An environmental researcher says Hong Kong should cooperate with regions in the Greater Bay Area to recycle car tyres to help reduce deforestation caused by rubber plantations.

Speaking on RTHK's Hong Kong Today programme, Kitty Tam from the think-tank, Civic Exchange, said a new report in the journal Nature showed deforestation in South-East Asia was greater than thought. She said four million hectares of forest had been lost over the past 30 years, equivalent to 40 times the size of Hong Kong.

Tam called on the government to come up with a recycling strategy.

"Globally rubber is used in the production of 1 billion tyres per year but, for example, in Hong Kong we lack the means to recycle car tyres so it will be beneficial for the Hong Kong government to focus on developing a circular economy that focuses on car tyre recycling," she said.

Tam also called for more global agreements, saying the European Union had put in place a regulation that bans the importation of commodities related to deforestation, which includes rubber.