Opinion | Don’t let coronavirus waste overwhelm Hong Kong’s landfills in 2021

Name: Coronavirus consequences: disposable masks latest addition to Hong Kong’s waste woes
Uploaded: 2021-01-03T07:59:22.000Z
Duration: 2 min 42 s
Description: Coronavirus consequences: disposable masks latest addition to Hong Kong’s waste woes

In 2019, Hong Kong fell short on several key waste reduction targets. The continuing use of disposable face masks, popularity of online shopping and food delivery will only exacerbate the problem

Reading Time:3 minutes

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People wearing face masks shop for decorations ahead of Christmas in Hong Kong on December 19. An estimated 6 million face masks have been discarded every day in the city during the pandemic. Photo: AP

Edwin Lau

Published: 3:59pm, 3 Jan 2021Updated: 4:11pm, 3 Jan 2021

As we step into 2021, all of humanity is hoping that the worst impact on our economy, society and environment of the Covid-19 pandemic will soon pass. This was the general theme of the New Year messages I received from my friends.

Several vaccines have been successfully developed and will soon be deployed in Hong Kong and other countries. Despite the optimism on the vaccine front, letting down our guard on both health and environmental protection is not an option. In particular, the environmental impact of the drastic increase in the use of disposable face masks and takeaway food cartons during Covid-19 cannot be underestimated.

Hong Kong’s waste crisis is already dire. The city’s Monitoring of Solid Waste report offers a clear picture of the composition of waste, its disposal and recycling trends. Not only is it unacceptable that the Environmental Protection Department took almost a year to release the 2019 report, several key indicators in the report fall well short of the targets for waste reduction set in the Blue Print for Sustainable Use of Resources 2013-2022.

For example, the daily per capita municipal solid waste disposal rate dropped only from 1.53kg in 2018 to 1.47kg in 2019, a negligible amount in terms of the 2022 target of 0.8kg.

Another example is the overall waste recycling rate: in 2010, it was 52 per cent. Since then, it has declined continuously to 29 per cent in 2019, far short of the 2022 target of 55 per cent. The paper recycling rate dropped from 41 per cent in 2018 to 35 per cent in 2019.

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Coronavirus consequences: disposable masks latest addition to Hong Kong’s waste woes

Are our policies are unrealistic? Or are the authorities simply not implementing them effectively?