Waste Management or Management of Waste? Going Green in Hong Kong: A Case Study on the Green Lunar New Year Fair

The production of waste has been a huge concern across the globe; in many big cities, the situation is even more serious owing to size of population and people’s environmental awareness. This research singles out the occasion of Chinese New Year Market in Hong Kong--- the annually held ‘Lunar New Year Fair’ during which food stalls for traditional street food, booths for traditional games and temporary floral shops are set up in at least five parks with the size of two to four basketball courts, lasting for one to two weeks, and operating from 5pm to 2am during those two weeks.  Seeing the need to control waste production during this festive event, the ‘Green Lunar New Year Fair’ has been introduced in 2018, in the form of public-private partnership (PPP); a collaboration between the government and green groups. Since the LNYF was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 owing to the pandemic, the data of this research covers the Green LNYF in 2018 and 2019. Through in-depth interviews, this research delineates the bureaucracy and problems of institutionalisation exemplified in such partnership. Through the lens of stakeholder-mapping, the intricate power relations amongst collaborators are analysed. This research argues that the involvement of the government might be a source of hindrance to the effectiveness of waste reduction, but at the same time, they might also be the source of cohesion amongst green groups