An investigation on country parks visitors' beverage waste production, reduction and recycling practice in Hong Kong

Abstract

To reduce waste in country park trails, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) launched a campaign of removing little bins in four selected trails in 2015 so as to encourage hikers to bring their own bottles. In order to determine the effectiveness of this campaign, a study was conducted to investigate the mode of beverage waste production, reduction and recycling practice of country park visitors. A survey was conducted and 293 hikers were interviewed in the fall season in 2015 and summer season in 2016, in four specific hiking trails: Tai Lam Chung Country Trail, Ma On Shan Country Trail, MacLehose Trail section 1 and section 5. Results showed that 75% of the respondents carried reusable beverage containers. Other options, plastic bottles, paper carton and aluminium can were picked by 45%, 7% and 3% of the respondents respectively. Only half of the respondents were aware of the AFCD’s removing litter bins policy. In general, the respondents were positive to the policy that 82% of them would support it. To conclude, the public has high acceptance for not having litter bins along the trails but the Department still has to closely monitor the cleanliness and hygiene conditions of the trails. The effectiveness of this trial scheme must be critically evaluated before it is implemented to the whole Hong Kong to prevent irreversible destruction to the protected country parks. Waste management strategies such as waste classification and waste study, installation of drinking fountains along hiking trails and redesigning litter bins are suggested to tackle the waste problems in the country parks.