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. 

Food Waste Recycling Schemes — 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 Pilot Scheme on Food Waste Collection 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. Food waste smart bins are equipped with weight sensors and fill-level sensors, featuring a dual-alert mechanism that automatically sends notifications to on-site staff when collected recyclables reach 80% capacity.

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. Integrated with the “GREEN$” rewards platform, food waste recycling earns 50 points daily, encouraging citizens to build sustainable recycling habits.

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 O.PARK, the first organic resources recovery centre, adopts anaerobic digestion technology to convert food waste into biogas (a source of renewable energy similar to natural gas) for electricity generation. 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.

Food Waste Collection​ – Benefits of Food Waste Recycling:

Recycling Steps:

1. Remove non-food waste items
2. Drain excess liquid
3. Empty food waste into designated recycling bins or containers
4. Send the food waste to O-PARK1 or other recycling facilities approved by the Environmental Protection Department for processing

>>Click and watch the tutorial

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