More Bureaucracy to Recycle Glass

Only a tiny fraction of the glass bottles in HK are recycled

The government is making glass recycling more complicated than it needs to be.

It has now announced that from May 1, glass bottle suppliers must pay a recycling levy and register with the government before distributing their products.

Overflowing bins are not emptied

Suppliers will have to pay a HK0.98 levy for every one-litre bottle they distribute in the city, and register with the Environmental Protection Department before distributing them in Hong Kong.

The department added suppliers must submit returns and annual audit reports, and keep records related to the returns.

So far 900 suppliers have applied for the scheme as of late April, and two granted exemptions because they already have their own system of collecting and treating glass containers.

Why is the government making glass recycling so difficult with all this extra paper work? 

And when it refers to glass suppliers, does that mean the manufacturers of glass bottles and not say, wine companies selling wines or beer companies selling beers?

Why not focus on the task at hand -- recycling as much glass as possible? There's an NGO called Green Glass Green that tries to pick up as many glass bottles as they can, giving bins to businesses to put their glass bottles in and are then collected regularly.

Make recycling easier in HK

But that is just one group. And shouldn't the government encourage users to return bottles to stores and getting a small refund? At least a few main glass collection points around the city? Surely that wouldn't be difficult to set up near garbage disposal sites? Who doesn't want extra money in their pocket? That alone is incentive enough.

The bigger question is why the government is so behind when it comes to recycling. It's a no brainer.