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| A man inspects a tree felled by the typhoon |
Hong Kong is still cleaning up after Super Typhoon Saola, with 1,800 tonnes of tree waste. Most of it comprises of leaves and branches. But get this -- the city has only one wood recycler and it only takes logs.
As a result only 15 percent of the tree waste is recycled into wood products, like boards, beams, chips and sawdust.
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| People make their way through tree debris |
Green groups are criticising the recycler, Y Park for not taking more of the wood waste and saying it should be broken down for composting to be used in future parks or maintaining current ones.
Also shocking is that Y Park was only set up in 2021 to "rachet up the scale of yard waste recycling and diversify the types of recyclable products," according to its website.
But it was because of what happened after Super Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018 that green groups complained the government dumped 20,480 tonnes of tree waste into landfills without first seeing if it could be recycled.
Using government figures from the past 10 years, green group Friends of the Earth says less than 3 percent of the city's yard waste had been recycled -- around 2,000 tonnes out of 60,000 to 70,000 tonnes per year.
Friends of the Earth board governor Caroline Law says Y Park only accepts logs, while other garden waste, such as grass, leaves and branches must be sent to landfills.
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| Vast majority of tree waste ended up in landfills |
In addition, Y Park's website claims it handled 30 tonnes in its first year of operation, and would gradually increase to 60 tonnes, but there is no update on how much it processes currently...
Sounds like there is more box ticking than earnestly trying to cut down the amount of waste going into landfills. Tree and garden waste can easily be composted and given to farmers to use as fertiliser to help grow crops. Or maybe that hadn't been considered before?
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