Hong Kong's Only Paper Beverage Box Recycling Factory
MillMill is the first and only paper drink box recycling plant in Hong Kong. Currently, it processes about 30 tons of paper drink boxes and various kinds of waste paper every day, which are made into various kinds of recycled paper products and sold at low prices. Since 2020, it has cooperated with The Mills to recycle its waste paper into market toilet paper rolls, making it the first self-sufficient and reuse waste paper circular economy system in Hong Kong.

Pandemic Hits Recycling, Factory Loses Rent
The pandemic has caused production to stop and waste paper recycling to decrease significantly, making the factory almost unable to operate normally. Currently, the recycling rate has recovered to 70% of pre-epidemic levels, but the factory, located in Yuen Long, has not been renewed and the lease will expire in June this year, facing the risk of closure. Although MillMill has received an invitation from Singapore to set up a factory there, it still hopes to stay in Hong Kong and is still looking for a suitable place.

Turning to a Social Recycling Platform for a Circular Economy
Currently, MillMill lists all the waste paper recycling points in Hong Kong on social media, making it convenient for citizens to recycle. One of the founders, Harold, hopes to interact more with citizens through social media in the future and create various kinds of information content about paper and recycling to increase the recycling motivation of the public and promote the development of the circular economy in the long term.
 

Three Generations of Dedication to the Community
The family-run small shop Mei Yi Lin Foodstore was founded by Wing-Cheung Choi in the 1980s, originally selling seafood and miscellaneous goods at the Tai Wo Hau Market. Twenty years ago, the shop moved to its current location at the Smartland Shopping Centre, where it has been quietly serving the community under the supervision of his daughter, Chi-Tong Choi, and his granddaughter, Monique, while building deep relationships with the neighborhood for over 30 years.

The impact of the pandemic on the high-priced seafood market
As a high-priced consumer item, seafood has seen a significant decline in sales during the pandemic. Monique, Choi's granddaughter, responded by introducing various health and wellness soup packages and offering a service for immigrants to order seafood. She has also diversified the shop's products in order to maintain business.

Opening an online store for more convenient shopping
Monique hopes to open an online store to tap into the younger market and make it easier for the community to purchase seafood from the comfort of their own homes. However, she admits to having little experience with operating an online store and is actively exploring the possibilities of digitizing the small shop.
 

Equal Access to Knowledge with an Online Platform
Driven by his belief that everyone should have opportunities to learn, Leo and a few university friends founded Beginneros in 2016. Since 2017, The platform regularly releases free instructional videos and fun trivia on its website and social media channels, with the goal of minimizing the threshold for knowledge accessibility and promoting "knowledge sharing" and enabling anyone to learn freely, regardless of their financial or geographic restrictions.

Pandemic Forces Team to Shift to Part-Time Work
As a platform providing free self learn video, Beginneros' main sources of income are advertising sponsorships and commissions from instructors teaching classes. The pandemic resulted in a significant decrease in advertising revenue and the suspension of in-person classes, leading the 8-member team to shift to part-time work in order to reduce expenses and continue operating.

Interactive Mobile App Integrates Learning into Daily Life
Last year, Beginneros launched a mobile app, allowing users to learn a variety of subjects in a more interactive and convenient way, and to continually improve themselves wherever and whenever they like. The app has also helped to popularize knowledge and connect people through shared understanding. The mobile app has been successful in expanding Beginneros' audience.
 

Zero Waste, Carbon-Neutral Wedding Decor in Hong Kong隊
In addition to happy memories, every wedding leaves behind a significant amount of unnecessary printed waste. Therefore, Emad and Louis founded ForCheer in 2013, using fabric and reusable wooden boards to create wedding decorations instead of traditional foam boards and banners which are all disposable. After the wedding, they recycle the decorative materials, making use of fabric by sewing it into tote bags and pillow cases, producing clocks and tea tables by wooden Logo sign, creating beautiful memories for the couple.

Finding Alternatives During the Pandemic Wedding Drought
Due to the pandemic, weddings have been unable to take place, and business has suffered. ForCheer has had to turn to other opportunities like home renovation and carpentry to support its business. Currently, ForCheer balances decoration and renovation work, and uses the leftover wood from weddings to make furniture for sale when he has time.

Technology Enhances Couples' Wedding Experience
As weddings slowly return to normal, ForCheer is considering digitizing some processes, such as setting up a self-service quotation system and using virtual reality technology to allow couples to preview the decoration effects, in order to spread the concept of eco-friendly weddings to more people.
 

Simplifying prescription process for community pharmacies
PharmCare was founded in 2019 with the goal of developing a unified, simplified and visual drug label system to replace the current unfriendly drug labels for the elderly and minority groups, and guide them in taking the correct medication; at the same time, they developed the PharmCare retail system to help community pharmacies easily use the simple drug labels and manage medical records.

Project hit by pandemic as it begins
In the early stages of testing the drug label system, the most needed feedback came from users, but due to the pandemic, the team could only collect opinions and teach institutions to use them through video visits, making it difficult to directly reach the elderly and minority groups. Currently, the drug label and PharmCare system has been successfully trialed in a few community pharmacies, and the team hopes to expand it to more places to help more people in need.

Mobile app launched to identify medication labels with a photo
This year, the team will launch a free mobile app that allows people to identify drug labels from photos and generate drug icons, and also includes a voice function to help visually impaired people take medication.
 

From Advertising to Building a Successful Travel Agency
Breakup Tours was originally an experiential advertising campaign created by advertising professional Stephen Chung in 2018. In 2019, the company successfully raised $1.5 million in funding to establish "Heartbreak Travel Limited," a company that sells global travel experiences through a mobile app to connect people who have just gone through a breakup and help them move on.

COVID-19 Results in Zero Income
However, the COVID-19 pandemic brought the global travel industry to a standstill and the company's income to zero. Breakup Tours pivoted to offering online activities and products, such as "Love Basket Stars," an online love consultation service that is all fun and no fuss, and "Match from Home," a online matchmaking service. However, due to the ongoing pandemic, the company suspended operations in July 2020.

Analyzing Heartbreak Data to Develop Products for Singles
Using data from thousands of users, the team discovered insights with potential for further development, such as the fact that 47% more male members than female members use the platform to talk about their heartbreak, and that conversation length was 61% longer for male members. They also found that the peak time for purchasing travel products on the platform was 11pm to 1am. Looking to the future, the team plans to use this "alternative big data" to develop new online products and even potentially restart Breakup Tours.