Expect more chaos over waste paper collection, Hong Kong recyclers against ‘unfair’ mainland import policy warn
City ships waste paper for processing across the border, but new rules pitting it against foreign importers may mean a local bottleneck of stocks
Waste paper recyclers in Hong Kong on Sunday warned of chaos if the city’s government did not help them fight for exemption from an “unfair” mainland policy regulating waste imports.
“At this rate, our assessment is that every two months there will be one case where Hong Kong shipments cannot be moved because once permit quotas are used up, we must wait ... for the [next batch],” Lau said on RTHK programme City Forum. “The situation is a bit chaotic.”
Shift in mainland policy could spell disaster for Hong Kong recycling
The mainland government began tightening waste import regulations last year, pledging to ban 24 types of polluting “foreign rubbish” including unsorted waste paper and consumer plastic waste from this year.
The move sent shock waves through Hong Kong’s waste recovery industry.
Some 80,000 tonnes of waste paper are collected in the city each month. Almost all of it is exported across the border because of Hong Kong’s lack of processing capacity.
Mainland waste paper imports – and the permits allocated to recycling plants there – have dropped by 85 per cent since the announcement.