Prize Spurs Youth Green Drive

The Young Green Leader Award was launched in 2018 to commend young employees for their environmental achievements and motivate the community to do more for the environment.

Miranda Man, an Assistant Environmental Manager for a local engineering firm tasked with managing environmentally friendly measures such as the recycling of construction materials, won the inaugural award.

Under Ms Man’s guidance in green management, her company has systematically implemented the 7Rs principle of refuse, reuse, replace, reduce, recycle, reward and review at the construction site.

“Our comprehensive recycling programme identifies all the construction waste from the construction site and at this stage, we mainly focus on some construction plastics which are not commonly collected and recycled in the construction industry.”

The award recognised Ms Man for her environmental work, including the classification of different types of recyclable plastics in construction waste.

With the help of a local recycler, they identified eight types of plastics that could be recycled, including plastic straps and bottles, silicone containers, concealed conduits, bubble wrap, plastic fluted packaging boards, plastic cones and tubes, and styrofoam boxes.

In just half a year, they collected three tonnes of plastic, which is equivalent to 160,000 plastic bottles.

Plastic cones and tubes made up most of the amount.

Green motivation

Ms Man and her company also designed a reward system to motivate workers to recycle.

“We reward different trades and workers who are eager to join this programme and who support and have good performance in recycling.

“We will continuously review our recycling programme to make sure that every trade and every worker in the construction site understands our programme and takes part in our programme efficiently by training and education.”

To further promote waste and carbon reduction, the company encourages workers to use solar-powered fans and bring their own towels and bottles.

By winning the prize, Ms Man hopes she can raise awareness in the construction industry to enact environmentally friendly practices to further reduce and recycle construction waste.

The Young Green Leader Award is part of the annual Hong Kong Awards for Environmental Excellence which commend organisations for demonstrating outstanding green performance.