Recycle in Hong Kong

Do you know that the daily waste generation per capital in Hong Kong is high when compared to other similar Asian cities? It is obviously not something to brag about, though.

 

According to the HK government survey, the daily domestic waste generation per capita is around 1.36kg, which is higher than that in Taipei, Tokyo and Seoul. A pretty astonishing amount, if you ask me.

And not to mention that because of the lack of land in Hong Kong, combined with all those environmental regulations, it is really difficult to look for a suitable site for landfill or incinerator. That is why the HK government has been promoting the recycling of waste.

If you have some understanding about Hong Kong’s waste recycling policy, you should have heard of “Blue for used paper; yellow for aluminium can; brown for plastic bottles” (the colors refer to the colors of the recycling bins) and the “3R”: reduce, reuse and recycle. However, the result seems to be somewhat disappointing since, unsurprisingly, not much waste can truly be recycled and, sadly, Hongkongers don’t know much about the importance and practice of recycling.

Can we change? Obama said “yes, we can”, but what will Hongkonger say to this matter?

Water in Hong Kong

Do you know that Hong Kong’s water usage per capita is higher than most first world cities? Over 2000 million liters a day, to be exact (excluding 7 million salt water for flushing). So, yes, this is even higher than that in cities like Paris, London and Singapore.

Most water is used on domestic level, and most domestic water is used for tapping and bathing. Some argued that this is because Hong Kong’s water tariff is amongst the lowest in the whole word; while some defended that it is difficult to control water usage because people don’t have exact figures on how much they are using.

Whatever the reason is, Hong Kong government has been looking for method to ease the problem, like promoting the idea of saving water and building desalinization water plant.

Still, Hong Kong’s water supply mainly relies on the Dongjiang River in Guangdong.

But lots of people don’t really like this, not only because it is getting more and more expensive, and the water quality is really questionable, but also because the water supply from China could be unstable.

The growing populations, extensive amount of water for agricultural and industrial uses in Guangdong, and the occasional drought in China, all these factors suggest that the water supply from Guangdong may not be as sustainable as it seems.