HONG KONG: Hong Kong on Monday launched a 10-year plan to reduce waste by 40 per cent per person as part of efforts to catch up with other leading Asian cities and avert a looming environmental crisis.

With a population of more than 7 million, the city currently sends 1.27kg per person per day to three huge outdoor landfill sites which are set to reach capacity by 2020.

The government’s ‘blueprint’ document proposed reaching its reduction target by expanding recycling, levying duties on household rubbish and improving waste-related infrastructure.

It also mooted the possibility of building incinerators and extending existing landfill sites.

The government hopes to recycle 55 per cent of the city’s waste, incinerate 23 per cent and place 22 per cent in landfills by 2022. In 2011, 52 per cent of waste was put into landfills and 48 per cent recycled.

But the proposal to build an incinerator is unpopular with residents and some environmentalists.—AFP