Over the last decade, the transboundary movements of waste have increased significantly, largely as a result of international trading of waste for recycling purposes. In Hong Kong, more than 9 million tonnes of waste materials were moved into and out of the territory in each of the last few years. The majority of these waste materials were recyclable non-hazardous wastes such as plastic waste, metal waste and scrap paper destined for recycling in Hong Kong or the nearby region. The substantial volume of waste import, export and re-export activities are driven mainly by the growing manufacturing and industrial activities in the Southern China in the past years and their increased demand for recovered scrap materials as secondary and inexpensive raw materials.

• Statistics by Waste Types
  
• Statistics by Region/Countries

USA, Japan, and other regions in the Southern China are the major waste trade partners of Hong Kong. In general, waste is shipped from developed countries such as the USA, Japan, and the United Kingdom through Hong Kong into the Southern China.