Exploring capacities, environmental benefits and potential for a circular economy on waste plastic bottles in Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper explores capacities, benefits and potential for a circular economy on waste plastic beverage containers in Hong Kong. Regarding existing circular capacities, we show that a pilot subsidy for selected recyclers achieved a plastic bottle recovery rate of 3 %. Its extension to all active recyclers would raise the recovery rate to 23 %. The analysis of circular benefits uses a dynamic life-cycle assessment along the Shared Socio-economic Pathways. It demonstrates that replacing single-use containers with reusable ones would achieve substantial impact reductions, e.g. 81 % for CO2 and 88 % for PM2.5 amongst others. When assessing potential for a circular transition in beverage container management, mapping stakeholder interests shows that the government's expressed preference for recycling is not shared by other groups. Rather, societal and corporate stakeholders’ strong preference for refuse and reuse solutions underscores that higher-ranking circular approaches like a plastic tax or even a selective ban would enjoy public support.