Cutting 20% Landfill Waste

In 2018-19, HKUST has been performing well in reducing electricity, waste, water and paper consumption through launching more than 10 energy and waste reduction projects as well as outreach activities involving students and staff across the campus. As a strong advocate of United Nation Sustainable Development Goals, HKUST will devote further efforts in minimizing environmental impacts and ensuring well-being of people in its operation.

One of the HKUST 2020 Sustainability Challenge goals is to reduce 50% of waste below the baseline of 2014. There are 4 main areas to focus on: recycling, food waste, compostable and reduction at source.

Did you know that we are recycling more than 10 types of materials ranging from common paper, plastic containers, metal to food waste, polyfoam, animal bedding and landscape? The good news is, last year our waste to landfill dropped by almost 20% while the recycling amount increased by 31.5% with a total of 746 tons recyclables collected which resulted in a 24.3% waste diversion rate.

Currently, food waste collection program has already captured almost all of the kitchen and table scrap wastes from the canteens and the program is also available in staff quarters, offices and residence halls. Overall, the food waste generation per capita dropped by 3.2% compared to 2017-18.

Compostable recycling program has been implemented for around a year and its contribution among all kinds of recyclable jumped from 4% to almost 20%, which became the second highest recycled material.

While different recycling programs are taking place, we encourage all members of HKUST to join the effort and reduce waste at source. We can adhere to this principle by asking vendors to reduce or eliminate packaging, purchasing in bulk instead of sperate smaller orders, reducing one-time use banners and promotional materials, etc. Are you in?