Just half of residents at most sticking to rules on trial run of Hong Kong waste-charging scheme on housing estates
- Environmental Protection Department says garbage handling fees have added financial pressure to the operators of restaurants, businesses and nursing homes
- Compliance rate among residents living in public and private housing estates in first month of trial scheme was between 20 and 50 per cent, it also says
Just half of public and private housing estate residents at most followed new rules in the first month of a trial run for a twice-delayed waste-charging scheme, Hong Kong environmental authorities revealed on Friday.
The Environmental Protection Department also said the test run covering 14 types of premises found that garbage handling fees had added financial pressure to the operators of restaurants, businesses and nursing homes, despite a reduction in waste disposal and an increase in recycling.
Under the controversial waste-charging scheme, residents would be required to use designated rubbish bags available in nine sizes at a cost of 30 HK cents (4 US cents) to HK$11, but it has been postponed twice, most recently from April to August.
The trial run, which provides free garbage bags, covers premises including public and private housing estates, a government office block, shopping centres, care homes and restaurants, started on April 1.
In a written reply to the Post, the department said the compliance rate among residents living in public and private housing estates was between 20 and about 50 per cent.
The rate was even lower – only 10 to 20 per cent – at “three-nil” buildings which do not have property maintenance companies, owners’ corporations or residents’ organisations.
But nursing homes, restaurants and the government block had a 100 per cent compliance rate because of requirements from their management. The rate was around 70 per cent for shopping centres.
All premises collected the designated garbage bags during the one-month trial run, with the rate for the government block, care homes and restaurants hitting 100 per cent, and that of public and private housing standing between 80 and 90 per cent.
“According to the authorities’ observations, the most commonly distributed designated bags in residential areas are 15 litres in size. Care homes, restaurants and commercial establishments primarily collected 75-litre and 100-litre designated bags,” the department said.
The department added that it also found that certain residential sites, care homes and restaurants had generated less waste but increased the amount of recycling, including kitchen waste and glass bottles.
“We have also observed that the garbage fees have created financial pressure on the operational costs of restaurants, businesses, and care homes,” the department said.
It said it had received feedback and suggestions from 750 stakeholders, including housing estate residents, cleaners, staff working for the nursing homes, property management companies and commercial operators.
It will present the results of the trial run to the Legislative Council on May 27, including relevant statistics and observations.
Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan earlier said the trial would go on for one more month.
The Post reported exclusively on Thursday that the waste-charge scheme was most likely to be deferred for the third time later this month.
Two insiders familiar with the matter said top advisers in the government’s key decision-making body, the Executive Council, had warned Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu and other officials about the problems of pushing forward the scheme over the past months, even though the item was not officially on the agenda.
Tse said on Thursday that authorities had encountered many issues during the trial run, pledging a “careful review” to minimise public inconvenience.
