Plastic everywhere: Hong Kong's zero-Covid facilities have become an environmental nightmare

Hong Kong's severe quarantine policies, which are designed to stop COVID-19 at the border and in the community, have been criticised for causing economic and mental health problems. Environmentalists claim that the policies harm the environment by generating excessive waste.

Hong Kong discards over 2,300 tonnes of plastic waste every day, with only 11 per cent of it recycled, according to government estimates, meaning the majority of it ends up in landfills.

“Every single one of the staff members here wears full PPE...the gowns, the gloves, the booties, the hats, and that's every staff member and on every floor," said Clementine Vaughan, a Hong Kong-based cosmetics entrepreneur who arrived in the city on April 4.

"The phones, you know, the remote controllers, everything has been wrapped in cellophane," she told Reuters from her quarantine hotel.

Residents told Reuters that all meals were served in plastic bags, adding to the trash problem.

According to Paul Zimmerman, an elected district councillor, the facilities are also wasteful because they can't be used for long-term purposes, such as public housing.

“They've been built very quickly ... (and don't) comply with any particular building standards we have in Hong Kong.”

Officials were aware of an increase in disposable garbage since COVID began, according to a government spokesperson, who urged people to live as green a lifestyle as possible.

Hong Kong's response to COVID, according to Edwin Lau of the local environmental group The Green Earth, reflects the city's lack of environmental consciousness.

"People living in quarantine hotels, they are not confirmed cases,” Lau added, urging the government to enable plastics from quarantine facilities to be recycled or reused.

Hong Kong, one of the few cities with a zero-COVID policy, has confined tens of thousands of people this year in facilities for COVID-positive people and the people they've been in contact with.