How China’s stricter waste import rules may well sink Hong Kong’s plastic recycling sector

Edwin Lau calls on the Hong Kong government to negotiate a compromise, as mainland curbs on waste imports have already reduced demand for plastic among local recyclers, leaving the city facing a serious waste crisis

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The West New Territories landfill in Nim Wan, Tuen Mun. Plastic waste import restrictions in mainland China have left Hong Kong facing a serious waste crisis, with its landfills likely to reach capacity within the term of the current administration. Photo: Edward Wong

Published: 11:34am, 2 Aug 2017Updated: 7:18pm, 2 Aug 2017

Last month, China notified the World Trade Organisation that it will stop importing 24 types of solid waste, including plastics, unsorted paper, steel mill slag and scrap fabric materials, within this year. This came as the government claimed imported recyclables have polluted the environment and damaged public health on the mainland.

The move is nothing new. Under President Xi Jinping (習近平), China started to curb waste imports in 2013, when it launched Operation Green Fence. Early this year, an even stricter policy was launched to further block imports of contaminated recyclables.

The wealthier mainland China gets, the less it is willing to allow its businesses to earn money by harming the environment and the country’s international image.

Hong Kong has been playing a waste trader role for decades, buying scrap material from overseas and selling it to mainland importers. In the first eight months of 2016, Hong Kong was the largest exporter of used plastic to mainland China, accounting for 26.7 per cent of the total. Hong Kong certainly did not generate that much waste locally – most of the vast quantity we sent across the border was imported by our waste traders from overseas.

A recycling shop in Kowloon City in January 2015. A stricter waste import policy across the border is expected to affect small-scale recyclers in Hong Kong. Photo: Felix Wong

Hong Kong’s recycling firms struggle with the plastic peril

Since the launch of Operation Green Fence, mainland authorities have not allowed unprocessed plastic bottles to enter the country. If recyclers wish to import used plastic bottles, these need to be shredded into flakes and washed in order to pass the tightened rules.

In recent years, many recycling shops do not indicate any value for plastic

As a result, recyclers’ demand for plastic has fallen. Several large property management companies report that recyclers collecting material from their properties were reluctant to take plastic scrap, and wanted only paper and metals. Some residential estates simply covered the plastic recycling bins to stop taking plastic scraps sorted by tenants. Complaints were received that some cleaning staff mixed the sorted plastic with general garbage and tossed them into refuse trucks.