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What Hong Kong’s 2023 waste data tells us, and what it doesn’t

Are second-hand Christmas presents the new trend? UK charity shops have a pre-holiday boom

Can this new wave of Hong Kong farmers bring agriculture back to the city?

A toy hospital fixes unwanted dolls and soft toys to give to young and old in Venezuela

Sustainability

The sustainability issue

Magazines

PostMag

How Hong Kong’s waste problem is becoming a crisis after decades of government foot-dragging

This picture taken on March 6, 2013 shows a landfill in the new territories of Hong Kong as the Chinese city of Shenzhen looms in the background.  Official data shows that the city generates about 19,000 tonnes of solid waste every day, with 9,100 tonnes dumped into landfills -- two thirds of it domestic waste. Only 52 percent of total waste is recycled in a city that produces an average of 921 kilograms of rubbish per person per year, which is more than twice the amount compared to Japan (410kg) and South Korea (380kg), according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.  AFP PHOTO / Philippe Lopez (Photo by Philippe LOPEZ / AFP)

Dump trucks at the North East New Territories Landfill in Ta Kwu Ling. Photo: Winson Wong

Ashley Bang (right), data scientist at ADM Capital Foundation (ADMCF), and Helga Vanthournout, senior adviser at ADMCF, show single-use takeaway packaging as they release the “Eat Without Waste: Hong Kong’s Takeout Packaging Challenge” report. Photo: Edmond So

GREEN@SHEUNG WAN – one of 22 recycling points across Hong Kong’s 18 districts. Photo: EPD

An elderly woman salvages recyclable rubbish in Causeway Bay. Photo: Nora Tam

The West New Territories Landfill in Tuen Mun. Photo: Roy Issa

Eric Swinton, the founder of social enterprise V Cycle, says Hong Kong’s private recycling factories are closely guarded, very competitive and unwilling to work with each other.

A face mask washed up onto the beach in Big Wave Bay in Hong Kong. Photo: Antony Dickson

Staff sort through collected scrap plastic at a recycling factory in Lung Kwu Tan. Photo: Jonathan Wong

An artist’s impression from 2015 of how the controversial waste incinerator would sit on Shek Kwu Chau. 

Landfills close to full, a government dragging its feet, and the public’s indifference about recycling or sustainability leaves the city under growing pressure to implement solutions.


Climate change: Chinese sci-fi author’s new short story – The Girl and the Sea

Eco tourists photographing curious Polar bear (Ursus maritimus / Thalarctos maritimus) from ship, Svalbard / Spitsbergen, Norway. (Photo by: Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

A curious polar bear checks out a ship in icy waters off the coast of Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago between Norway and the North Pole. Photo: Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Chinese sci-fi author Chen Qiufan, aka Stanley Chan. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

The Girl and the Sea by Chen Qiufan, translated by Shelly Bryant and exclusively in Post Magazine, tells of a mysterious girl on board a research ship embedded in Arctic sea ice.


How the return of humpback whales to Canada’s Salish Sea is boosting tourism and conservation

A humpback whale dives near Quadra Island, northern Salish Sea, Canada, September 15, 2021. &#xA;&#xA;CREDIT: Daniel Allen

A humpback whale dives near Quadra Island in the northern Salish Sea off western Canada. Their numbers are growing there following conservation efforts. Photo: Daniel Allen

A humpback whale dives near Quadra Island, northern Salish Sea, Canada. Photo: Daniel Allen

Bradden Kiley is a tour guide with Campbell River Whale Watching and Adventure Tours. Photo: Daniel Allen

A humpback whale’s tail at Quadra Island, northern Salish Sea. Photo: Daniel Allen

A grizzly bear at Bute Inlet, the traditional home of the Homalco people of British Columbia. Photo: Daniel Allen

Harbour seals at Bute Inlet, northern Salish Sea. Photo: Daniel Allen

Darren Blaney, chief of the Homalco First Nation. Photo: Daniel Allen

Humpback whales are making a comeback to the Salish Sea off Vancouver in western Canada, helping the region’s wider natural and cultural revitalisation.


