As population continues to grow while industrial and commercial activities flourish, one of the significant challenges we face is how to recycle and recover waste and, in doing so, reduce waste to landfill. Source separation is widely considered as a good and useful vehicle to help. Separating waste at home, in the office, and public places has shown to be effective in increasing recycling. And the concept of recycling isn’t new, in fact, the idea of conservation of materials has been around for centuries and has seen success and popularity over the years.
In Hong Kong, the Source Separation of Domestic Waste Programme was launched for over a decade since 2005. The first stage of the Environmental Levy Scheme on Plastic Shopping Bags was implemented since 2009 and the local community was then educated to cut the excessive use of one-off use plastic shopping bags. Nevertheless, these measures and actions alone may not be sufficient to end our waste problem thoroughly as waste problem is more complicated than almost anyone thinks.
PolyU is working to help alleviate this waste problem and to increase awareness of driving waste minimisation at source. While the University is keeping an eye on waste management policies and daily operation, it also identifies opportunities and promotes best and clean recycling practices. Besides its home-grown recycling facility, UniRe®, to highlight source separation, there are several guidelines and operational requirements that encourage the campus community to adopt greener event measures to minimise the use of paper and other plastic disposables. On top of these, it has recently distributed waste separation stickers to campus offices to remind everyone to keep this practice at the top of mind. These eye-catching stickers can be easily fixed on any surface to help reinforce the message on waste separation and recycling.
The stickers come together with a fact sheet that addresses and provides an overview of what PolyU has been doing to reduce waste generation, coupled with a few good and workable tips. The University also sees the need to call attention to the issue of food waste and has produced colourful stickers to remind the community about the need to organise their fridges to avoid food waste.
With efforts spent on publicity and education on campus, PolyU aims to encourage and instil the concept of ‘consume less and reduce, reuse, and recycle’ into the mindsets and behaviours of its entire campus community.
