EPR scheme in Hong Kong provides ‘practical’ starting point: experts

This was the perspective shared by panellists at a discussion in Hong Kong last Friday, following the screening of WASTED, an independently produced documentary by Eco-Business on Asia’s waste issue. Jessica Cheam, founder and chief executive officer of Eco-Business, was the producer of the documentary film. 

Hong Kong is working on its version of EPR – which it refers to as a Producer Responsibility Scheme (PRS) – to hold producers accountable for their products’ environmental impacts throughout their lifecycle.

In February, the city’s Environment and Ecology Bureau (EEB) – responsible for formulating sustainability and climate policies – revealed long-awaited plans to introduce a citywide recycling scheme for plastic beverage containers and drink cartons.

The scheme aims to incentivise the public to return such containers and cartons at designated return points by providing individuals with a rebate of HK$0.10 (US$0.0128) each. 

Initial recycling targets are set at 30 per cent for plastic bottles and 10 per cent for cartons. While no implementation date has been set, the government intends to recover 75 per cent of plastic beverage containers and half of drink cartons six to eight years after implementation.

While environmentalists have criticised the PRS for not being ambitious enough and pointed to the low incentive rates compared to other countries and Asian cities, the plans could be viewed as realistic, noted Jet Chang, vice president, public affairs of global recycling company Tomra.

“If a country or region aims too high initially, it might lead to disappointment and scepticism about the policy’s effectiveness. Say they aim for 80 per cent but only achieve 50 or 60 per cent. People might say ‘okay, this [scheme] doesn’t work,’” Chang said. “This is probably a good starting point – and with a good target.”

About 2,300 tonnes of plastic waste – the second largest contributor of municipal solid waste in the city – currently ends up in Hong Kong landfills each day. Only 12 per cent of plastic is recovered for recycling.

Panellists discuss Hong Kong’s Producer Responsibility Scheme and the waste management challenges facing the region following the screening of impact documentary WASTED produced by Eco-Business. (From left): Tim Parker, founder and CEO, Circular City; Ron Chow, chief strategy officer, Baguio Green Group; Jet Chang, vice president, Public Affairs, TOMRA Asia; Jessica Cheam, founder and CEO, Eco-Business; and Jeremy Chan, assistant editor, Eco-Business. Image: Eco-Business

Closing the loop

While the PRS announcements signal some steps forward in improved plastic waste management in Hong Kong, it will take time before implementation, said Ron Chow, chief strategy officer, Baguio Green Group, an environmental management solutions provider.

He pointed to Hong Kong’s Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Charging Scheme, which, based on the “polluter pays” principle, was also designed to charge residents for waste disposal, reduce waste, and increase recycling.

Despite being proposed as early as 2005 and approved by the city’s legislature in 2021, it was due for implementation in late 2023 but was postponed to April 2024 and then August 2024. The scheme was then eventually “indefinitely postponed” amid much public confusion, affordability concerns, and low compliance rates during an eight-week trial.

“Every new policy will have different perspectives that the government needs to consider. The government might want to implement schemes earlier, but due to societal and community factors, they prefer to build consensus rather than launch drastic changes. This approach is how [the government] often proceeds in Hong Kong,” Chow said.

“Sometimes they listen early on, and [other times] they listen closer to the end,” he added.

To reduce reliance on landfills, incineration will make a comeback to Hong Kong and be used alongside the PRS, Chow noted. 

“Given Hong Kong’s limited land, incineration may be more cost-effective for reducing waste. The government is promoting recycling to decrease waste, but recycling comes with a price tag due to high collection and logistics costs. This is partly because land in Hong Kong is extremely expensive,” he said.

Back to incineration

In 1997, Hong Kong’s last operating public incinerator at Kwai Chung was shut down and demolished amid air pollution and related health concerns. The city shifted its waste management strategy to focus on recycling efforts and landfilling, with the city currently reliant on three landfills in the New Territories.

But now, a waste-to-energy incinerator plant is being constructed on an artificial island off Shek Kwu Chau near Hong Kong’s Lantau Island, with plans for it to commence operations by the end of the year. 

The plant, dubbed I·PARK1, will have the capacity to mechanically sort and recover resources from municipal solid waste and incinerate up to 3,000 tonnes of waste each day. Heat from the incinerator will be used to generate around 480 kilowatt-hours of surplus electricity annually, or enough to power about 100,000 households.

A second incinerator capable of processing twice the waste is planned for completion in 2030.

Being unable to “transport” plastic waste to other locations such as China raises the onus on Hong Kong to independently treat waste, Chow added. 

“One of the challenges we face, like other financial cities, is that we cannot easily ship recycled materials to other places at a low cost. Due to certain treaties, we cannot export used materials to China, so we must process them locally,” he said. 

Critics have noted that nearby residents will have to put up with toxic gases such as dioxins and heavy metals from the burning of unsorted waste as a result of the incinerator. Local wildlife, such as the Indo-Pacific Finless Porpoise, and local fisheries could also be affected.  

Plans for both the city’s PRS and waste-to-energy plant are outlined in the EEB’s Waste Blueprint for Hong Kong 2035.

Packaging problems

While there are EPR-based solutions to deal with waste, the city must also focus on reducing the amount of single-use packaging and cutlery being used and subsequently disposed of wherever possible, noted Tim Parker, founder and chief executive officer of Circular City, a green-tech start-up.

However, this is proving challenging for businesses that heavily rely on such packaging, especially the food and beverage (F&B) sector. 

While there are small-scale initiatives like Parker’s company Circular City, which offers packaging solutions designed to replace single-use plastics and allows for items to be tracked, returned, and reused, much of the F&B sector still relies on plastic containers for takeaway meals. Those who have switched to paper-based containers are likely unaware of how they are made, noted Parker.

“Regarding transparency, there are also significant challenges for small F&B businesses. Often, they don’t fully understand the packaging they use,” Parker said. 

“The government has set up a Green Tableware platform to help F&B outlets find suppliers that meet plastic ban requirements. However, one major issue is that there is no regulation around harmful chemicals like PFAs in these products,” he said, referring to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

Also known as “forever chemicals” for their persistence in the environment, PFAs are a group of synthetic chemicals used in food packaging to provide stain resistance and hold greasy or oily foods.

While some jurisdictions in the United States and Europe have banned or restricted the intentional addition of PFAs in food packaging, there are no such bans in Hong Kong. 

“Certification for these chemicals is being considered, but only as a voluntary measure, not mandatory. The [Green Tableware] platform encourages the use of reusables and reusable lending services but doesn’t allow companies like ours to list because we don’t supply disposable, non-plastic products,” Parker noted.

Recycling to stay

While the WASTED documentary touched upon how recycling is a “myth” propagated by producers even though the industry knew it was not a fully feasible waste management solution, Tomra’s Chang pointed out that the planet cannot “live” without recycling, despite being unable to recycle its way out of its waste problem. 

“Since we all generate waste, we should all do our part,” Chang concluded, noting that actions start with every household or company separating hard, dry, and organic wet waste.

“Then, sorting technology [should be used] to sort the dry waste into high-purity fractions for high-quality recycling. Any residual waste can be sent for energy recovery to generate electricity, and the ash can be disposed of in proper landfills. By following a waste management hierarchy – reduce, reuse, recycle, energy recovery, and safe disposal – we believe we can address most waste challenges,” he said.