Woman who hasn’t bought new clothes in four years has no regrets as she looks in horror at ultra fast fashion’s rise

As part of an experiment, sustainability activist Tanja Wessels decided to not buy any new clothes for a year. She hasn’t bought any in four. Photo: Alex Macro

Wessels says she could “never have anticipated” how her experiment would change her life. Photo: Alex Macro

Fast fashion has given way to ultra fast fashion, says Wessels. Photo: Alex Macro

People would be surprised to learn that many new garments get piled up on warehouse and shop floors, says Wessels. Photo: Alex Macro

Wessels is relocating to Penang, Malaysia for two years. Photo: Alex Macro

Environmental activist Tanja Wessels has only bought second-hand clothes for four years. It’s an experiment that has opened her eyes to how we can all consume fashion more sustainably.


Hong Kong’s newest recycling centre is as beautiful as it is useful, with a courtyard for everyone - even pets

GREEN@WAN CHAI recycling centre seeks to be more than simply a dumping site for goods. Photo: courtesy of ArchSD

An aerial view of GREEN@WAN CHAI, a new recycling centre in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. Photo: courtesy of ArchSD

Benny Lee at the new GREEN@WAN CHAI recycling centre. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Textured using recycled wood, the GRP slats are as attractive as real timber. Photo: courtesy of ArchSD

Paul Mui Kui-chuen at GREEN@WAN CHAI. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

The trellis is multifunctional, supporting creepers and opening to accommodate recycled-goods trucks. Photo: courtesy of ArchSD

The recycling area at the centre. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Open day and night, the courtyard at GREEN@WAN CHAI is a welcoming space for all. Photo: ArchSD

The designers of the new recycling centre in Hong Kong’s Wan Chai district explain the innovations and inspiration of their architectural studio’s project.


Why humans need to rediscover a sense of wonder at nature and its diversity before we destroy it all – and where to find inspiration

Peregrine falcons transfer food to one another over Los Angeles. Watching these raptors dive through the air at 350km/h would leave anyone awestruck, but awe of nature is something many city dwellers have lost. Photo: Getty Images

The cover of the 50th anniversary edition of The Peregrine.

A peregrine falcon flies above Leipzig, Germany. The writer recalls his exhilaration of watching a tornado of falcons, as groups of the species are called, dive-bomb a kingfisher. Photo: Getty Images

Peregrine Falcons, painted in 1827 by American artist John James Audubon. Photo: Getty Images

You can’t put a price on the awe that natures evokes, and it is that which is our most valuable asset in the battle to rescue the planet’s biodiversity.


How Hong Kong buildings kept cool before air conditioning by copying India – deep verandas, high ceilings, chick blinds and shutters

An 1882 engraving depicts a banquet in a palace in India. Hong Kong borrowed heavily from Indian building designs to help keep cool in scorching summers before air conditioning was invented. Photo: Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Old Court House Street in Calcutta (Kolkata), India, 1865. Photo: Getty Images

The old Victoria Barracks in Admiralty, Hong Kong, in 1988. Photo: Sunny Lee

Lying on almost the same latitude, Calcutta was the inspiration for many building design features in Hong Kong, including deep verandas, high ceilings, chick blinds and shutters.


How climate ‘change’ gave way to ‘crisis’ and ‘emergency’ – the evolution of language used to describe global warming … er, heating

A five-metre (16 ft) high sculpture of a polar bear and cub, afloat on a small iceberg, passes in front of the Houses of Parliament in London to alert lawmakers to the dangers of climate change. Photo: Getty Images

An illustration depicting the Black Country, an area of heavy industry in the English midlands, in the 19th century. ‘Climate change’ was coined in the middle of that century and the greenhouse effect described in 1827. Image: Getty Images

In 1854 a US magazine coined the term ‘climate change’; the ‘greenhouse effect’ was first described in 1827. Only in recent years have we started talking about a climate crisis and global heating.


