I refer to the letter by Selena Hui (“Cash in not king when it comes to recycling”) published on March 28.
While environmental education is important in nurturing the habit of waste reduction and recycling, very often complementary measures and, sometimes, some forms of incentive are required to encourage the public to take the first step. The experience of other societies shows that the use of incentives can often result in a significant increase in recovery rate.
For example, the beverage containers recycling rate in New South Wales, Australia, increased from 32 per cent to 73 per cent with the introduction of container refund.
The Government plans to set up a reasonably convenient collection network for efficient recovery of used plastic beverage containers. We launched a three-month consultation on February 22 on the introduction of a producer responsibility scheme on plastic beverage containers.
In the consultation paper, one of the proposals is to set up a network of return points with suitable application of reverse vending machines to allow the public to return used plastic beverage containers and redeem rebates easily.
In fact, the use of such machines is quite common in other places, for example, Germany, Norway and Australia, which helps improve the operational efficiency of similar recycling schemes. The Government rolled out a small-scale pilot scheme in January to test out the application of reverse vending machines in local context. As of March 28, over 540,000 containers had been returned through the machines for proper recycling.
Yet, these machines are not the only means by which to return used plastic bottles. The public can also deposit them at the recently upgraded Community Recycling Network managed by non-governmental organisations under the Environmental Protection Department (currently comprising nine Recycling Stations, 22 Recycling Stores and over 100 Recycling Spots) or other recycling facilities in both public and private locations.
More information about the proposed producer responsibility scheme for plastic beverage containers, including the provision of rebates and use of reverse vending machines, can be found in the consultation paper available at www.pprs.hk. Members of the public are welcomed to provide their views by May 21.
Stephen Siu
Principal Environmental Protection Officer
Environmental Protection Department