ECF Community Recycling Centres (Service completed in the first quarter of 2021)

The first Environment and Conservation Fund (ECF) Community Recycling Centre opened in 2009 and since then several centres have come into operation to extend recycling to neighbouring areas not covered by the Source Separation of Domestic Waste (SSW) Programme. For example, buildings in older districts do not have any property management company in overseeing a recycling programme nor the space for waste recovery facilities.

The ECF Community Recycling Centres offer a solution by providing collection outlets for recyclable waste at the neighbourhood level and promoting waste reduction and recycling in the local community. The centres are operated by NGOs with strong ties with local residents’ groups.

Starting from 2020, the EPD has regularized the funding support for the Community Recycling Centre projects previously funded by the Environment and Conservation Fund, and engaged non-profit making organizations in setting up 22 Recycling Stores in 18 districts across the territory, with a view to enhancing the community recycling network. Please click here for more details about Recycling Stores.

Local residents register as members of their local Community Recycling Centre. They can exchange waste plastics delivered to the centre for daily commodities such as rice, tissue rolls or instant noodles. They also are encouraged to bring in small waste electrical and electronic equipment and glass bottles.

Environment Ambassadors are on hand to promote source separation of waste. They also visit the residents’ groups of domestic buildings, shop owners, school principals and responsible persons of social institutions, to invite them to join the SSW Programme, and to collect separated plastic waste from their buildings/premises. The Ambassadors occasionally hold promotional activities in their neighbourhood to appeal to local residents to participate in SSW.

The collected plastic waste is baled and picked up by recyclers. (Plastic waste collected via other recycling programmes in the neighbourhood can also be brought to the ECF Community Recycling Centres for pick-up by recyclers.)