Company responsible for recycling Hong Kong’s electronic waste dismisses concerns it cannot keep up with demand
Alba IWS was chosen by government to dispose of unwanted appliances and says it can handle 30,000 tonnes a year
The sole contractor of the government’s new disposal scheme for electrical appliances has brushed off concerns over whether it could cope with the recycling demand, saying it was presently running at only at a quarter of its normal capacity.
Alba IWS was responding to criticisms against the arrangement of the Producer Responsibility Scheme, which began on August 1 and retailers are required to provide free, government-approved removal services for old or unwanted appliances to customers.
Unwanted air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, computers, printers, scanners and monitors will have to be taken to a licensed recycler to process, while producers also have to pay a recycling levy of between HK$15 and HK$165 per item to the government every quarter.
The government has employed Alba to provide free collection services and to run its new waste electronics processing plant in Ecopark, Tuen Mun. Each year, the company receives about HK$200 million (US$25.5 million) in return.
But concerns were raised over whether Alba had the capacity to handle the sheer demand for collections from the estimated 3,000 appliance sellers in the city, without leaving those broken-down clunkers sitting at customers’ home for days before they could be collected.