{"id":59,"date":"2012-06-06T12:59:56","date_gmt":"2012-06-06T12:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ilovesoho.hk\/?p=59"},"modified":"2017-12-14T14:03:54","modified_gmt":"2017-12-14T14:03:54","slug":"the-glass-is-greener-in-soho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ilovesoho.hk\/articles\/glass-greener-soho","title":{"rendered":"The Glass Is \u2018Greener\u2019 in SoHo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most of us never consider what happens to the innumerable beer and wine bottles we throw away on a daily basis \u2013 they just go straight in the bin (\u201cproblem solved!\u201d) \u2013 and most bars and restaurants are no different. Yet, the good people at\u00a0The Globe\u00a0in SoHo are making a case for an alternative.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoesn\u2019t it seem like such a ridiculous waste throwing away all this glass?\u201d asks Toby Cooper, manager of The Globe pub in SoHo. \u201cIn the UK it was the first thing that was ever recycled; everywhere else, it relatively easy to recycle.\u201d When you consider that glass is 100% recyclable, yet normally ends up in landfills (where it will never decompose), you can quite see his point.<\/p>\n

The Globe\u00a0has been recycling their waste glass since September 2010. Twice a week, on a Thursday and Saturday morning, a truck comes to collect bags of glass at specific collections points in the SoHo and Lan Kwai Fong area \u2013 a scheme they were instrumental in helping set up. This glass is then taken to be recycled into new paving stone that can be used in construction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So how did this all get started? \u201cBasically, we heard about a small scheme in Wan Chai, run by April Lai of Green Glass Green. That\u2019s how we started recycling our own glass, later helping to organise collections from other bars and restaurants in the area,\u201d tells Toby. To date, over 25 venues in the area taking part in the glass-recycling scheme, including\u00a0California Vintage,\u00a0Life Caf\u00e9\u00a0and Eclipse Group outlets.<\/p>\n

Having witnessed first-hand the amount of the waste glass dumped at landfills, The Hong Kong Dumper Truck Drivers Association (many of whose members haul construction and demolition waste from construction sites) started\u00a0Green Glass Green\u00a0as a step towards a greener and more sustainable recycling practice in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

The small amount of funding from the government\u2019s Environment and Conservation Fund the receive helps pay for the recycled rice bags to keep the glass in, and transportation costs to take the glass to a factory in Tuen Mun (run by a start up company from HK Polytechnic) where the glass is broken down and recycled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re looking for now is to move it forward. We\u2019d like to open it up to everyone. I\u2019m telling people they can come and drop glass off here on a Thursday, because we have a bit of space, so it\u2019ll be collected with our own glass waste twice a week,\u201d says Toby.<\/p>\n

As an established area of bars and restaurants with a distinct community feel, Toby feels that SoHo is ideal to show how such recycling schemes can be effective. \u201cIt has to be community-led, and it only takes one person that cares in each shop to implement it,\u201d he suggests, saying, \u201cit\u2019s no harder than how rubbish is currently dealt with; all you need is an extra bin for the glass. There\u2019s a scheme going on Lamma Island now as well, so it shows that people are getting behind the idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you want to recycle your waste glass, bring it to:\u00a0The Globe, UG\/F, Garley Building, 45-53 Graham Street, Central, or get in touch by calling 2543 1941 or via twitter (@theglobehk). Green Glass Green\u2019s other collection areas in town can be found on their website:\u00a0www.greenglass.org.hk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most of us never consider what happens to the innumerable beer and wine bottles we throw away on a daily basis \u2013 they just go straight in the bin (\u201cproblem solved!\u201d) \u2013 and most bars and restaurants are no different. Yet, the good people at\u00a0The Globe\u00a0in SoHo are making a case for an alternative. \u201cDoesn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,2],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilovesoho.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilovesoho.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilovesoho.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilovesoho.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilovesoho.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilovesoho.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilovesoho.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions\/61"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilovesoho.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilovesoho.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilovesoho.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilovesoho.hk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}