Shop less and reduce, reuse and recycle this Christmas: how to reverse the cycle of buying and dumping in a landfill

A slightly marked white sofa bed; a pair of cream-coloured patent leather shoes (size 40); boxes of N95 masks; bags of peanuts in the shell (“no expiry date, consume at your own risk”); gravel for a fish tank or plant pot – these free items were all recently listed on the Reduce Reuse Recycle Free Hong Kong page on Facebook.

Members give away things they no longer need and don’t want to go to waste. We can all make a difference. “Thanks for helping us reduce Hong Kong’s staggering 15,000 tonnes of daily landfill!”, the group notes on the page. Several listings are posted each week by the group’s 2,500 members, who give away unwanted stuff out of goodwill and concern for the environment.

Giveaway and swap social media groups all over the world have seen a surge of interest from people who fear that excessive consumption and waste spells environmental disaster.

The spending blitz of the past decade was given an extra push by the pandemic, when billions of shoppers were locked down or socially restricted and went online to browse Amazon, eBay and other sites, and buy, buy, buy.

Now Christmas, the festival of spending, is coming and the corporate world is hoping for a big year after the disaster of the Covid-19 pandemic.

No-one wants to be a party pooper, but environmentalists fear a lot of the stuff about to be bought, wrapped and given to loved ones in Hong Kong at Christmas will soon be on the way to one of the city’s bulging landfills.

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Marketing consultant Louisa Harker, one of the Reduce group’s administrators, has been worried about the consequences of accelerating consumption since she saw statistics on the amount of solid waste dumped in Hong Kong’s landfill sites annually – an average of nearly 1.5 kilograms (3.3lbs) per person per day in 2019, according to the Environmental Protection Department.

The Reuse social media group is a grass-roots outfit started a couple of years ago to address the wasteful disposal of still usable items. For those who can afford to, it’s often easier (and sometimes cheaper) to buy a new appliance than have one repaired, or buy a new garment rather than sew up a hole or tear.

Shoppers want to shop and they are often inspired by low prices. Harker lives in a fifth-floor walk-up and she remembers trying to give away a large and heavy entertainment system with no luck. But when she listed it for sale for a bargain price, it was soon snapped up.

Helpers, Harker adds, often pick up the smaller items listed on the Reuse site that are no longer wanted by wealthier residents and either sell them or send them to their families abroad. “Other than large furniture items, anything that’s offered in terms of clothing, smaller appliances, toys – that kind of thing – there’s always someone willing to take it,” Harker says.

She has been happy to post her own unwanted items for free in classified sections of various expat group sites, just to make sure they go to someone who wants them, rather than get dumped.

“At the end of the day, it’s not about building a competitive brand, it’s about spreading as much reuse and waste reduction as possible.”

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The global “shop less” movement runs against the mass corporate push to keep consumers shopping and the retail industry humming. For decades, millions of keen consumers around the world (and especially in Hong Kong) have revelled in the idea of being “shopaholics” and “born to shop” with the “shop ’til you drop” mantra.

It’s an image perpetuated in film and television programmes: the cute young woman carrying several brand shopping bags in each hand.

Edwin Lau, founder and executive director of Hong Kong’s The Green Earth environmental organisation, says most ordinary people don’t really understand that everything they buy has a carbon cost, and more should be done to promote the idea of giving non-tangible things.

“To buy something during the festive season is a tradition, but the ‘something’ can be non-materialistic, such as a nice local journey to nature or to learn a skill about health, arts, music,” he says.

If it must be an object of desire, he says, maybe shoppers could consider buying a single, high-quality, valuable item – which is likely to last longer and generate far less waste, rather than a number of cheaper things. Or they could write and sing a song for a beloved friend or relative, write them a poem, or take them dancing.

Lau admits that when he was young, he used to sing to his wife and she giggled at him, so these days they prefer to go on nature hikes and eat seafood lunches. He says: “We do not need a lot to keep us alive, but many have an unquenchable desire, which is the real problem.”

Like Lau, many environmentalists think far more could be done at an official level to help people understand the importance for the environment of changing their shopping habits. Still, these ideas are spreading organically, powered by social media and driven by an increasing awareness of the hazards of climate change and surging waste and pollution.

Karen Ho, head of corporate and community sustainability at WWF Hong Kong, says the Hong Kong shopping mindset can be difficult to change, although some of the more environmentally aware youngsters are starting to get the idea.

“Instead of use and dispose, we’re trying to encourage people to upcycle, recycle,” she says. “A lot of young people don’t mind buying second-hand, they’re actually quite committed to supporting the new start-ups who are really using environmentally friendly materials – all the way down the chain back to the farm.

“We’ve started seeing some changes, though not on a very big scale, and of course fast fashion is still very dominant in the market,” says Ho.

Hongkongers say they “release the pressure” when they go window shopping or actually shop, Ho adds. “It’s so easy for them to shop online and get the stuff delivered to their doorstep.”

Hong Kong’s housing issues might be a factor, she thinks – those who can’t afford to buy property might then buy a lot of stuff to satisfy an inner urge to own. There is also a groundswell of people who forswear excessive consumption. The “stop shopping” movement has a massive global network of share and giveaway groups, including several Hong Kong-specific groups.

Local swap marts and repair groups have popped up in Lantau and elsewhere, and local community WhatsApp groups have emerged with the twin aims of saving money and saving the environment. Some groups will take unwanted stuff (from beds to bikes to books) and redistribute it to those in need. The DB Mothers & Friends group, with a presence on Facebook, will accept and collect furniture, toys, books and household goods and give them to people who can’t afford them.

Tanja Wessels was a co-founder of one of the swap and share groups, Circular Community Hong Kong, which, since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, has morphed into a WhatsApp community. “It started as a fashion group and quickly became anything to do with sustainability, so you’ve got people from corporate, people from their own start-ups, you’ve got grass-roots, you’ve got NGOs,” she says.

The Hong Kong group became so popular, it produced five offshoots – each dedicated to a different aspect of sustainability: plastics, food, business, climate action and creatives. At the same time, members have taken the Circular Community idea to cities including London, Melbourne and Singapore.

Wessels, who stopped buying new clothes four years ago as a personal challenge, works with local designers who upcycle clothing, and NGOs that tackle textile waste. She says the Circular Community group began in 2017 when a like-minded group of Hongkongers started to share ideas on sustainability.

“It’s about upcycling, recycling, sharing, swapping, loaning – anything to keep it out of the landfill,” she says. A typical post might be ‘I’ve got an office full of furniture that needs to be rehomed, where can I take it?’.

She adds that when sustainability is top of mind, the mantra is to “keep it out of landfill”.