Ng Pui Yi participates in a recycling program organized by her housing estate to trade newspapers and plastic bottles for household items. Due to low awareness of environmental issues in Hong Kong, a lot of plastics are contaminated and thus unrecyclable. Recycle business owner Lau Yiu Shing points out that the cost of cleaning contaminated plastics is very high and the industry is making little progress. As a result, the rate of plastics currently piling up at landfill is at record high. As plastics are petroleum byproducts, drastic dropping oil prices have rendered new plastic products very cheap to produce. Consequently, recycled plastics became costly and without a market. Although the government has set up a Recycle Foundation to support the recycle industry, Lau Yiu Shing and Advisory Committee member Yip Hing Kwok hold different opinions on how to utilize the fund. | The government is planning to start charging for municipal solid waste but scholar Dr. Chung Shan Shan has a different view. She believes that the programme is both deceptive and self-deceiving. A consultancy study conducted by the Environmental Protection Department has reported that a deposit-refund system will effectively lower the disposal rate of plastics. Only that the government has been overly cautious and thus no action so far. With 5 million plastic bottles going into the landfill each day, our garbage problem has become a burning issue. Will this problem be irreversible?
伍佩兒參加「回收有禮」獎賞計劃，把報紙、膠樽等物料送往屋苑回收站，換取家居用品，也為環保略盡綿力。港人環保意識薄弱，引致可回收的膠樽受污染。回收商劉耀成指出，塑膠一旦弄髒，清洗成本很高。回收工作停滯，塑膠棄於堆填區創了新高。塑膠是石油副產品，油價大跌，新塑膠價格便宜，導致再造塑膠難有銷路。政府已推出回收基金支持回收業，劉耀成與諮詢委員葉興國對怎樣運用該項基金有不同理解。政府將會推行都市固體廢物徵費計劃，學者鍾姍姍卻不以為然，認為政府這項計劃只是自欺欺人。環保署曾做顧問研究，膠樽按金制有效減少棄置的情況，政府卻畏首畏尾。廢物問題迫在眉睫，每天五百萬個膠樽棄置在堆填區，是否無法逆轉呢？
