HK Needs To Move Faster On Waste-charging: Activist

An environmental activist said on Tuesday it would be at least another two years before Hong Kong could have a paper recycling mill, after the 20-year lease for a site at Eco Park in Tuen Mun fell through.

Questions are being asked about whether the government properly handled the tendering process.

Edwin Lau, the executive director of Green Earth, said government data indicates around 700,000 tonnes of waste paper was sent to landfills in 2018, after the mainland and Southeast Asia countries tightened their import requirements.

He said a key factor affecting recycling is the delay in approving a household waste disposal charge, calling on lawmakers to resume work quickly on a waste-charging bill.

"There is no incentive to drive you to reduce the waste that you might produce in the first place," he said.

Lau said it would now take time to resume the tendering process, during which paper would keep ending up in landfills – and not generating revenue for the recycling industry.