Industrial waste in landfills up a fifth as China-bound rubbish piles high in Hong Kong

The amount of industrial waste ending up in Hong Kong’s landfills rose by a fifth last year as mainland China began shutting out waste imports from around the world, the latest official figures show.

Industrial rubbish, the third biggest contributor to municipal solid waste behind households and the commercial sector, rose 20 per cent from about 925 tonnes per day in 2016 to 1,100 tonnes, according to as yet unreleased statistics from the Environmental Protection Department.

The 185-tonne daily increase would have amounted to 67,525 tonnes in the year, or roughly the weight of 3,300 standard-sized empty cargo containers, environmental group The Green Earth, which obtained the figures, pointed out.

Yearly average increases over the last five years have hovered at between 2 and 11 per cent.

In general, commercial and industrial waste, which the government groups together as “C&I”, has been going up, but mainly driven by the former as a result of economic growth and consumption patterns.