Waste trial take-up rate as low as 20%

Environment chief denies misjudgment, despite two delays to scheme

A trial run for the waste-charging scheme has seen an uptake of as little as 20 per cent by residents in public housing, with the environment chief saying the government had not anticipated Hong Kong’s economic problems when it decided to push ahead with the proposal.

But Tse Chin-wan, the environment and ecology secretary, yesterday defended the scheme’s implementation and denied the government had made a misjudgment despite its launch being twice postponed.

“The government has been mindful at every stage, and conducted extensive consultations,” Tse told a television programme.

“The Legislative Council was also very meticulous, having discussed it for two years, so I don’t think anyone made any misjudgments.”

The scheme will become fully operational on August 1.

The launch was postponed from December last year and from April 1 after the cleaning services industry and the public said they were not prepared for the change in waste management rules.

“Everyone assumed the economy would rebound very quickly once borders reopened after the pandemic and we believed it would be a good time to launch the scheme,” Tse said. “However, we are seeing now there have been big changes in Hong Kong’s business environment and economic atmosphere.”

He said the government was committed to tackling problems, but also to considering the opinions of the public.

A pilot scheme at 14 locations was launched on April 1 to help authorities identify weak spots in how the public would deal with being charged for waste.

Residents were required to put their trash in bags available in nine sizes, priced at 30 HK cents to HK$11. A special label costing HK$11 will be available for large or oddly shaped items.

Tse said authorities noticed in the first week of the trial run that up to 90 per cent of people were willing to take part and obtained the designated bags. But the actual usage rate showed mixed results of between 20 and 50 per cent, depending on the location.

Private residential buildings tended to perform better, while some public housing estates reported participation rates of as low as 20 per cent.

Tse said the participation rate at restaurants was higher, most likely because staff were instructed by their bosses to take part.

He said people in public estates might not have the ability to change their lifestyle habits, or even refuse to, because of pressure of work.

But Sze Lai-shan, the deputy director of the Society for Community Organisation, said it might be too early to draw firm conclusions after just a week, which included major holidays.

“A lot of people haven’t been home,” she said. “I have many cases of families heading back to their hometown [on the mainland] for the Ching Ming Festival.”

She also questioned whether the government had ensured all residents in buildings taking part were actually given the bags, as she knew of many families that reported never having received one, or were not home when they were handed out.

Sze added that an additional HK$10 had been given to people on the social security assistance scheme and to those receiving the old age allowance. But she said the cost of bags remained significant for low-income families, some of whom still struggled to make sense of the scheme.

“They don’t see how it is more environmentally friendly to buy extra bags when they get plenty while shopping for groceries.”

Angus Ho Hon-wai, the executive director of Greeners Action, said the take-up rate so far was a “pleasant surprise”.

He said his organisation had earlier done more than a dozen of its own trial runs at a variety of commercial buildings, shopping centres and housing estates, some of which were supported by the government’s Environment and Conservation Fund. All of them had a participation of only about 10 per cent over several weeks.

“When we did it, it was not a legal requirement, and neither is it now for the government’s pilot scheme,” Ho said. “It’s more like a game and whether people want to play or not, there are no real consequences.

“So under such a context, a participation rate of up to 50 per cent is actually really good. This shows, after all, the discussions we’ve been having lately about this scheme has allowed people to gain a better understanding of it.”

Tse said whether the scheme could be implemented citywide on August 1 was still uncertain and authorities would need to analyse the trial results.

He added the two major complaints so far involved some of the bags being too small or awkward to fit in standard bins. Others said food recycling bins were too far away. Authorities have said there are enough bins for people to reach within a 10-minute walk.

Tse said it was not feasible to double the number of recycling stations to shorten that to five minutes before August 1.

There have been big changes in Hong Kong’s business environment and economic atmosphere

TSE CHIN-WAN, ENVIRONMENT CHIEF