Drink Without Waste

Drink Without Waste

The beverage producers and bottlers of soft drinks and water have agreed to recover 70%-90% of the used packaging by 2025. That will be no mean feat: Less than 9% of plastic bottles and nil liquid cartons are recovered from the waste stream today. Over 80% of beverage packaging, or over 1.7 billion containers, were wasted last year in Hong Kong.

This agreement, announced in December 2018, was forged among leading producers, bottlers, importers, retailers, recyclers and NGOs after a year-long discussion following the formation of the Single-Use Beverage Packaging Working Group in September 2017.

Four proposed strategies
The Working Group is now under pressure to make sure the proposed four strategies are realised: to reduce, to regulate, to recover, and to recycle single-use beverage packaging.

An increase in water dispensers
The main action proposed to reduce packaging materials is to promote the rapid expansion of dispensers where people can refill their own bottles. The low hanging fruit is water. Research has shown that of the five and a half million packages which are discarded every day, more than one third were used for water. With safe water supply available throughout the city, dispensers providing free or paid refills can be expanded quickly. The airport has done so throughout their operations. The MTR is already experimenting at several stations.

Regulate packaging standards
The second strategy, to regulate packaging standards, is to homogenise all plastic bottles and liquid cartons and to only allow materials for which recycling facilities are available. Doing so will allow the packaging to be processed into valuable feedstock such as PET and paper for new packaging and other products. Standards for recycled content are proposed to create a circular economy. Regulations create an equal playing field for local producers and the importers (who bring in 40% of the beverages).

Recover used packaging
The third strategy, to recover used packaging, is activated with a cash-on-return of the used packaging to be paid to whoever returns it. Overseas success, and the high recovery rates of 85% for aluminium cans locally, has shown that used materials will be returned once there is a monetary value which can be redeemed easily.

Increase capacity of local recycling facilities
The fourth strategy is to see the development of a local recycling capacity for plastic (PET) bottles and for liquid cartons. Export is no longer seen as desirable nor sustainable. This will require support from government with land and licenses.

The next steps
While the beverage industry will take voluntary measures to reduce waste, from changing packaging to experiments with individual takeback schemes, the Working Group is calling for an institutional framework to govern the administration, logistics and recycling. If each brand was to do their own system, the overall costs will be higher. Costs which will ultimately reflect in consumer prices.

Key questions to be sorted out in 2019 are how to set up the system efficiently, quickly, and cheaply. Decisions will need to be made. What amount of cash should be payable for used beverage packaging? How much is the levy to be paid by producers to cover the cash-on-return and the logistics and recycling costs? Do we use reverse vending machines, incentivise the informal sector, or do both?

While government is nearly ready with legislation for plastic bottles, how quickly can we agree on regulating other packaging to ensure there is no migration to non-recyclable materials? How can we get an independent authority with transparent accounts set up to govern the proposed ‘Drink Without Waste’ strategies and actions? Much to do, but the first hard step has been taken – industry, NGOs and government are in working mode with a clear objective: To stop the five and a half million beverages packages going to waste every day.

For more information and to pledge your support, go to drinkwithoutwaste.org or their facebook page. 

(Article published in Southside Magazine - January 2019 issue)

免「廢」暢飲

飲品製造商已有共識在2025年前回收七成至九成飲品包裝。去年，本港有八成（即約17億個）飲品包裝變成垃圾，當中塑膠樽回收率不足一成，紙盒飲品包裝回收更是屈指可數變無僅有。考慮現況如此，今次工作小組的目標可謂進取。

由飲品製造商、裝瓶商、進口商、零售商、回收商及非政府組織於2017年9月組成的一次性飲品包裝工作小組（工作小組），並於去年12月宣布上述協議。工作小組現時迫切地要於限期落實四大方針：減少一次性飲品容器、規管包裝標準、加強回收以及循環再用。

減廢方面，首要行動是大量增設飲水機，方便市民於任何地方添加飲用水。食水補給是最直接有效的措施，研究顯示每日550萬被棄置的飲品包裝中，有超過三分一來自樽裝水。只要安全飲用的食水遍布城市，免費或收費的飲水機便可快速擴展。香港國際機場擁有本港其中一個最大的飲水機網絡。

第二大方針—為樽裝及盒裝飲品包裝制定標準，同時限制只採用有充足回收配套處理包裝物料，這樣我們能將回收物料轉化為PET及紙等實用及具經濟價值的資源，並用於製作其他包裝及產品。制定回收物料標準能促進可循環的經濟效益，規管則能為本地飲品製造商及進口商提供公平的競爭環境（現時本地有40%飲品為進口商品）。

以上方針亦要配合現金回贈的回收方案。海外成功例子加上本地高達85%的鋁罐回收率足證只要手續方便加上有足夠經濟誘因，市民絕對樂意多行一步。

最後一個方針是提升本地PET膠樽及紙包飲品盒回收商的承載能力。廢物出口不再是選項之一，因此政府有需要在土地及牌照上向本地回收商提供充份支援。

儘管業界已踏出第一步，改變飲品包裝及試驗包裝回收現金回贈，工作小組仍要求政府從制度上作出改革，監管整個飲品減廢的實行及細節運作——不同品牌各自為政，運作成本將大大增加，最終亦只會轉駕至消費者上。

2019年，尚待解決的重要問題離不開時間、效率及成本，而這些問題亦終需一個定論。回收飲品包裝的現金回贈金額為何？製造商應承擔多少現金回贈及回收過程的額外成本？應否增設類近自動販賣機的設備回收飲品包裝？應否讓非正式界別參與回收過程？可否兩者同時實行？政府將近完成針對膠樽的立法，我們距離對禁止不可回收的包裝物料又有多少？能否有一個獨立透明的組織監察相關倡議落實？在芸芸未解當中，業界、非政府組織及政府當前首要難題只有一個，就是要停止每日550萬個飲品包裝繼續進入本地堆填區。

想支持行動，或了解更多資訊，即click入drinkwithoutwaste.org 或到免「廢」暢飲的Facebook專頁。