Can Hong Kong solve its waste crisis without a fee scheme? An FCC panel of environmental experts weighs in

This past May, the Hong Kong SAR government announced that the Municipal Solid Waste Charging Scheme that was set to roll out in April would be indefinitely postponed. This comes after nearly two decades of discussions while other major cities across Asia, like Singapore and Tokyo, were able to solve their own waste and recycling issues.

Hong Kong generates 5.97-6.6 million tons of solid waste per year, yet only about 30-35% of it is recycled. The remaining amount of unrecycled waste is enough to fill over 1,000 of the city’s double-decker buses.

So what’s next? With no clear solution from the government in sight, the FCC organised a panel of three waste management pioneers who gave their opinions on how the private sector could step up and address Hong Kong’s trash dilemma. Moderating the discussion was FCC Journalist Governor Joe Pan, who first introduced Edwin Lau to share his views and criticisms of the city’s waste management efforts.

“A lot of our waste did not end up in our landfills. That is the issue. [It] ended up in our nature — our beaches [and] countryside,” Lau said.

Lau is the Founder and Executive Director of The Green Earth, and played a key role in advising the government as they developed the Waste Charging Scheme. With the government postponing the plan indefinitely for the Scheme earlier this year, Lau had become even more critical of the government’s lack of effort. He continued to point out the statistics that showed how the city is underperforming when compared to the rest of Asia.

“You can see our waste problem, our achievement in waste reduction is really, really poor,” he said.

Eric Swinton, the Founder of V Cycle, then spoke from the standpoint of a private entrepreneur who has become dedicated to Hong Kong’s sustainability.

Swinton explained that the V in V Cycle stands for “virtuous” and then cited how his organisation aids both the city’s recycling struggles, as well as the elderly population.

“We, as a social enterprise, have a social mission: to look after the underprivileged people in Hong Kong, especially the ‘cardboard elderly’,” he said.

The “cardboard elderly” he referred to are the 65 to 85-year-old collectors who roam the streets for hours, break down and fold up boxes, and exchange their findings for around HK$25-50 a day. Swinton’s research indicates that there are approximately 3,000 cardboard elderly in Hong Kong. His aim with V Cycle is to help make their lives better.

By hiring the cardboard elderly, Swinton has created a much healthier and dignified job for them with sorting out waste that will be recycled at his factory in Tuen Mun. His staff receive free lunch, tea breaks, and an hourly pay that’s well above minimum wage. Swinton then shared a specific example of his employee Mr. Lee who previously collected cardboard boxes with his wife.

In his former work, Mr. Lee hurt himself and was hospitalised in order to receive an injection treatment, which wound up permanently injuring his back. But since he started working at V Cycle over a year ago, his health has rapidly improved and he can now stand up straight — and earn much more money to support himself and his wife.

Understanding the inflow and outflow of Hong Kong’s waste is also a key feature of Dorothy Lam’s research and efforts in local sustainability.

She refers to it as the “digestive system” and finds that Hong Kong has never examined its own resource allocation for waste management to pinpoint areas where efficiency and cost-effective strategies can be implemented. Other cities have done this, and if Hong Kong were to complete this study, Lam explains that this will help the city create regional partners as it combats waste buildup.

“I think for the ‘digestive system’, maybe we shouldn’t stop in Hong Kong [and] actually look at where the streams are going when [waste] is exported, and look at the market opportunities in those economies,” she said.

Being able to find a regionally-involved solution to the city’s recycling issues creates what Lam described as a “circular economy” where all involved parties are able to benefit — which will ultimately bring Hong Kong up to the same waste management efficiency as its Asian counterparts.

While the panel agreed that regional cooperation would make a significant impact in Hong Kong’s environmental efforts, Lau maintained that the city needed to vastly improve its own strategy in order to align with other places across Asia — and the rest of the world.

“Let’s take bigger and bolder steps together to let Hong Kong really move on the sustainable path to show that Hong Kong is an international city. On [an] environmental side, we should also be on par with other major cities on environmental issues,” Lau concluded.

To watch the full discussion, please visit our YouTube channel: