Domestic waste management and recovery in Hong Kong

This article presents a review of the current municipal solid waste (MSW) and domestic waste generation and recovery situation in Hong Kong and identifies the factors affecting the waste generation rates. The results show that before 1997, MSW and domestic waste generation rates were driven by population growth and growth in the gross domestic product, with the latter having the larger effect. But recent waste generation data show poor correlation between waste generation rates and economic and population figures due to the increase in recycling efforts in the community. The results are also reported of a small-scale survey to explore the public attitude to waste recovery. The results show that most domestic householders have developed habits to carry out separation of waste at source for recycling, but the amount of recyclables recovered was low.