(Central station) Grifting woman rips off recycling machine

A government pilot scheme to boost waste recycling in Hong Kong is offering citizens a refund of 10 HK cents for every plastic bottle returned, but apparently, a woman has come up with an idea to try to make a fortune out of it. 

Under the pilot scheme, 60 Reverse Vending Machines were installed around the city’s government facilities, providing an instant rebate of HK$0.1 per plastic bottle via e-payment platforms. 

A video circulating online on Thursday showed a woman who allegedly abused the scheme, trying to “fool” the machine by “recycling” the bottle in hand to get a higher rebate amount. 

The woman in pink clothing was filmed feeding the machine with the same plastic bottle she was supposed to drop into the machine. 

Just as the machine verified that the bottle was one of the designated containers accepted by it, the woman immediately threw in a piece of plastic - which appears to be a plastic bottle cap - and took the bottle back out for the next go. 

Netizens did not hold back their anger and said the woman should be held responsible for what she had done. 

“This machine is supposed to encourage people to participate in waste recycling. If people are abusing it - even for such a small amount of money, it could be possible that authorities will ditch the plan!” one netizen wrote, “with the only incentive encouraging people to do good to our environment going down the drain!”