Hong Kong struggling with plastic waste mountain following green fence

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Thousands of tonnes of plastic from Hong Kong that would traditionally have been recycled in China has been blocked due to the green fence.

As a result, Hong Kong is having to landfill plastic and this is also providing confirmation that Hong Kong as a traditional backdoor route into China for plastics recycling has been closed off.

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The Federation of Hong Kong Recycle has said that its members have been unable to send 10,000 tonnes of plastic to the mainland for recycling, and instead this material has been stored in warehouses. However, with space running out, recyclers in China are now having to send the material to landfill.

Federation chairman Chan Sik-kwan told the South China Morning Post that local firms only had limited resources to wash, shred and categorise material to Chinese import standards.

He warned that more help would be needed from the Hong Kong government or recycling companies would be forced to close. He hoped that the government would be able to negotiate with the mainland government to relax the rules.