Letters | Hong Kong needs united action to tackle plastic waste crisis and boost bottle recycling

The plastic waste crisis has captured public attention in recent years. Among plastic debris, the amount of beverage bottles flooding beaches around the world has been particularly mind-boggling. In 2019, a daily average of around 4.84 million PET bottles was disposed of at Hong Kong’s landfills, but the recycling rate was less than 1 per cent. If Secretary for the Environment Wong Kam-sing does not implement sound and appropriate regulations, he owes Hongkongers and the ecosystem an explanation.

In the past, whenever the government proposed producer responsibility schemes for beverage bottles, it met with opposition from the industry. This time, several leading beverage producers last month took the initiative to put forward a regulatory framework which suggests a 5-cent rebate per returned bottle as part of the proposal.

We at The Green Earth believe that if a deposit is paid when buying a bottled beverage, this will act as a relatively stronger driving force for consumers in getting their money back. This is also a mature and effective measure adopted by many economies, which Hong Kong should not overlook.

In 2018, we found an average recycling rate of 73 per cent among 25 economies that implemented deposit and return systems. The deposit per bottle ranged from around 30 HK cents to HK$3.14, an average of 93 HK cents. Taking into account the situation of Hong Kong, I believe the recycling rate will be raised to the global average or above if we start with a deposit of 50 HK cents.