Letters | Hong Kong’s Lunar New Year flower markets: don’t leave waste to the NGOs
- Reducing waste at source is the most cost-effective way to ease pressure on Hong Kong’s landfills
- The 83 tonnes of waste generated at this year’s Lunar New Year flower markets is a timely reminder of the need for action
As a part of V’air Hong Kong, a youth organisation promoting local sustainable tourism and environmental education, I have seen my peers work tirelessly to reduce waste from the Sha Tin flower market. The team that worked at the flower markets included not only V’air members, but also ambassadors recruited from the public.
The team promoted waste reduction messages to stall owners and the public when the markets were operating, and started to gather and sort the materials left over from the stalls on Lunar New Year’s Eve, as the markets drew to a close.
What could be recycled was cleaned and sent off, and what could be donated was sent to the Sha Tin Community Green Station for residents to collect for free.
The team worked from dusk till dawn during the Lunar New Year holidays, all because they care about the environment. Without these dedicated ambassadors, we could not have ensured that the materials from the flower markets could be recycled or repurposed. Still, despite their hard work, around 10 per cent of the materials had to be sent to the landfills.