Reuse, recycle and upcycle: what local waste experts suggest we should do with our trash
Waste is such a complex issue but also presents a tremendous opportunity, especially for business. We jumped on the chance to bring together some of Hong Kong’s biggest social movers and shakers to shed light on the problems and solutions surrounding waste (listen up, entrepreneurs).
Unless you live off the grid, you’ve probably heard all the staggering statistics surrounding the state of our planet today. To start with, our oceans are filled with plastic, so much so that there will be more plastic than fish by weight by 2050. Moving on to waste, every day in Hong Kong there are 370 tonnes of waste thrown into landfills – and that’s not even taking into account the electronic waste that’s damaging our soil with chemicals. Or maybe you’ve noticed the hordes of cardboard collected by the elderly, not just on the streets of Hong Kong but also in most major cities in Asia? And we’re barely scraping the tip of the iceberg here. The list goes on.
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Did you know that Hong Kong produced 3.7 million tonnes of municipal waste in 2015 – the highest figure for five years. And most of it got dumped into landfills.
But, there’s always a bright side. Imagine for a minute if waste from one organisation or industry could be used to supply the raw materials needed by another? Well it can, and the process is called the “circular economy” and it defines a community where everything produced gets either reused, recycled or upcycled. It’s a paradigm away from our current linear model, which relies on the “take-make-dispose” model of production.
This year, IRIS – a health and wellness festival in Hong Kong – offered us an opportunity to put together a panel on sustainability and we jumped at the chance to get to the nitty-gritty when it comes to Hong Kong’s waste situation. We invited experts in the field, including thought leaders from local grassroots communities like the Circular Community of Hong Kong, HK Recycles and No More Junk. In earlier discussions, we all agreed that no one in Hong Kong is really sure if waste is really being recycled. Even though trash is getting separated at home, no one actually knows what happens next. This scepticism probably comes from witnessing recyclables being mixed up again after collection, time and time again.
We decided to get to the bottom of it once and for all and find out the truth behind the waste situation in Hong Kong. We drew up our questions and took them to the experts. Here is who sat on our panel:
Tom Ng, member of 正澳社區回收 街坊 NO MORE JUNK Bay
Aigul Safiullina, founder of Sustainable Minds and former co-founder of Zero Waste Life
Tanja Wessels, founding partner of the Circular Community HK
Philippe Li, business developer at HK recycles
The situation
What is Municipal Waste?
Municipal solid waste (MSW) is comprised of solid waste from households, commercial and industrial sources. MSW is disposed of at landfills. In 2017, that figure stood at nearly six million tonnes.
Food waste is comprised of waste produced during food production, processing, wholesale, retail, and preparation, as well as after meal leftovers and expired foods. It makes up roughly 36 per cent of MSW.
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Construction waste includes waste arising from construction work such as building, renovation, demolition, land excavation, and road work. Through waste sorting and separation, inert material is used as fill in reclamation sites, when available. The non-inert portion of the waste still goes to landfills.
Chemical waste is comprised of substances specified as posing a possible risk to health and/or the environment.
Clinical waste, generated from various healthcare, laboratory and research practices, should be managed properly so as to minimise danger to public health or risk of pollution.
Waste cooking oils (WCO) include oils abandoned from any cooking process for human consumption, other than those from households. It should be handled properly to promote the recycling of local resources and prevent them from re-entering the food chain.
What can be recycled?
Paper waste: newspapers, books, magazines, office papers, cardboard but remember to remove plastic coated pages, plastic tape, and other non-paper materials as well as to keep the waste paper dry.
Rubber
Electrical appliances: cooker, toaster, oven, hair-dryer, vacuum cleaner, electric fans, iron, mobile phone, telephone, camera, recorder, MP3 player, electronic dictionary, notebook, computer, printer, DVD/cassette tape player, etc.
Rechargeable batteries
Fluorescent lamps
Clothes
Glass
Furniture
Food
What cannot be recycled?
Beverage or milk cartons with plastic or aluminium interior coatings
Aerosol cans, chemical containers
Mops, correction fluid containers or medicine containers
Light bulbs
Money
Knowledge
Misunderstanding
Solutions – for individuals
Is it possible to live a zero-waste lifestyle in Hong Kong? How can people begin to go about it?
Have a strategy applicable to your personal lifestyle and start small.
Evaluate how much waste you produce in a week; only after you start separating your waste and weighing it will you see more clearly.
Figure out which of the items you are ready to refuse or at least replace with sustainable alternatives.
Start small: month one you can focus on composting food, month two is to replace your kitchen supplies with the alternatives, and month three could be devoted to your bathroom.
Start to get in the habit of refusing things: takeaway meals (or bring your own containers when possible), goodie bags and low-quality products with short lifecycles, etc.
Don’t buy alternatives right away as you can shop your home first and be creative with DIY products.
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, and be kind to yourself – just take it slow and enjoy your journey.
“The easy way of thinking is ‘no waste = no problem’ so I’d encourage everyone to refuse before thinking how to reduce or recycle.”
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What can we as consumers and companies do to use fashion as a force for good?
Ask questions, get curious, signal to companies that people are savvier nowadays.
Celebrate brands and people with progressive values – that can be done financially and publicly on social media.
If you want to go to the edge of things and this is not for everyone, stop shopping and find joy in other ways.
Solutions – for Hong Kong
Can you recommend any circular services we can support in Hong Kong?
V Cycle: tackles Hong Kong’s environmental issues on two levels: ecological and social. The 10 Tonne Challenge is a charity campaign focusing on plastic bottles collection and poverty alleviation. Four cardboard grannies participated in the campaign to sort plastic bottles by colour. The bottles will be recycled and upcycled into creative, multi-purpose bags. The sewing and stitching process will create job opportunities for rehabilitation participants. Proceeds from the sales of the bags will go towards improving the lives of many other cardboard grannies.
Hong Kong Community Composting: 3,600+ tonnes of food waste is sent to Hong Kong landfills every day. Rotting food produces methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. It gets turned into nutrient-rich compost.
The R Collective: The R Collective rescues and upcycles surplus luxury materials that are destined to be wasted and transforms them into beautiful, enduring affordable luxury designer pieces.
Tiostone Environmental: by mixing recycled glass with coal ash and other construction waste, Tiostone produces 100,000 to 150,000 square metres of eco-bricks in Hong Kong a year.
Kevin Cheung: an upcycling product designer experimenting with waste materials, reusing them to create new products and also collaborating with different NGOs to produce the products locally.
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Boombottle: a speaker system made from a waste plastic container.
What are the #LittleGreenSteps that panelists believe we can implement into our lives on a daily basis?
Tanja: Refuse, refuse, refuse (find other ways to experience joy, goddamit!).
Philippe: Be consistent and use reusable items frequently. Don’t keep buying reusable items as that defeats the purpose of lowering your personal ecological footprint.
Tom: BYO stuff, and not only say no to plastic, but also say no to all single use. Plan your consumption to avoid impulsive shopping.
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Reuse, recyle and upcycle: this is the battle cry as the mountains of municipal waste in our landfills grow larger every year