What is the Smart Waste Reduction Challenge?

The Smart Waste Reduction Challenge is a new initiative launched by Swire Properties for its tenants and in collaboration with Spare-it, a Boston-based cleantech start-up, with the goal to collectively reduce the amount of waste generated in the buildings.

Across Swire Properties' Hong Kong portfolio :

• More than 90% of the waste comes from building users

• More than 15,000 tonnes of waste were produced in 2019 across buildings, of which only 22% was recycled

In Hong Kong, more than 11,050 tonnes of municipal solid waste are sent to Hong Kong landfills every day. The top 3 types of waste found in Hong Kong landfills are :

The Smart Waste Reduction Challenge is a combination of

and the goals of the are to reduce waste and improve recycling collectively.

When is it happening?

The challenge will be kicked off in July and will last 6 months until December.

Spare-it has already been deploying its connected scales and live displays screens in the different premises of Swire Properties’ tenants participating in the challenge.

This will allow until the kick-off to measure a baseline of the waste generated in each working space.

How does it work?

Thanks to its connected scales, Spare-it can measure the amount of waste produced for each stream (general waste, paper, food waste, metal, plastic, glass). Once the challenge is launched, the live data will be displayed on the screens and will be compared to the baseline reference measured in April. You will be able to track the progress on the dashboards.

Along with the live measurement of the different waste streams, Spare-it will propose workshops, educational signage, sustainable tips and more on this website around different topics to help you improve sorting, increase recycling and reduce waste. Spare-it will provide recommendations for a more sustainable environment and will support any initiative launched by a green team that will contribute to the waste reduction.