(Hong Kong,5 June 2023)Today is the annual World Environment Day, which aims at encouraging the public to protect the Earth and whose theme for 2023 is “Beat Plastic Pollution”. To support this special day, Hong Chi Association and Nestlé Hong Kong, who have collaborated to implement the Type 5 PP Plastic Recycling Campaign in the community since 2020, co-hosted a plastic-waste-reduction-themed carnival in Lok Fu Plaza on June 3, the Saturday right before the 2023 World Environment Day. The carnival offered different activities for the public to experience the fun of environmental protection, inspiring them to support sustainability together. The carnival also marked the finale stage of the 3rd-year Type 5 PP Plastic Recycling Campaign. Hong Chi Association and Nestlé Hong Kong is exploring the collaboration for another upcoming year with a common goal to continue to co-create a sustainable future.
Fruitful Programme in Carnival to Accelerate the Public’s Awareness on Environmental Protection
The carnival was one of the public education activities of the Hong Chi x Nestlé Type 5 PP Plastic Recycling Campaign 2022-2023. Focusing on Type 5 PP plastic, the carnival offered multiple sessions regarding plastic recycling, reuse and upcycling, enabling the public to experience the fun of environmental protection, inspiring their green mindset and enhance their awareness on sustainability.
The carnival featured a fruitful programme, including onsite PP plastic recycling, and the demonstration of the plastic recovery process such as scrapping, melting, and molding. In addition, green music performance and various eco-workshops like handmade solar-energy nightlight, aroma-stone pen holder, and soya-milk soap, were arranged for the public to unlock the fun of a green lifestyle. Last but not least, the participants leveraged bottle caps of different colours to jointly complete an art piece titled “Together for Waste Reduction’, delivering their expectation for a sustainable future.
The workshops in the carnival recorded a participation of around 500 people times in total, among which a large proportion of children were observed. It is hoped that the activity would passing on the concept of sustainability to the next generation, enhancing their attention and awareness about environmental protection since they are small.
Positive Outcomes Achieved by the 3-Year Type 5 PP Plastic Recycling Campaign
The Type 5 PP Plastic Recycling Campaign, jointly implemented by Hong Chi Association and Nestlé Hong Kong since August 2020, is the community’s first recycling campaign particularly targeting Type 5 PP plastic in Hong Kong. After its 3-year operation, the recycling network has been expanded from 30 recycling points to around 70 at present, which is over a double. It also extended from Yuen Long to cover Kowloon and Hong Kong Island as well, facilitating citizens to recycle different Type 5 PP plastic used in their daily life, such as the packaging of some Nestlé Hong Kong products and various food packaging and containers.
The Recycling Campaign has collected over 3,000KG of Type 5 PP plastic so far, whose weight is equivalent to around 90,000 takeaway meal boxes. The increasing recycling amount was encouraging. Among those recycling points with outstanding performance, the Villa Premiere in Yuen Long was awarded the “Platinum Award for Recycling Amount”, the “Platinum Award for Participation Rate” and the “Grand Award for Recycling Quality” at the same time for 2022-2023! All awards have been presented in the earlier carnival.
In addition to recycling, the Recycling Campaign also explored different possibilities of upcycling those collected Type 5 PP plastic into different items, including the eco-friendly clothes hangers, cooler bags, and storage boxes in the past three years, transforming the waste into resource, and enabling a circular lifecycle for the plastic. In particular, the upcycled storage boxes have been put into use in the daily operation of Nestlé Hong Kong’s factory, practicing circular economy.
New Phase of Collaboration in Discussion to Further Unleash the Power of Recycling
The Type 5 PP Plastic Recycling Campaign 2022-2023 will be concluded at the end of this month. In view of the wide support as well as the satisfactory outcomes, Hong Chi Association and Nestlé Hong Kong will actively explore the collaboration for another upcoming year, with a common vision to continuously root the green awareness in a wider community through this cross-sector partnership and thus co-create a sustainable society.
Mr. Simon Cheung, Managing Director, Nestlé Hong Kong Limited, expressed, “Nestlé Hong Kong is committed to sustainability, and we are devoted to integrating various eco-friendly measures in our operation, which helps the reduction of plastic and carbon emission and drives us to move towards the goal of Net Zero Emission by 2050. We will also continue to motivate consumers to lead a green lifestyle together by properly recycling the packaging, such as the Type 5 PP plastic applied in multiple products of Nestlé Hong Kong, after their enjoyment of the quality Nestlé products.” Mr. Cheung continued, “we are delighted to see the positive outcomes in the Type 5 PP Plastic Recycling Campaign, and we look forward to a long-term implementation which continue to contribute our effort to the community’s sustainable development and lead all of us towards a greener future.”
Ms. Zuie Lin, General Secretary, Hong Chi Association said, “ Hong Chi Association has long been active in the protection of community environment. We are honoured to partner with Nestlé Hong Kong to implement the Type 5 PP Plastic Recycling Campaign, and to contribute to building a greener community. This campaign not only provided training and job opportunities for our trainees in the field of recycling industry, it also served as an interactive platform to enhance public understanding of trainees’ work abilities in community education activities, further promoting social inclusion.”
Photo captions:
Photo 1-4: The fruitful programme of the carnival attracted active participation from the public, who experienced the recycling, reuse and upcycling of Type 5 PP plastic.
Photo 5: Mr. Simon Cheung, Managing Director of Nestlé Hong Kong Limited (fourth from the right), and Ms. Zuie Lin, General Secretary, Hong Chi Association (fourth from the left) jointly presented the “Grand Award for Recycling Quality” in the Type 5 PP Plastic Recycling Campaign 2022-2023 to the awardees.
Photo 6: The latest storage boxes upcycled from the Type 5 PP Plastic Recycling Campaign have been put into use in the daily operation of Nestlé Hong Kong’s factory, practicing circular economy.