Explainer: How big is Hong Kong’s waste problem, and how much does it recycle?
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong on Monday announced an indefinite delay to a long-debated waste charging scheme, which was initially discussed by the government back in 2005 as a way to address what was described at the time as an “urgent waste problem.”
Under the policy, residents and businesses would have been charged according to the amount of rubbish they disposed of – with each litre priced at HK$0.11 – through the use of government-designated bags. The idea was that people would reduce the volume of waste that went straight in the trash, and increase the amount sent for recycling.
Originally set to be rolled out citywide in April, Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan in January announced that the implementation of the levy would be postponed until August.
A two-month trial began on April 1 involving 14 premises, including public and private housing estates and one government complex, but not the office building housing the Environment and Ecology Bureau. Responding to an enquiry from HKFP about whether the Environment and Ecology Bureau monitored recycling rates at government buildings, and what those rates were, an Environmental Protection Department (EPD) spokesperson said: “EPD does not maintain the relevant statistics.”
The trial saw limited success, with total adoption at the West Kowloon Government Offices but only 20 per cent of public housing residents using the bags, and cleaners saying it had significantly increased their workload.
When Tse and Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration Warner Cheuk announced on Monday that the scheme would not be introduced on August 1, they repeatedly said that the government was committed to reducing the amount of rubbish sent to Hong Kong’s landfills.
“The government has always been committed to reducing waste, and we will continue to promote waste reduction and separation of waste for recycling,” Tse said.
Waste reduction was also identified as a key strategy to helping Hong Kong achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, as laid out in a Climate Action Plan launched by then-chief executive Carrie Lam in October 2021.
HKFP looks at Environmental Protection Department (EPD) data to see how well the city has done at reducing waste and increasing recycling rates since 2005, when the waste charging scheme was first discussed by lawmakers.
How much waste goes to Hong Kong landfills?
In 2005, Hong Kong sent an average of 17,679 tonnes of solid waste to landfill per day, of which 6,828 tonnes were domestic waste. The total amount of solid waste fell to 13,326 tonnes per day in 2009 before hitting a post-2005 peak in 2018 of 16,096 tonnes per day.
A decline in the amount of rubbish produced in 2019 was, according to the EPD, “partly attributed to the local social unrest which had severe impacts on society and led to a contraction of [the] local economy in the second half of 2019.” That was compounded in 2020 by the Covid-19 pandemic, “which affected local consumption and economic activities and the associated waste disposal.”
In 2022, the year for which the most recent data is available, an average of 15,725 tonnes of solid waste went to landfill per day, representing a rise, despite the continuing Covid pandemic.
The amount of municipal solid waste – domestic waste, that which is produced by residents, and commercial and industrial waste – has grown over the 18 years in question, from 9,377 tonnes per day in 2005 to 11,128 tonnes daily in 2022. Other types of waste include construction waste and special waste, which includes waste from abattoirs, livestock, and clinical waste.
At the same time, domestic waste has shown no significant change. After falling in the 2000s, the average amount of domestic waste sent to landfill rose to 6,992 tonnes per day in 2021 before falling to 6,797 in 2022.
Food waste has remained the largest constituent of municipal solid waste sent to Hong Kong’s landfills since 2005, followed by plastics and paper.
The amount of plastics sent to landfill – which includes plastic bags, plastic bottles and plastic or polyfoam dining ware, many of which are recyclable – has risen over time. In 2022, 2,369 tonnes of plastics were sent to landfill every day, around equal to the weight of six Boeing 747 jet aircraft.
How much waste does Hong Kong recycle?
Hong Kong’s recycling rate, which peaked at 52 per cent of municipal solid waste in 2010, has fallen over the period in question.
In its 2022 report on the city’s waste statistics, the EPD said this was because “Hong Kong’s capacity to consume raw or recycled materials in local production is relatively limited under its economic structure, compared to countries that rely heavily on primary or secondary industries to sustain and promote their economies.”
Ten years ago, just 0.06 million tonnes, or three per cent, of the 2.16 million tonnes of municipal solid waste recovered for recycling was recycled locally. By 2022, 22 per cent of the 1.91 million tonnes of recyclable municipal solid waste was recycled in Hong Kong.
The EPD spokesperson told HKFP that the remaining 78 per cent of the recyclables recovered from municipal solid waste “were delivered outside Hong Kong to various markets for recycling, such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and India.”
While still high, the proportion of waste sent outside of Hong Kong for recycling has fallen since 2017, when 97 per cent of the city’s recyclable waste was exported, much of it to mainland China. However, in January 2018, Beijing brought in its National Sword policy, banning the import of most plastics and other materials headed for the country’s recycling processors.
In recent years, Hong Kong has sought to increase its domestic recycling capacity, although critics say the city remains woefully underprepared. Speaking to lawmakers on Monday, environment minister Tse said: “We need to substantially improve recycling facilities, we need to promote a much stronger recycling culture in the community.”
By contrast, both Taiwan and South Korea – both often hailed as models for waste reduction in the region – have achieved recycling rates of around 60 per cent.
How full are Hong Kong’s landfills?
Hong Kong has three landfills – the West New Territories (WENT) landfill, the North East New Territories (NENT) landfill, and the South East New Territories (SENT) landfill, which only handles construction waste.
To reduce the amount sent to the two municipal solid waste landfills – currently around 11,100 tonnes per day – the government plans to launch integrated waste management facilities (IWMF), including an incinerator currently being built on reclaimed land near Shek Kwu Chau off Lantau Island. It is expected to be able to handle 3,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste per day once completed in 2025.
Based on the current daily waste intake, it is projected that both landfills will be exhausted in 2026
Tse Chin-wan, environment minister
The plan was met with criticism from environmental concern groups, who said the reclamation and undersea construction work threated Hong Kong’s marine biodiversity, in particular the city’s declining population of pink dolphins.
A second IWMF, with a daily handling capacity of 6,000 tonnes is also in the planning stage. But until the facilities are up and running, the city must continue to rely on the WENT and NENT landfills.
“Based on the current daily waste intake, it is projected that both landfills will be exhausted in 2026,” Tse told lawmakers in January.
“Therefore, Hong Kong still needs to suitably extend both landfills to cope with the ultimate waste disposal needs of the territory in the short to medium term,” he added.
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