RECOVERY-SYSTEMS IN GUANGZHOU AND HONG-KONG

At a time when the governments of the developed world are consciously raising their waste recovery rates through active official participati on, it would be of considerable interest for these countries to know t hat in 1996 about 1.65 million t of material was recovered from the wa ste stream of Hong Kong for local or overseas recycling. This is equiv alent to about 36% of the MSW generated in that year but was achieved with minimal involvement from the public sector. Another major city in south China, Guangzhou, has its own waste recovery system which is mo re complex than that of Hong Kong. As opposed to the positive non-inte rvention attitude of the Hong Kong government, the waste recovery sect or in Guangzhou is managed and monitored by the Guangzhou Recyclable M anagement Office and the Public Security Bureau to ensure there is an adequate supply of secondary material for local industry and to preven t the use of junk shops as outlets for swag. Other differences in the structure of the waste recovery sectors of Guangzhou and Hong Kong, th e problems that these two systems face, and the side-effects of the le gislative control on the import of recyclables to mainland China are a lso discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.