Hong Kong lacks food waste bins in eco-friendly push

Hong Kong lacks food waste bins in the SAR government’s eco-friendly push, which encourages members of the public to use smart recycling bins to collect food waste.

Official data showed that only 449 Smart Food Waste Bins were installed across the city as of mid-December last year, serving approximately 1,000 buildings. There are no smart recycling bins in Wan Chai District and Yau Tsim Mong District, while all private estates in Central and Western District, Southern District, Sham Shui Po, and Tai Po also lack such facilities.

The Environmental Protection Department previously announced that Smart Food Waste Bins would be installed in all public housing estates within this year to collect food waste. As for private housing courts, subsidy schemes are available to help them install food waste collection facilities.

Responding to lawmakers' inquiries on Wednesday, the city’s Environment Secretary Tse Chin-wan said authorities are working at full speed to extend the smart food waste recycling service to all public housing estates in Hong Kong, with the number of bins available expected to reach over 700 by the end of 2024.

As for private housing estates, Tse said the Environmental Protection Department is providing support to private residential buildings to install smart recycling bins for food waste collection under the Recycling Fund and the Environment and Conservation Fund.

“It is expected that about 100 food waste smart recycling bins will be installed at a total of 30 private housing estates and three rural villages through the above scheme before the Lunar New Year,” said Tse.

Meanwhile, he said the "Pilot Scheme on Food Waste Smart Recycling Bins in Private Housing Estates" launched by the Environmental Campaign Committee is expected to approve about 15 to 20 applications from housing estates this year, involving about 120 food waste smart recycling bins.

As of mid-January, the scheme had received six applications, according to official data.