HK solid waste management regime (AmCham talk)

Talk by Frank Wan

HK's current rate of recycling is 49%, actually, very respectable: city falls between Denmark and Sweden. But our absolute amount of waste per capita is much higher.

Govt has goal of upping the rate to 55% by 2015. But the only ways are to charge for landfill use.

Frank: our government or, rather, this govt, is too weak, politically, to charge for waste. N.B. HK is unusual for NOT charging for waste.

Moreover, HK is unusual because the govt doesn't subsidize recycling, as opposed to N. America and Europe.

Challenges of recycling in HK:
No physical space for sorting at the source (home, kerbside)
Very little mfg takes place in HK. Therefore, difficult to get mfrs to change packaging for products imported into this mkt.

Composition of recycled waste:
39% plastic
32% paper

Shortlisted with Christine Loh for TIME's 100 Most Influential People this year, for our work at Clean Air Network (VOTE):
http://ow.ly/4tZk4 (VOTE)

CAN's latest project, the Clean Air Auction
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/business/global/22pollute.html
http://blogs.wsj.com/hong-kong/2011/04/04/the-picture-of-pollution/

Joanne Ooi
CEO
Clean Air Network
www.hongkongcan.org

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