Hong Kong eco-activist teen works with tree planting company to promote a world where she wakes to the sounds of nature

Hong Kong student Elodie Lambotte with her orangutan puppet, Jack. Photo: YouTube

EcoMatcher CEO Bas Fransen (left) with 13-year-old Elodie Lambotte and her orangutan puppet Jack. The teen is calling on companies to protect the environment. Photo: Jonathan Wong

The EcoMatcher app has a host of functions that allows users to track a tree’s progress. Photo: EcoMatcher

In Guatemala, EcoMatcher works with the Alliance for International Reforestation (AIR) to implement educational programmes and agroforestry methods. Photo: EcoMatcher

In Kenya, EcoMatcher works with NGO Trees for Kenya to restore degraded areas by planting indigenous tree species. Photo: EcoMatcher

A Hong Kong student has called on companies to protect the environment. Tree planter EcoMatcher is doing just that, and has named her an honorary youth ambassador.


China was a sustainability pioneer, learning early that human exploitation of nature should be synchronised with nature’s cycle

Workers roll a log in a wood in Beijing, China. Excessive tree-cutting has accelerated desertification and soil erosion in many regions of China. Photo: Getty Images

The great philosopher Mengzi, or Mencius. Picture: Getty Images

Chinese civilisation learned the concept of ecological sustainability at an early stage, based on the idea that human exploitation of nature had to be synchronised with nature’s cycle.


The best Netflix documentaries to watch on climate change, from Hollywood star-led Brave Blue World to Sir David Attenborough’s Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet

A still from Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet, one of the many documentaries to watch on climate change. Photo: Netflix

A still form Brave Blue World: Racing to Solve Our Water Crisis. Photo: Netflix

A still from The Green Planet. Photo: BBC Studios

A still of Sir David Attenborough in The Green Planet. Photo: BBC Studios

From Brave Blue World: Racing to Solve Our Water Crisis to Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet, some of the best documentaries to watch on climate change.


How to make vegetarian mapo tofu – who needs meat when you have mushrooms? They add all the rich texture you need

A meat-free mapo tofu - mushrooms add plenty of texture and bean curd provides the protein. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Ingredients for vegetarian mapo tofu. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Adding the seasonings to the mushrooms. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Mix in the cornstarch slurry to lightly thicken the sauce. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Add the bean curd and mix gently. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Mapo tofu is easy to convert into a vegetarian dish and mushrooms add to its texture so much you won’t miss the meat.


‘Hell on earth’: Zoo in Thailand long accused of animal abuse finally closes, but what will happen to the animals?

A man feeds an elephant at Phuket Zoo, in Thailand, which has now closed down. Photo: Shutterstock

A bear in an enclosure at Phuket Zoo before it closed down. Photo: Facebook / Phuket Zoo Thailand – A Place of Misery & Neglect

A tiger chained up at Phuket Zoo before it closed down. Photo: Facebook / Phuket Zoo Thailand – A Place of Misery & Neglect

A monkey in a cage at Phuket Zoo before it closed down. Photo: Facebook / Phuket Zoo Thailand – A Place of Misery & Neglect

Crocodiles at Phuket Zoo before it closed down. Photo: Facebook / Phuket Zoo Thailand – A Place of Misery & Neglect

A morning traffic jam on Nguyen Trai Road in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2016. Hanoi is ranked as one of the most polluted cities in the world by a number of monitoring bodies. Photo: Getty Images

Villagers work to clean up trash stranded on Muaya Beach on the popular holiday island of Bali, Indonesia, on January 10, 2021. Photo: Getty Images

The tigers, bears and elephants of the zoo, which has long been accused of animal abuse, have all found new homes in Thailand, but the fate of the other ‘inmates’ remains unknown.


Plastic waste created by Hong Kong’s 21-day hotel quarantine – what can be done to cut down the mountainous amounts?

The plastic rubbish accumulated by one hotel guest who attempted to limit his plastic waste as much as possible during a recent 21-day stay at Ovolo Southside in Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong. The amount does not include the 231 pieces of “biodegradable” food containers he accumulated. Photo: Stephen McCarty

“Biodegradable” food containers accumulated during the 21-day stay. Photo: Stephen McCarty

Sonesh Mool, operations manager of Ovolo Hotels. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Edwin Lau, founder and executive director of The Green Earth, at a press conference in 2018 on the results of a survey looking at the source and quantity of waste plastic bottles found on Hong Kong and Taiwan’s coasts. Photo: Dickson Lee

Ovolo Southside, in Wong Chuk Hang. Photo: Courtesy of KplusK

Food containers, water bottles, shower caps, toothbrushes – hotel guests can get through heaps of plastic in 21 days. We find out if anything can be done to cut it down.


