In the past 30 years, the amount of waste in Hong Kong has been increasing, and the landfills receive a large quantity of waste every day and are under increasing pressure. Waste reduction has become ever more imminent and acute. The Green Council conducts various environmental publicity and education activities in the community from time to time, including:

 

Introduce municipal solid waste charging (MSW) scheme

MSW charging is in line with the “polluter-pays” principle, so that people become more aware that waste disposal comes with a cost. This helps to reduce waste disposal and encourage recycling. We have coordinated a number of MSW charging pilot projects in commercial buildings, shopping malls, residential buildings, public housing estates, university, public market, primary and secondary schools, temples, funeral parlour, etc.

 

Promote food waste reduction at source and recycling

The current practice of disposing of food waste in landfills is not a sustainable solution as it consumes valuable landfill capacity and wasting useful organic resources. We organised seminars, exhibitions, visits to food waste management facilities to make the public better aware of food waste issues in Hong Kong. We also provide training, site visits and enquiry helpdesk services to commercial and industrial food waste generators to collect and deliver source-separated food waste to food waste management facilities.

 

Assist community events in reducing waste at source

Numerous events are being organised that unfortunately generate a lot of avoidable waste. We are committed to guiding event planners and operators to organise their events in greener ways by reducing the use of one-off disposables and advising best practices of recycling.

 

Promote clean recycling

Clean recycling can not only reduce the cost and handling process of recyclables, but also enhance their quality, quantity and value. We organised various promotional activities to encourage proper recycling habits among residents. Training sessions was provided for property managers as well to assist estates to promote clean recycling comprehensively.

 

Organise shorelines cleanup activities

We organised shorelines cleanup activities to help the public better understand the marine refuse problem, thereby encouraging them to change their habits to reduce waste at source and prevent refuse from entering the sea.