Green living : a study of attitudes of the public towards freecycling and the feasibility of promoting freecycling in Hong Kong housing estates

Abstract

Addressing environmental problems has become an increasing concern worldwide, the environmental policies in Hong Kong seem to lack behind in comparison to many regions such as Taipei, South Korea, and Japan. This paper looked into the historical development of Hong Kong’s environmental policies, particularly from the perspective of the housing estates, which have been sluggish for many years. Facing the crisis of landfills saturation, shrinkage of local resources recycling industry, and imposition of the stringent import by China, adoption of landfills and recycling may not be possible to ease the environmental problems in the future. Freecycle is suggested to be a new and innovative environmental measure for encouraging citizens in participation of environmental campaigns in this study. It is considered as a possible solution for alleviating the pressure of landfills and reducing the generation of waste at the source. The aims of this paper are to investigate the attitude of the general public to the idea of freecycling, what possible factors that would determine an individual to perform freecycling, and the feasibility of promoting freecycling in Hong Kong housing estates. The survey result of 162 respondents found that much of the population were positive about the idea of freecycle, which offered circulation of resources by sharing and waste reduction at source. Because of the positive attitude to the idea of freecycle, many of the respondents expressed their willingness to engage in it if an online platform was provided in housing estates. The findings of this paper propose that populations with high environmental concerns would tend to participate in freecycling. Other influential factors such as family members, peers, media, and social norms also played a part of the role in motivating an individual to perform the freecycling behavior. Finally, it is concluded with a discussion on the difficulties encountered in promoting environmental protection campaigns under the circumstance of COVID-19 and recommendation on making good use of the existing “ Hong Kong Second Hand Exchange” as the first step for promotion of freecycling at housing estates levels.