The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) announced today that the citywide waste paper collection and recycling services will commence tomorrow.

Seventeen contractors, selected via open tender, will provide the services to maintain and enhance the quality and quantity of local waste paper recycling and promote the trade’s sustainable development.

The contractors will collect waste paper including cardboard, newspapers and office papers from street-corner recycling shops, mobile recyclers or frontline collectors across the city.

The collected waste paper will undergo processes of screening, sorting and baling locally, before it is exported to the Mainland or overseas markets for recycling into paper products, thereby turning waste into resources.

The EPD said the contractors and their associated street-corner recycling shops and mobile recyclers are required to purchase waste paper that meets the specified quality standards from frontline collectors and other waste paper producers.

The purchasing price must not be less than 70 cents per kg in the first six months of the contract period, and from then on the price will be adjusted every three months according to the actual export price of waste paper in the market.

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