In January last year, the city’s largest and only recycling plant capable of turning PET1 bottles into food-grade plastic started operations. Many hailed it as a recycling milestone for Hong Kong. Unfortunately, a mere 16 months later, New Life Plastics suspended its business.
The disappointing development was reported by Ming Pao.
The reason for the closure is a very low plastic bottle return rate – the percentage of used bottles recovered and not sent to landfills. The plant said it was operating only at a 30 per cent capacity. It is able to process 60 tonnes of plastic bottles a day, or around 1,800 tonnes a month. But it received an average of 300 tonnes from January to March. In April, the figure dropped to 30 tonnes as the facility gradually halted its operations early that month.
The recycling plant started operating at EcoPark – a site in Tuen Mun for waste recycling – in January last year. It processed plastic bottles collected at the government’s Green@Community retail recycling points across Hong Kong. The plant was a supplier to other manufacturers that produce recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles and related products.
As an advocate of sustainable development, I am disappointed but unsurprised.
The Environmental Protection Department said it was unable to share figures for the returning rate of plastic bottles in Hong Kong. But according to the department’s 2021 report, just 5.7 per cent of all plastics were recovered from municipal solid waste for recycling.
Economies with meaningful recycling schemes have a high returning rate. The rate for the return of plastic bottles in Germany is 98 per cent and 97 per cent in Norway.
At the moment, the public can take their used water bottles to the government’s “reverse vending machines,” where users can receive a HK$0.10 rebate for each container they deposit. But the scheme has not proved attractive, and the lack of progress in encouraging beverage producers to recycle single-use containers, mean our city relies on the goodwill of environmental enthusiasts to collect and recycle plastic bottles.
A survey commissioned by five green groups in 2021 had suggested the government’s 10-cent rebate scheme was unattractive. The survey found more than 80 per cent of people would return used bottles for recycling if there were a deposit scheme whereby consumers paid an extra HK$1 when they bought a bottle of water, and received HK$1 back when they returned it. In contrast, only 20 per cent would make the effort to recycle the bottles for the 10-cent rebate.
It is a shame the recycling plant, supposedly helping the city to take one step forward in the circular economy, stopped running because of insufficient bottles to sustain its operation.
Globally, the World Meteorological Organization warned in June that sea ice was “reducing globally at an unprecedented rate,” with serious implications for polar environments and global weather and climate. Locally, every summer is hotter than the previous one.
For recycling facilities to work, and for the sake of our environment, we need our government to act promptly and decisively. Measures should include introducing a meaningful deposit scheme for plastic beverage bottles, mandating producers to recycle single-use drink bottles, and bringing the target returning rate in line with other developed economies.
Charging a deposit for bottled drinks is not new in Hong Kong. We pay deposits for buying milk and soy milk in glass bottles, with customers given HK$1 back when they return the bottle. And when the levy for a plastic bag is HK$1, it makes no sense that a plastic bottle earns a 10-cent rebate.
Set an aggressive bottle returning target and a meaningful penalty if the beverage producers or polluters fail to meet the target. The current target is a 40 per cent returning rate in the first year of implementation and only 75 per cent in the fifth year.
Hong Kong’s unambitious target is in stark contrast to Singapore, which in March announced a S$10-cent deposit, or around HK$0.58, for bottled drinks starting in 2025. Under the plan, the target returning rate for bottles in the first and second years will be 60 per cent and 70 per cent respectively. The target rate for the third year will be 80 per cent. Companies that fail to meet the target will be charged a fine.
New Life Plastics’ unfortunate experience is a timely wake-up call to make the government rethink its recycling policies.
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