'I Saved 300+ Pieces of Plastic During My 21-Days': How One Hong Konger Recycled His Quarantine

Hong Kong’s government-mandated hotel quarantine is one of the most restrictive, limited, and longest in the world. Most arrivals are required to purchase a 21-day quarantine hotel package from a selection of the 35 government-contracted hotels after arriving in the city.

The added psychological, mental, and physical effects of limited social contact with the outside world and lack of outdoor space to effectively work out compounds on an already detrimental issue concerning plastic consumption during arrivals’ stays. Twenty-one days, 63 provided meals, plastic bags, bowls, spoons, cups, and bottles—all single-use and required to dispose of in the rubbish upon usage.

This dependence and over-consumption of plastic products during the mandated quarantine stay prompted one Hong Kong returnee to be creative with his efforts to raise awareness. Sean Barry, 22, had booked a flight returning to the city on July 29, 2021, after an absence of one year graduating from his university in the U.K. and working remotely for a Hong Kong-based company.

“An avid recycler” he nicknames himself, the Hong Konger found himself returning to the city to continue his work as a researcher at a digital agency in the city, eager to continue his year-long recycling habit he matured in the U.K. in his quarantine hotel, Four Points by Sheraton located in Tung Chung.

“During lockdown in the UK, I recycled pretty much everything that can feasibly be recycled in the U.K. I would take it to the dedicated recycling center in [Nottingham],” Sean said on a phone call. With this summer’s stint being his third quarantine, once in 2020 to return to Hong Kong and another to visit his mother-country of Brunei, he found it “nuts how much plastic [quarantine] create[d]” during his 21 days.

To raise awareness to his friends and business network, he posted a photo on his LinkedIn account detailing every single plastic bowl, plate, bag, fork, spoon, knife, cup, bottle, and box, he collected, washed, dried, and recycled.

He improvised a recycling system in his hotel room, separating plastics, paper, aluminum, glass, and general waste. In total, he collected:

• 42 plastic trays
• 56 plastic soup bowls
• 5 plastic sauce pots
• 5 straws
• 122 plastic lids
• 8 plastic bottles
• 63+ plastic bags

Sean noted that “in the U.K. and Europe there is a greater consciousness and wider public awareness and urgency to address climate situation. In Hong Kong and Asia, recycling is seen as volunteering,” rather than a civic duty. His efforts to recycle and generate a discussion online point to a wider issue of plastic recycling in the city.

According to independent data collected by environmental activism group, HK Recycles, the city’s plastic recycling stands at only 14% of all plastic products produced being processed in the city’s only recycling center, Tuen Muen’s EcoPark, as of 2018 (most recent data accessible).