Letter to the Editor of South China Morning Post – Response to a reader's letter on Glass bottle levy
I refer to Douglas Woodring's "Glass bottle levy must be used to boost recycling projects" on 14 June.
Having an efficient collection network for glass bottles is essential to glass bottle recycling. Mr Woodring thinks the recycling levy collected from the mandatory producer responsibility scheme (PRS) should be hypothecated to be used to collect bottles. In our case, the levy will go to the government’s general revenue and the Environmental Protection Department will be allocated resources to collect glass bottles. The most important thing is for there to be sufficient funding for collection, which we will have.
We have been working closely with stakeholders. The glass bottle collection network now covers over 70% of where people live. The new levy will enable collection contractors, hired by open tenders, to collect glass bottles at source and arrange for their reuse or recycling. The contractors will need to meet a specified recovery target. We disagree with Mr Woodring that the contractors would not be competent. We also disagree with him that there is no encouragement for recycling. Bottlers who have their own collection and rebottling schemes are exempted from the levy.
Mr Woodring seems to imply that the plastic bag levy is not spent on environmental betterment and there is insufficient funding for initiatives. The plastic bag levy generated revenues of $180 million between 2009 and 2015. The government injected $1 billion in early 2008 into the Environment and Conservation Fund to fund various environmental initiatives.
Samson Lai
Assistant Director of Environmental Protection