From Trash To Treasure: Assessing the effectiveness of Green@Community recycling network in Hong Kong.

Abstract

<p>Municipal solid waste (MSW) is a growing problem worldwide posing a variety of environmental and human health impacts. Despite recycling being one major strategy to alleviate MSW production, the effectiveness of recycling has been equivocal dependent on local policy implementation and citizen environmental behaviour. To enhance recycling effectiveness in Hong Kong, the government has established Green@Community, a unified community-based network for recycling and public environmental education .. Through a questionnaire survey, we found that respondents’ recycling traits were higher if they possessed the smart card. Visiting Green@Community could also enhance knowledge on the types of acceptable recyclables, and respondents having visited Green@Community agreed that education and publicity could increase recycling rate in Hong Kong. These findings highlighted the effectiveness of community-based recycling network and its role in raising recycling knowledge, but also called for more efforts developing and promoting such network to further enhance recycling and alleviate local MSW production.</p>