Bottle banks and glass recycling

With no recycling facilities in Hong Kong what can I do with my discarded jars and bottles that is environmentally sound? I use them for storage and to bottle filtered tap water but there is a limit as to how many can be re-used this way.


There is a price paid for aluminum cans and old newspapers and so the poorer members of Hong Kong society, as a spin off, do sterling work for Hong Kong's environment with the salvaging work they do for recycling. Plastic bottles and the like I'm not sure about but for glass jars and glass bottles there would appear to be nobody interested. EPD informed me that Government can't find any commercial organization willing to set up a glass recycling plant, and the Government isn't prepared to take the lead, and so it all goes into the rapidly disappearing landfill sites.


I find it bizarre to see Al Gore and others flying into Hong Kong on their private jets to discuss how to save the environment, reduce greenhouse gases etc., however, it would appear that unless there is an obvious financial benefit to the individual then nothing is going to change.


Put into the context of the "I am not a plastic bag" frenzy, it makes you wonder where society is going. Many people appear to baulk at the prospect of paying a few cents for plastic bags doled out freely by the big supermarket chains, whilst some are willing to pay $120 for something that pays lip service to being a friend of the environment. The mind boggles.

I just bag mine separately and leave them for the cleaners to pick up each night outside my flat. I assume they take them and get the cash at the local depot. Walking around my district after midnight or early in the morning, I have seen several recycling depots, that includes glass.


I do not know what EPD is talking about for glass recycling, I have seen it collected in HK. There is a market for it, perhaps it is just going to Shenzhen instead. Usually glass is recycled into its previous form, so green back to green bottles and clear to clear bottles. With so much imported wine, there may be too much green glass for instance, but there are many products that can be made from this.


If nothing else, put the glass in clear bag outside by a blue city bin and by morning I'd bet someone from recycling crew will have picked it up.