Editor's note: This is the third in a series of articles exploring policies to address Hong Kong's waste management challenges.

As Under Secretary for the Environment Christine Loh points out, there has long been a culture of recycling through the informal economy in Hong Kong. On any day, for example, you can see elderly women pushing cartloads of cardboard boxes to be sold for recycling.

This is not unique to Hong Kong: in New York City, for example, you will see similar individuals bearing plastic bags larger than themselves full of plastic pop bottles. In Paris, men will pick through your apartment block's trashcan for reusable items before the collection truck arrives.

However, Hong Kong's extremely entrepreneurial culture - and its growing inequality, although the US is rapidly catching up - ensure that it is probably one of the world leaders in this kind of activity.

While this isn't the sole remedy for Hong Kong's waste problem, it is part of the answer. We need to rise above the "either/or" mentality. Such a complex and permanent policy challenge can only be addressed by a variety of measures appropriate to different circumstances.

The overall principle embodied in the government's Blueprint for Sustainable Use of Resources 2013-2022 is a good one: Use less, waste less. But how can this work, given the massive amount of rubbish we produce?

In 2011, we threw out 1.27 kilos of municipal solid waste (MSW) per person each day. The Environment Bureau aims to cut this to 1 kilo by 2017 and 0.8 kilos by 2022 - a total reduction of 40 percent. This is extremely ambitious, but it must be done, and continued after 2022, if we are not to drown in our own trash.

Up to now, there has been an increase, not a decrease, in MSW per person. Over the past 30 years it has grown nearly 80 percent. Yes, the population has grown. But at the same time, each of us has increased our waste disposal by 30 percent. You may guess that this is because living standards have improved, but does it really feel any better to be throwing away so much more stuff?

And we are, personally, much more wasteful than similar cities in the region. In terms of domestic (household) waste, we each throw away 1.36 kilos daily, compared with 1 kilo in Taipei, 0.95 kilos in Seoul and 0.77 kilos in Tokyo.

Is this because people living in these other cities are more caring about the environment? Maybe, maybe not, but government policies have definitely played a key role.

Back in 1995, domestic MSW per person in Taipei was slightly higher than in Hong Kong. It declined gently, thereafter, and then in 2000 the government imposed a volume-based waste fee and household waste dropped sharply. In South Korea, where the amount was already much lower, a new waste charge caused a further reduction from 1995 onwards.

Based on these experiences, and on its own successful implementation of waste charging in the construction industry, Hong Kong is preparing to implement a similar MSW charge on households.

A waste reduction charge that is already having some effect is the 50 cents you pay for a plastic bag at the supermarket. Hong Kong is not, though, yet at the stage of countries like Switzerland, where the check-out lady will give you a funny look if you haven't brought your own bag, then offer to sell you a bag that is longer-lasting and more expensive than the standard plastic bag in Hong Kong.

Around 44 percent of the garbage we throw out of our homes is "putrescible wastes", mostly food. I don't see how this is justifiable. It is clearly much more than a few fish bones and vegetable peelings. In a world where so many people go hungry, it's crazy. But what can the government do about it?

As well as launching campaigns to get people to stop wasting food and to donate surplus food to the hungry, the authorities can make use of the food that has been thrown away. The food dumped in landfills in recent years is probably no longer fit for even animal consumption, but as it rots it gives off gases that can be mined and used. Waste food can also be turned into compost; a pilot plant has been operating in Kowloon Bay since 2008 and gaining valuable experiencing in turning 500 tons of food waste into 100 tons of compost each year.

Government measures will help reduce the waste disposal problem, but we all need to see how we can help by wasting less, re-using more, and recycling wherever we can.

As head of Global Relations in the OECD's Investment Division up to 2010, the author wrote and published major policy reviews for the governments of China, India, Indonesia and the Russian Federation.

(HK Edition 12/18/2013 page1)