Coronavirus: Hong Kong struggles with fire hazard over growing mountain of dumped foam boxes barred from mainland China
- Reusable boxes not allowed to be taken across border due to fears truck drivers will spread virus
- Three fires reported since February as thousands of discarded foam boxes pile up near markets
Hong Kong has recorded at least three fires involving discarded polyfoam containers that have been piling up since February after mainland China barred truck drivers from taking them back across the border.
Fires have broken out near the city’s largest wholesale market in Cheung Sha Wan, where discarded foam boxes, used for transporting produce from the mainland, have been accumulating.
The Post found that at least three fires involving such containers had occurred since February. In 2021, the city only reported three such incidents throughout the entire year.
The Environmental Protection Department estimated that about 120,000 to 150,000 foam boxes, used only for storing vegetables, were arriving daily from the mainland.
Made from petroleum-based expanded polystyrene, which is more than 95 per cent air, the boxes are widely used for transporting market produce.
Previously, the foam containers were taken back across the border for reuse. But mainland authorities stopped allowing the return of such boxes in February after several truck drivers contracted Covid-19 during Hong Kong’s fifth wave of infections.