Cleaning Out The Cartons For a Sustainable Future
Small steps we take in our daily life define the positive changes we can bring to making this world a better place. Keeping this in mind, HKUST has launched the next stage of the aggressive waste reduction program with a meaningful new initiative – the Beverage Carton Recycling Program.
Launched in April 2021, this program is a partnership with recycler Mil Mill, who have invested in special equipment that can separate the plastic from the paper in the carton containers to make recycled paper products like tissues and toilet paper. To get things started, the HKUST Green Team created a fun competition with a lucky draw prize to raise awareness of this new program and encourage participation. As of July, around 200 campus members had registered to participate in the program, and an online Carnival was launched to create a fun kid-friendly workshop to turn used cartons into lanterns and birdfeeders. Over a few months, over 100kg of carton boxes have been collected from the campus community.
Ms Natalie Chang, a lead Green Team member, expressed her satisfaction with how clean the cartons were – since the beverage cartons should be washed out before disposal in collection bins. While there were several avid participants, she hopes that meaningful initiatives such as this one will attract more participation in the future.
Did you know that HKUST is now recycling more than 15 types of items, paper, plastic, metal, food waste, glass, e-waste, styrofoam, rechargeable batteries, wood, clothes, landscape waste… now beverage cartons. With simple cutting and washing, even kids on campus are recycling beverage cartons. What about you?
