Will government financial support offer a solution for loss-making recyclers? Not necessarily, if the performance of a charity supported by public funds to run a plastic-waste-processing centre at the Eco Park in Tuen Mun is anything to go by.
The Yan Oi Tong charity is receiving HK$10 million over three years to run its recycling service and also benefits from a 5,000 square metre site, handed to it free along with all the necessary equipment.
But last year it recycled just 1,090 tonnes of waste plastic - well below its target of 7,200 tonnes. It means each tonne of recycled plastic effectively cost the taxpayer HK$3,300, although precise details of its spending and subsidy arrangements have not been made public.
And that's before the HK$21 million the Environmental Protection Department spent on infrastructure, plant and equipment for the centre and the HK$1.2 million annual rent it is forgoing.
Lee Hing-tak, who runs a private waste-plastic-recycling company at the Eco Park, said he struggled to see how a commercial plastic-recycling operation could sustain itself if a charity could not. 'With all that support and funding, the charity is not even able to hit the target and break even. How can a commercial recycler like us survive?' he said.
A person familiar with the situation acknowledged the problems facing the charity but said its performance should not be measured only by the tonnage it recycled.
