Straight to landfill? Why Hong Kong is recycling less of your rubbish
Even as Hong Kong landfills are rapidly running out of space, the city's recycling levels are decreasing
For years, Christina Jang has been conscientiously sorting the plastic bottles, aluminium cans and recyclable paper from her rubbish and placing them in the appropriate bins for recycling. But last summer, a cleaning lady in her building opened her eyes to what really happened to the materials that were supposed to be recycled.
"While she was collecting from the bin, I happened to take the recycling down and I asked her how I should sort my trash. She said you don't need to do any sorting because it all goes in the trash anyway," Jang says. "I was very angry because I had been sorting my trash, thinking that [we] were recycling everything and now you're telling me it's all a sham."
The property managers for her building couldn't give a satisfactory answer either.
Despite the discouraging response, Jang, a career coach and environmental consultant in her 40s, continues to separate her rubbish.
Read more: Street cleaners send waste for recycling to landfills
"I realised that it'll be worse if I don't sort my trash. I believe that consumers' voices do matter because if we don't do it, then no one will."
There have long been complaints about cleaners mixing trash and recyclable materials, all of which ends up in landfills: in 2013 the SCMP filmed government contract workers doing just that in Causeway Bay and Wan Chai, and residents have regularly reported similar incidents with rubbish disposal.
