Swire Coca-Cola Hong Kong vowed to produce more drinks in cans and glass bottles as part of recycling measures and waste reduction and will roll out hundreds of water dispensers across the city.
Neil Waters, the director of the company, said in a press conference on Monday that they will invest more than HK$150 million (US$19.2 million) to produce new equipment and technologies for the next five years to support reusable and refillable drinking packaging.
The company will increase the sales of aluminum cans by 10 percent for the next five years, with 80 percent recyclable cans, while glass bottles will increase more than 150 percent, and 90 percent of which will be reusable and refillable, the South China Morning Post reported.
At the moment, Waters said their business is about 15 to 16 percent refillable and reusable. And for the next five years, it will likely reach about 20 percent of their total volume. The company is a member of the Single-Use Beverage Packaging Working Group, a coalition of major drink manufacturers and environmental groups in Hong Kong that are committed to reducing plastic waste and promotes recycling.
The group announced last Thursday they are planning to increase waste recovery rate by about 70 to 90 percent - between 2025 and 2030. Aside from more eco-friendly packaging options, the company also said they would be providing alternatives to single-use bottles. They are planning to roll out 300 water dispensers in Hong Kong this 2019, where users could refill their bottles with Bonaqua mineralized water at a small charge.
The company previously tested two dispensers at two locations in the city, one at Shui Long Wo and the other at King's Park Sports Ground, and Waters said they received positive feedback from the public. These water dispensers aim to urge users to bring their bottles to reduce waste of single-use beverage bottles.
The company will continue raising public awareness towards waste reduction and recycling through education, said Page Guillot, the general manager of Coca-Cola Hong Kong. The group puts HK$10 million into initiatives for the next five years to promote waste sorting, "bring-your-own-bottle," clean recycling, and green sponsorships. However, some green groups said the company needs to go further when it comes to its environmental initiatives.
The executive director of environmental group Green Earth, Edwin Lau Che-feng, said the major key to waste problems is to reduce waste. He said switching from one material to another is not a desirable approach, as avoiding the use of containers is much beneficial to the environment. But, he also added implementing water dispensers across the city is helpful in waste reduction.
