Clunky washing machines and fridges form bulk of Hong Kong’s electrical waste items at government’s recycling plant
- Operator says trend is unexpected, but not beyond the facility to process, with an aim to expand scope to other items such as dehumidifiers and industrial equipment
Almost two out of every three items processed at the Hong Kong government’s dedicated recycling plant for waste electrical appliances are bulky washing machines or refrigerators – a trend considered as unexpected.
The clunky items, according to operator Alba IWS, are gobbling up space rapidly and modifications to the plant as well as workflows are being considered.
Director and general manager Nigel Mattravers said the facility was still operating within its designated capacity and there would be ample opportunity to expand the scope of items handled in future.
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“We’re coming up with ideas to modify the plant within its current footprint,” he said. “We may have to make some adjustments to work hours and such.”
Under a new producer responsibility, also known as the “polluter-pays” scheme, retailers are required to provide free, government-approved removal services for old or unwanted appliances to customers.
Products covered by the legislation, which came into effect last August, include air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, computers, printers, scanners and monitors.
The plant was designed to handle 30,000 tonnes of such waste a year, but Mattravers added the items that came in “turned out to be quite different”.
“We are seeing something like 850 washing machines and 600 refrigerators a day – that’s a lot of washing machines and fridges.”
We are seeing something like 850 washing machines and 600 refrigerators a day – that’s a lot of washing machines and fridges
He said there were other waste collectors taking in smaller items such as computer parts, but the company’s plant handled “stuff no one wanted”.
Since August, Alba IWS has been processing an average of about 2,000 tonnes – or 40,000 items – of waste appliances per month, which is about 24,000 tonnes annually.
Nearly half of the items were washing machines, while 19 per cent were fridges and 14 per cent air conditioning units.
“In future, we would love to deal with more materials that haven’t been covered by legislation, such as dehumidifiers and industrial equipment,” he said. “We’ll take it one step at a time, but there is the opportunity.”
Edwin Lau Che-feng of environmental group The Green Earth said even if Alba did not have a monopoly on operations, government support meant they would essentially render other smaller operators uncompetitive.
Apart from Alba, there are currently seven other licensed recyclers in Hong Kong, though many of them only handle computers or related parts and do not have their own logistics support.