Korean temple food and the Buddhist ethos at home: how vegetarian foodies can bring mindfulness to their lives through the kitchen

Rice with gondre (Korean thistle) greens. Photo: Shutterstock

A Buddhist temple in the Busan Yeongnam region, South Korea. Korean monks and nuns eat dishes like those in Korean Temple Food – With Gratitude for Life and Prayers for Peace. Photo: Getty Images

The cover of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism’s Cultural Corps of Korean Buddhism book. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

A spread of Korean Temple Food. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Korean monks and nuns ‘prepare food in sincere devotion and mindfulness’, and you can too with the recipes in Korean Temple Food – With Gratitude for Life and Prayers for Peace.


How Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate altered an environmental educator’s thinking

Natalie Chung Sum-yue, the co-founder of V’Air Hong Kong, an environmental education organisation. Photo: Natalie Chung Sum-yue

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate, by Naomi Klein.

Reading the book changed Natalie Chung’s thoughts on colonialism and its effects on the environment. Photo: Romy Arroyo Fernandez/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The Canadian author’s book about climate change and capitalism had a profound impact on environmenatla educator Natalie Chung’s thinking, she tells Richard Lord.


When Hong Kong opened its Wetland Park – the biggest in Asia – in 2006, to chaos, damage, litter and plucked plants

Hong Kong Wetland Park opened in 2006 after a US$67 million expansion. 

The Hong Kong Wetland Park was finished in 2006 at a cost of HK$520 million. 

When Hong Kong Wetland Park opened after a four-year refit and expansion, 5,500 visitors came on the first day amid reports of chaos and littering.


Michelin-star chef’s war on waste and sustainable eating push, and how he gets staff and Hong Kong diners to embrace change

Richard Ekkebus, the culinary director of the Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong and its fine-dining restaurant, Amber, pushes its sustainability message to staff and diners. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Amber’s bell pepper, fruit tomato, bannou-negi, winter leek. Photo: Amber

Ekkebus at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Hong Kong in Central. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Amber’s Hokkaido scallop, Granny Smith, Kyuri, wasabi. Photo: Amber

Amber’s crapaudine beetroot, plum, home-made umeboshi, pepper berry, yellow onion, cabernet sauvignon, Amaranth. Photo: Amber

Landmark Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong culinary director Richard Ekkebus tells Bernice Chan how he educates staff to reduce waste and how he made two-Michelin-star Amber’s menu 75 per cent plant-based.


POST EDIT: HSBC conservation project breathes new life into Hong Kong’s natural ecosystems

A farmer in Lai Chi Wo works in a field. HSBC’s Lai Chi Wo project repopulates abandoned farmland to create functional biodiversity. Photo: HKU Centre for Civil Society and Governance

Ryan Leung is the senior project officer at the University of Hong Kong’s Centre for Civil Society and Governance. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Amphibians like the Gunther’s frog are thriving in Lai Chi Wo. Photo: Dickson Lee

A section of the Mai Po nature reserve. Photo: WWF – Hong Kong

Winter melon syrup from Locofarms, in Lai Chi Wo. Photo: Lai Chi Wo Rural Cultural Landscape project/HSBC

Lai Chi Wo village, in the New Territories. Photo: The University of Hong Kong

The Lai Chi Wo community is made up of indigenous villagers, new settlers, farmers and volunteers. Photo: Lai Chi Wo Rural Cultural Landscape project/HSBC

HSBC’s Lai Chi Wo project repopulates abandoned farmland to create functional biodiversity and help protect the environment.


From design and fashion to food and travel, this Post Magazine series looks at sustainable practices and the benefits they bring as we tackle the crucial challenges of climate change, environmental degradation and waste management.
