On 24 July, the Civic Exchange team as well as the attendees of Hong Kong 2050 is Now Young Environment Ambassador Programme (YEAs) visited the New Life Plastics Ltd, an integrated partner in the value chain with the Hong Kong government, producers to final consumers, through recycle, reborn, rebottle, and sustainable plastic education. Throughout the visit we tuned into the introduction about the vision, mission, and work of the company, and explored the process of handling recycled plastic bottles.
Particularly, it demonstrated the definition of ‘circular economy’. For instance, they produced a new bottle through the recycled bottle. People may not be aware that the raw material of bottle is petroleum, a factor leading to climate change intensification.
Using recycled plastic bottles (rPET) instead of standard PET bottles can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60%. Additionally, the process of handling recycled plastic bottles is environmentally friendly. For example, they applied solar panels and wind energy as the cost is not prohibitive and can also be helpful for the environment.
However, the YEAs have also noticed that although the recycling facility can process up to 160,000 plastic bottles per hour, the current daily recycling amount only reaches 30% of its maximum capacity. The recycling rate for waste plastic in Hong Kong is low, resulting in many plastic bottles not being recycled. If everyone takes active steps to recycle more plastic in their daily lives, it could help drive industry development.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to New Life Plastics Ltd for their time and insight sharing.
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