Food waste collection in Hong Kong public rental housing estates

One of the signature projects and milestones for Cornerstone Smart Recycling is the large-scale deployment of food waste smart recycling bins in Hong Kong’s public rental housing (PRH) estates, supporting the government’s territory-wide food waste collection scheme. 

Territory-wide PRH deployment

Since late 2022, Cornerstone has supplied and operated smart food waste recycling bins for the government’s PRH food waste collection programme, starting from an 18‑month trial scheme in selected estates. The project has grown into a territory-wide rollout, with over 900 smart bins installed across all 18 districts, making Cornerstone the main technology operator in this space.

Scaling from pilot to flagship

The initiative began modestly, with smart bins first piloted in about 30 blocks of five PRH estates, reaching fewer than 4% of local residents. Building on strong community response and multiple government tenders and funding support, the scheme expanded rapidly through 2023 and 2024 into a flagship deployment of Food Waste Smart Bins (FWSBs) in public housing.

Impact and performance

By 2023, around 300 FWSBs were serving roughly 70 PRH estates and about 170,000 residents, helping to collect over 1,800 tonnes of food waste for treatment at dedicated organic resource recovery facilities. By mid‑2024, more than 700 smart bins were expected to be in service at around 200+ PRH estates and roughly 1,500 residential blocks, significantly boosting food waste diversion from landfills.

Toward one bin per block

Government plans now target installing around 1,000 smart food waste bins in PRH estates, with the longer-term aim of achieving “one bin per block” as coverage and participation continue to grow. This will bring total deployment to over 1,000 FWSBs and realise full coverage across Hong Kong’s public rental housing network, firmly establishing Cornerstone’s smart food waste solution as a core part of the city’s waste reduction infrastructure.​

To know more about our Food Waste Smart Bins (FWSBs) SmartClassify 120, please refer to the product details from the link here.