Inside Out | Lack of clarity sets up Hong Kong’s environmental plans for disaster
- The mess Hong Kong has made of its waste management is unlikely to improve with the waste charging scheme and single-use plastic ban on the horizon
- Rather than charging ahead, it might be wiser to further delay enactment until there is greater clarity of purpose and the plans could be improved
When it comes to managing our waste, Hong Kong has been a bit of a muddled mess for the past decade, and it looks likely to get worse in the coming months.
Look at Germany, a global leader in managing waste, and the contrast with Hong Kong is striking. Germany creates more municipal waste per person than Hong Kong – 632kg per person compared with 551kg here – but the amount it dumps in landfills is negligible. Around 50 per cent is recycled, around 30 per cent incinerated and less than 1 per cent ends up in landfills.
It has succeeded not because it has dramatically slashed the levels of per-capita waste. Rather, progress has come because the government has got to grips with the waste chain, from effective separation of waste before it leaves a consumer’s home to creating an easy-to-understand waste disposal infrastructure that successfully diverts waste before it needs to reach a landfill.
Here in Asia, South Korea also puts us to shame. Per-capita waste has been brought down to 400kg per year. With about 60 per cent now recycled and 20 per cent incinerated, only about 11 per cent of their waste reaches the landfill.