What Hong Kong’s 2023 waste data tells us, and what it doesn’t
The good news of less waste generated is tempered by the lack of clarity on plastic waste statistics and officials’ mistaken faith in incineration as a solution
One positive finding is that the quantity of municipal solid waste going to landfill has fallen – by 2.2 per cent to a daily average of 10,884 tonnes, from 11,128 tonnes in 2022. Easing the pressure to expand Hong Kong’s landfill capacity is one of the government’s main waste management objectives.
On a daily average, the quantity of solid waste we threw away last year fell by 10.5 per cent for plastics, 3.2 per cent for paper and 3.4 per cent for food. But given that food makes up the largest part of solid waste at nearly a third, we still need to urgently find ways to handle the 3,191 tonnes of food discarded every day. Hong Kong’s existing food waste treatment facilities can only handle 600 tonnes a day.