On a sunny Saturday morning earlier this month, I went on the public tour of the EcoPark with 14 other people from the Green Sustainable Living Meetup group, to find out more about Hong Kong's waste management and recycling industry.

Fully operational in 2007, EcoPark is "Hong Kong's first recycling-business park". Apart from providing 13 recycling businesses and NGOs with affordable rents, it also serves as an education centre on waste management for schools, universities and the general public. Situated about 9km west of Tuen Mun at the western tip of the New Territories, it is sandwiched between a hilly terrain and the sea, and the site is only accessible by car, or by bus K52 from Tuen Mun town centre (about 40 minutes). Away from the hustle and bustle of the town and surrounded by trees and greenery, the location is almost idyllic – I say almost, because it is still next to a busy road frequented by lorries, and ironically the patch of grass next to the bus stop just opposite the site was covered in litter!

The one-hour tour was designed to be informational and interactive. Apart from the detailed explanations from the guide at each section, the tour also had a movie, games and a number of art installations – all designed for the visitor to experience and learn about different types of wastes and their management in Hong Kong.

One fact that stuck with me was that a staggering 5 million plastic bottles are thrown away in Hong Kong each day – a phenomenal figure compared to the city's population of 7.2 million. What's more, each plastic bottle takes 450 years to decompose naturally. I took the opportunity to delve deeper after the tour and discovered from government statistics that total amount of waste sent to landfill was, on average, almost 15,000 tonnes per day in 2014. That's equivalent to about 10,000 cars, or 600 double-decker buses!

There are many sources of waste in this densely populated city but one thing I noticed having moved here 3 months ago, is the widespread use of one-off items, presumably fuelled by their convenience and low cost. Taking plastics alone, in 2014 Hong Kongers sent an average of over 2,000 tonnes to landfill per day. But it doesn't need to be this way. Many of our single-use plastics are completely and utterly unnecessary. Toilet rolls individually wrapped by an extra layer of plastic; extra plastic bags to carry out drinks from fast-food chains like McDonald's; frozen items being put in an extra plastic bags at supermarket checkouts; individually wrapped fruit and vegetables; insistence from most commercial buildings and shops on the use of plastic umbrella covers. The list goes on.

Back at the EcoPark, a short video in the movie room explained how our daily waste is first transported to one of the city's seven refuse transfer stations, where they are compressed into containers, before being taken to one of the three strategic landfill sites. These landfill sites were initially constructed to last until 2020 and beyond, but they have already almost filled up and now require multi-million-dollar expansions, albeit only as an interim solution. The government has plans to build an incinerator, but this would only slightly alleviate the problem as its capacity is only 3,000 tonnes per day, about 20% of daily waste generated. Crucially, it does not address the root cause of the issue – how (so much) waste is generated in the first place, and people's attitudes towards it.

EcoPark's advocacy for the 3R's – Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle – is certainly heading in the right direction, but this is merely PR speak unless there is strong leadership from the government. As one of the fellow visitors, Yvonne, pointed out in her blog, the tour was quite sanitised and what we were told about Hong Kong's waste management efforts "sounded like propaganda". I share the same sentiments but also agree with her that the tour was predominantly aimed at school children. Educating the future generation about waste management is hugely important and I hope every schoolchild in this city has the opportunity to visit this EcoPark to learn about Hong Kong's waste problem. But education alone is not sufficient – they also need to feel empowered to tackle the problem.

So how do we empower the masses?

First and foremost, it must be made extremely easy, convenient and cheap for people to recycle their waste. Both the government and businesses have their respective roles to play, which are hugely important and closely interconnected, and must demonstrate strong leadership. To tackle the issue at its source, waste reduction, and elimination must be a priority. Apart from education and raising awareness, a balance of hardline legislation and economic incentives (e.g. tax breaks as recently seen in Sweden) will be required to ensure businesses and individuals are also on board and share the responsibility and accountability.

Furthermore, the government must integrate strategic waste management with the city's long-term infrastructural developments, which requires regulating, consulting and collaborating with major property developers, architects, designers, financiers and various other stakeholder groups. Trust is important too, for example with recycling, the infrastructure must be sufficiently robust and transparent to gain public trust and therefore higher rates of adherence and usage.

At the individual level, we need to educate ourselves to become better-informed citizens and to be aware of the waste problems that plague our city. We are not alone either - there are plenty of articles and resources already available online to help. Examples include:

• The Water For Free website and mobile app locates all the public water fountains so we can quench our thirst with our own reusable bottles rather than buying single-use bottles;

• We can easily carry our own reusable shopping bags, food tubs and cutlery with us (forks, spoons, knives, chopsticks, even straws!), and say no to single-use ones;

• Hong Kong has lots of grocery shops that sell food in bulk, so we just need to bring our own containers. They tend to be local so we can support local businesses too!

For more ideas, take a look at:

• My friend's Zero Waste Challenge for tips on how to reduce our personal waste to zero, including making your own toothpaste, insect repellent and digestive biscuits!

• The Plastic Free Living Checklist on the Plastic Free Seas website

• Organisations such as Feeding Hong Kong that save perfectly edible and delicious food from being wasted by redistributing it.

The EcoPark is only a starting point. To properly address Hong Kong's waste problem, we need the majority of the city to be on board - government, businesses, citizens and consumers alike. Whilst the government has the potential capacity to coordinate efforts, breed innovation and change behaviour, the success of changing our city for the better ultimately depends on our collective strengths and willpower.

Are you ready?