“Waste Commons” in Motion via Hong Kong’s Light Rail Loop

Exploring the Multiple Routes for Community-Oriented Food Waste Management

This project proposes to explore the emerging and diverse community-based practices for recycling food waste along the light rail loop in the Big Northwest area in order to develop a solution to the problem of food waste in Hong Kong. It introduces and develops the concept “waste commons”, the idea of a shared ownership or responsibility for waste. It aims to ultimately develop an integrated framework for sustainable waste management that harnesses social mobilisation in the form of a community economy for food waste, so as to develop a more sustainable relationship between humans and waste in a rural-urban nexus of Hong Kong.

Research Papers

• Experiential Learning with Waste. In An STS Teachbook (ed.). Lever Press (forthcoming 2025)
• Composting (in) the STS Classroom: Learning to Stay with the Disgusting Other. Science, Technology & Human Values (forthcoming 2025)
• A Care Continuum: Food Waste Challenge in Hong Kong and Its Narration in Action. European Journal of Cultural Studies (2025)
•  Waste commons in motion. Cultural Studies(2025)

In the media

• Local organic agriculture thrives with support from government and consumers, The Young Reporter (HKBU), 28/04/2025.
• Prof Leung Shi-chi responds to the waste reduction and recycling measure of the 2025-26 budget (10. 增廚餘收集點 料年底達1600個), Hong Kong Economic Times,27/02/2025.
• 保育香港：食唔晒，唔好嘥。可避免的廚餘問題, RTHK, 20/12/2024.
• Children’s experiential learning on food waste and farming (小不點學堂 落田處理廚餘 耍手擰頭的一課), Ming Pao Daily News, 19/2024.
• 在「後垃圾徵費」時期 回收何以成就文化？(How Recycling Becomes a Culture in ‘Post-MSW Charging’ Time?). Ming Pao Daily News, 04/06/2024.
• Newspaper commentary on environmental protection (打開垃圾：街坊廚餘製堆肥 回歸社區泥土), Ming Pao Daily News, 04/02/2024.
• Grass-roots Green Living: Lingnan University Students Empower Communities towards Sustainable Waste Practices. Youngpost, 24/03/2024.
• LU student team visits a primary school to conduct food waste recycling workshop(上一課: 堆肥 紮染 做pizza 落手落腳 體驗剩食轉廢為寶). Ming Pao Daily News, 6/06/2023.
•  “Keep Growing”: Sustainable agriculture and local strategies (繼續生產: 可持續農業的挑戰與在地策略), 香港農業 3.0 (HK AGRI 3.0), 31/08/2022.