In Hong Kong, glass recycling is way down at the bottom rung of the recycling hierarchy.
According to statistics from the government’s Environmental Protection Department, Hong Kong’s population generated 9,547 tonnes of municipal solid waste everyday in 2013. Of this, only 37 percent was recycled.
The recycling rates for paper, plastic and metals were fairly high at 50-80 percent, with much of the recycling carried out in the mainland and in other countries. Collectively, these brought Hong Kong an export earning of HK$5 billion. However, Hong Kong’s overall glass recycling rate only came to a miserable 9.7 percent.