Visitors to Hong Kong encounter plastics everywhere in quarantine hotels: remote controls are packed in cellophane, pillows are filled in plastic bags, and food is supplied with plastic cutlery.
Hong Kong's strict quarantine policy, which aims to stop COVID-19 at the border and into the community, has been criticized for damaging the economy and mental health. Environmentalists say the policy can also harm the environment by generating too much waste.
"Every employee here wears a complete PPE ... jackets, gloves, boots, hats, and that's every staff and every floor," said a skin care businessman from Hong Kong. If it was Clementine Vaughan who arrived in town on April 4. "Phones, you know, remote controls are all packed in a cell phone," he told Reuters from his quarantine hotel.
Hong Kong disposes of more than 2,300 tons of plastic waste daily and with a recycling rate of only 11 percent, according to government figures, most go to landfill.
A government spokesman says officials are aware of the increase in waste disposal since the inception of COVID-19 and are urging people to adopt a greener lifestyle as much as possible. .
Edwin Lau told local environmental group The Green Earth that Hong Kong's approach to COVID-19 shows a lack of environmental awareness.
"People living in quarantine hotels have no confirmed cases," Lau said, urging the government to allow plastics from quarantine facilities to be recycled or reused. Hong Kong, one of the few places where COVID's zero policy applies, has quarantined thousands of people in facilities for positive and close contacts with COVID this year.
The devices also add to the garbage problem as residents have confirmed to Reuters that all food is in plastic bags.
Paul Zimmerman, elected district councilor, said the facilities are also crowded because they will not be available for a long time, for example for public housing.
“They were built very quickly ... (and did not follow) certain building standards that we had in Hong Kong.
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