Opinion | Hong Kong’s shameful recycling efforts: the numbers don’t lie
Peter Kammerer says a recycling rate of 35 per cent may seem decent, but in fact fully 98 per cent of the city’s recycled solid waste is exported to the mainland and elsewhere. With the mainland stopping imports of ‘foreign garbage’, Hong Kong must get to grips with its waste problem
A lot of the government’s claims about recycling would seem to be a sham. Those barges full of waste paper that the mainland doesn’t want any more are proof of how rubbery the numbers have been.
The same presumably goes for plastics, glass, food and whatever else we throw away. Until the authorities are serious about getting us to reduce waste, Hong Kong will stand shamefully among those places which care little for themselves or the world around them.
But there aren’t any paper recycling or manufacturing plants in Hong Kong. Those barges that aren’t going anywhere now that Beijing has removed its welcome mat tell the story; we don’t recycle paper, we just ship it to someone else and what they do with it is up to them.
