Promptly improve Hong Kong recycling

Environmental Petition

Promptly improve Hong Kong recycling

209 Signatures Obtained, This Campaign Ended on December 31, 2018

209

Signatures
obtained

791

Target: 1000

Description

Secretary for the Environment,

The Hong Kong Government has introduced the “3 paper 2 plastic” policy in late 2017, and the latest amendments to the policy have proven concerns of multiple environmental organizations to be true. According to the revised policy, many of the common and previously recycled materials are now no longer accepted by the official recycling units.

[3 types of paper]

Corrugated fibreboards (dry, without debris and adhesive tape)
Office-used paper (white paper only, coloured paper not accepted)
Newspaper + Magazines (without cover pages and staples) (There are much more commonly seen paper recyclables in daily life other than the above 3 types. Food cartons, paper boxes for various products, paper cores of toilet paper rolls, envelopes (without plastic films and glue), flyers, and books; all these listed are now considered by officials as “low-end paper products”, which leaves no solution to process these recyclables.)

[2 types of plastics]

No.1 plastic PET – plastic bottles
No.2 plastic HDPE – plastic bottles of cleaning products and personal care products (A very large proportion of plastic products are made of No.3 – No.7 plastics. The Government focusing only on No.1 and 2 plastics instead of an all-rounded recycle program is failing to see the wood for the trees, and obliterating the value of other plastic recyclables.)

Green Sense is concerned that the originally recyclable materials will be wasted due to the undifferentiated denial of such “3 paper 2 plastic” policy, which will become a huge step back in environmental protection policies.

Petition Letter

To Secretary for the Environment,

We are a group of citizens concerned about the environment and sustainable development. In response to Mainland China tightening its policy on importing foreign recyclables, the Hong Kong government divided recyclable materials into “high-end” and “low-end”. It then requested citizens to recycle with focus on few specified “high end” plastic (No.1 and 2 plastics) and paper (Corrugated fibreboard, newspaper, and office-used paper), and improvement to the quality of the recyclables. However, the Government has not made its stance clear regarding the other plastic (e.g.No.3-7 plastics) and paper products (e.g. paper boxes, coloured paper, books and others), which is baffling to citizens and putting private recycle organizations in a difficult spot.

We are extremely worried that numerous non-specified plastic and paper recyclables are only going to end up in landfills if the Government fails to act promptly and coordinate to improve the status in the recycling industry. Burying useful resources in landfills is against the principle of environmental protection, and this will also overthrow the early efforts of both the Government and the society on promoting recycling. If the Government delays response to this problem and damages the society’s confidence on Hong Kong’s environmental protection system, it will only be more difficult to establish further policies and promotion in related fields.

Mainland China tightening its import policy on foreign recyclables is actually a rare opportunity. Our Government should not limit the local recycling industry, but should instead put in more resources and effort to drastically improve the recycling status in Hong Kong. We urge the Government to set clear requirements for plastic products labelling as soon as possible, and to initiate proactively the recycle of all recyclable plastic and paper.

Petition Creator

This petition was started by 環保觸覺 Green Sense on January 17, 2018, with an end date of December 31, 2018.

環保觸覺成立於2004年，於2010年成為註冊慈善團體。我們透過調查、監察，點出社會有違環保的現象，並把分析結果傳遞予大眾，以提高香港市民環保意識及觸覺，從而達至一個更環保的社會，令下一代的生活及生態環境得到保障。

Green Sense, established in 2004 and registered as Charitable Institutions in 2010. We aim to point out the non-environmental friendly practice in society through research and monitoring. We enhance the environmental consciousness by education and publicity, in order to ultimately achieve an environmental friendly society, for the sake of our next generation and the ecology.