Waste management in a resident hall in the University of Hong Kong

Abstract

Hong Kong is facing a tough waste management problem due to the increasing waste load and lack of landfill spaces and other waste treatment methods. On the other hand, waste minimization measures are yet to be effective in reducing waste load. Universities in Hong Kong are also generating a lot of waste which has become a big challenge to sustainable development in their campuses. The higher education sector in Hong Kong has the obligations for diverting their waste from landfill and play role models for the public. Good waste management strategies are required. However, there is little published information on the waste characteristics on universities in Hong Kong as well as in the world. This study was set out to investigate the waste characteristics of the residential student population of The University of Hong Kong (HKU). This study was conducted in a residential college in HKU with slightly more than 400student residents. Waste audits were conducted on all 20 floors to gather basic information on the quantity and characteristics of the waste stream of the residential college. At present, there are two garbage bins, one composting box and at least one recycling bin on each floor. Specially, on the 4thfloor podium, there is a four-bin system and a Bokashi composting system for storing and composting the recycled materials and food waste from each floor, respectively. The waste audit results show that the mean waste generation in the residential college was 0.11kg per student per day, which was much lower than the mean daily waste generation of Hong Kong people of 0.89 kg per person per day (in 2014). However, this may not be the total waste generated by the students per day as they spent most of the day time outside the residential college. Meanwhile, like the municipal solid waste characteristic in Hong Kong, food waste had the largest proportion (37.1% by weight) followed by papers (4.1%), plastic packaged food containers and packaging materials from supermarkets (3.9%) and glass bottles (3.1%). Currently, only 9.6% of the total waste was recycled in the residential college and 73% of the wastes dumped are recyclables that are not recycled. These clearly show that waste recycling was done poorly despite the availability of sufficient recycling facilities in the residential college. Recommendations on improving the current waste management in this residential college were put forward according to the waste audit results. Firstly, recycling facilities and service provision should be improved. Behavior change methods including educational seminar, workshop and display together with green purchasing policies should be provided. Campaigns or competition on waste minimization may also be run in the residential college. Moreover, measures for recycling tetra packs, reducing food waste and take-away containers, and green purchasing in supermarkets should be takento further release the landfill pressure and to achieve sustainable development.