Smart start: Secretary for the Environment Edward Yau (left) officiates at the launch of the hotel sector's glass recycling programme.

The hotel sector today launched a programme to recover and recycle beverage glass containers from participating hotels.

Eleven hotels - including the Eaton, Four Seasons, Grand Hyatt, InterContinental, Langham Place Mongkok, Mandarin Oriental, JW Marriott, The Peninsula, Renaissance Harbour View, Renaissance Kowloon and Sheraton - have volunteered to jointly organise and fund the programme.

At the launch ceremony, Secretary for Environment Edward Yau said the programme is an important start and he hopes glass recycling can be extended to more hotels and to other sectors.

"The recycling of glass containers helps reduce waste and conserve natural resources," he said.

The containers collected will be delivered to a glass recycler in Tuen Mun to be crushed into glass sand to replace natural river sand in paving blocks' production.