According to data from the Environmental Protection Department, Hong Kong people discarded more than 70,000 metric tons of glass bottles in 2019.
As early as 2016, the Legislative Council passed a bill on the levy of beverage glass bottles. It intends to levy about 1 yuan per liter of glass bottles from producers, but the timetable has been pushed back and forth.
According to the latest response from the Environment Bureau, the goal is to fully implement the glass beverage container producer responsibility plan by 2023, and there is no intention to introduce a rebate arrangement for glass beverage containers similar to the recycling of plastic bottles.
The Environmental Protection Agency stated in the early years that if beverage suppliers choose to recycle and reuse glass containers with a waste reduction rate of 80% or more, that is, each glass container can be reused 5 times or more, the levy can be exempted.
(Profile Picture / Photo by Liang Pengwei)
The government proposed a beverage container producer responsibility system as early as 2005, and conducted a public consultation in 2013. In 2016, a bill on the levy of beverage glass bottles was passed, setting a statutory regulatory framework for the plan, but the timetable for the implementation of the glass bottle levy has been pushed forward. Push again.
Following the government’s plan to implement waste levy in 2023 at the earliest, the Secretary for the Environment, Wong Kam-sing, said in a written reply to Members’ questions today (27) that the Environmental Protection Department has completed the drafting of relevant subsidiary legislation and will submit it to the Legislative Council for deliberation in due course. The target is 2023 or In the past, the glass beverage container producer responsibility plan was fully implemented.
The Secretary of the Environment Huang Jinxing stated that the goal is to fully implement the producer responsibility plan for glass beverage containers by 2023.
(Profile picture)
The amount of glass recycling greatly reduced under the epidemic
The Hong Kong government has appointed two glass management contractors through open tender to provide free waste glass container collection and treatment services. Hong Kong Island and New Territories will provide services in January 2018, and Kowloon will provide services in July 2018. service.
The EPA aims to recycle 15,000 metric tons in the first year and reach 50,000 metric tons per year within three years.
According to the data submitted by the Environment Bureau, the contractor only recycled 9,600 metric tons of glass bottles in 2018. After full service in the following year, it more than doubled to 21,200 metric tons; but last year it decreased by about 30% to 14,200 metric tons, and the number of recycled glass bottles in the first half of this year was only 8,800. mt.
The bureau explained that the collection volume was affected by the epidemic, and since the service was launched, the expected target has not been achieved.
According to the contract, the glass management contractor must properly dispose of the collected waste glass containers for subsequent recycling. The service fee paid by the government to the contractor is mainly calculated based on the weight of the recycled glass material delivered.
If the contractor fails to meet the operating performance requirements of the contract, the government can deduct its annual service fee for the contract according to the terms.
According to data from the Environment Bureau, the glass management contract service fee reached 54.68 million yuan in 2019-20, but it was only 16.05 million yuan and 29.4 million yuan in 2018-19 and 2020-21, and it was only 1,027 million in the first eight months of this year. 10,000 yuan, or the related service fee may be affected due to the unsatisfactory recovery volume.
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Prescription: According to the situation, make suitable arrangements for the recycling of waste glass. Huang Jinxing: There is a way out for the recycling of glass bottles in Hong Kong. After a few years, the recycling rate is expected to reach 50%.
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