Hong Kong's Recycling Rate is Deplorable

Most of the discarded drink containers are from Vitasoy

Hong Kong continues to be in denial about its garbage output as an environmental group has revealed the city does not recycle any Tetra Pak drinks, most of them from local beverage producer Vitasoy.

Green Power says the company has been ignoring the problem and was deviating from a pledge to strive for socially responsible consumption and production.

Vitasoy's Lemon Tea is a popular drink in Hong Kong

 

In 2016 the environmental group launched a campaign to prove that recycling Tetra Paks was feasible.

A shocking amount of 43,000 tonnes of waste drink cartons are thrown into Hong Kong landfills each year, enough to cover 6,179 football pitches when laid flat. Almost none of them are recycled here.

Since July, Green Power set up 17 recycling stations across the city for the public to discard their drink cartons.

I have to ask -- where are these recycling stations?!

About 90,000 or almost one tonne was collected in five months.

Of the total, 74 percent were Vitasoy drinks, the rest were Swire Coca-Cola, Nestle, Kowloon Dairy and Trappist Dairy.

Nestle drinks can be found in Tetra Paks

Green Power says the government needs to legislate a "producer responsibility scheme" for drinks cartons, which would make producers pay for collection and recycling. There are already such schemes in place for plastic bags, waste electronic appliances and glass bottles, and soon for plastic bottles. It just means consumers will have to pay more for these drinks.

The Tetra Paks can be recycled by placing them in what looks like a giant blender with water and churning it into a pulp, where aluminum and impurities will be sorted out. Then the pulp is sold as a raw material to the mainland or Southeast Asia.

A company called Secure Information Disposal Services will be setting up a 20,000 sq ft drinks carton recycling facility at the Science Park in Yuen Long Industrial Estate.

Production is expected to begin in mid-2019 and will handle up to 2 tonnes per day. The biggest challenge is collection and logistics, which is why Green Power is hoping the onus will be on drinks producers like Vitasoy to pitch in to collect discarded drinks boxes and transport them to the recycling facility.

In response, a spokesman for Vitasoy said the firm would continue to promote the development and adoption of cartons with a better environmental performance, including those made with renewable and responsibly-sourced materials, so long as it did not compromise food safety or the needs of suppliers.

What about going back to using glass bottles for drinks?

It's a very weak reply that doesn't even begin to address environmental issues in Hong Kong. As a local producer one would think the company would have a moral obligation to think about recycling but without any prodding from the government, it's not going to happen anytime soon.

Until we find a more viable option, what about going back to the glass bottles filled with milk -- we're nostalgic for the past anyway!

Exiting China in Droves

With the CCTV tower in the foreground, hardly anything visible behind it

A few years ago China used to be a hot place for expatriates to be posted, with economic development going through the roof and lots of growth in various sectors.

But nowadays the fears of pollution levels have scared many expats who are starting to worry more about their health than their bank accounts or resumes.

The air pollution is getting so bad in China that multinational companies are now offering extra compensation for expatriates based in the middle kingdom. Seems they are leaving in droves and so companies are trying to retain staff with a financial incentive.

It is believed Japanese electronics company Panasonic started paying its expatriate staff "hazard pay" in April to compensate them for the hazardous air quality.

And now Coca-Cola is offering its expat staff an "environmental hardship allowance". The allowance, which was introduced "recently" is apparently a 15 percent increase of the employee's base salary.

A company spokeswoman confirmed the introduction of the additional pay, but would not comment on the amount.

"Our competitive mobility package includes an environmental allowance for postings to China," she said in an emailed statement.

Last year only three of 74 cities in China met the minimum government standards in air quality, and air pollution has become a key issue for foreign companies posting employees to cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

Companies now offer better medical insurance benefits, more paid trips home and subsidies for air filters for the some half million foreigners working in China.

An Australian architectural firm called Hassell gives its staff face masks to travel to and from work. It also changes air filters every week during heavy pollution.

"In Australia, you might do that every year," said Peter Duncan, Hassell's managing director for Asia, who is based in Shanghai.

Headhunter Peter Arkell, managing director of Swann Global, says the Coca-Cola allowance indicates the company is having trouble retaining and attracting staff to China.

"I hear more and more stories about executives not extending their contracts because they don't think China is a good place to bring up a family," he said. "It [the environmental payment] is a way of addressing the air pollution issue, but it does look like a pretty generous payment to me."

But is it really worth taking the extra money and greatly increase your chances of developing some respiratory disease or cancer?

China used to be a great place for young executives to cut their teeth in new territory, but with many of them having babies and toddlers, they worry about their exposure to the polluted air that could lead to asthma and possibly developmental problems.

Will the new financial incentive stem the exodus? We shall see...