 53 per cent of commercial and industrial waste with a $2.2 billion turnover last year. But that waste is easily collected as offcuts from textile factories, clean cardboard and other types of separated waste direct from the factories, whereas the SAR's three landfills are fast reaching capacity because of household waste.
Pressure on the landfills can only be reduced if more household waste can be processed by recyclers, and that would require some government assistance to make the business viable.
Although the taxpayer shoulders the bill for garbage collection to landfills, the administration has been reluctant to use the public purse to collect domestic waste and deliver it to recyclers. Only now are bins being provided where plastic bottles, aluminium cans and paper are separated before collection.
Hopefully, a proposed $100 million fund to promote waste collection and prevention programmes, together with the designated recycling park, will give new impetus to the recycling industry, which has considerable potential for development and performs a vital social service.
