Hong Kong needs new solutions, legislation to rescue its money-losing plastic bottles recycling industry, expert says
- High operating costs and inefficient logistics are undermining the viability of plastic waste recycling efforts, businessman says
- Hong Kong is aiming to make it mandatory for manufacturers, distributors and consumers to share the costs of recycling plastic waste
High operating costs and inefficient logistics are factors undermining the financial viability of the city’s plastic waste recycling drive, said Max Craipeau, founder and CEO of Hong Kong-based Greencore Resources and chairman of the tyres and rubber committee of Bureau of International Recycling.
“Hong Kong’s high population density is an advantage when it comes to logistics,” he said in an interview. “However, salaries are high and processes are inefficient, which kills the economics of the existing plastic bottles collection and recycling system.”
If the sorting and shredding can be done at the collection points, it would greatly enhance the financial viability, said Craipeau, a French entrepreneur with nearly two decades trading recycling machine parts and materials in the region, including establishing a plastics recycling plant in Indonesia.
Craipeau said Greencore is in discussions with beverage bottlers in Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Poland, the US and Europe on forming partnerships. They include co-financing collection, sorting and shredding machines, as well as long term offtake contracts on recycled PET pellets.
