Waste-charge proposal is flawed

The Council for Sustainable Development emphasises that the ultimate goal of municipal solid waste charging is to establish behavioural changes in people's daily garbage disposal through economic incentives.

I do not doubt the council's good faith in trying to introduce policies to battle the current waste crisis.

Nevertheless, I could hardly find any justification for how charging for this waste could serve as an economic incentive to help reduce waste.

First, most municipalities across the world introduced charging for this rubbish not for the purpose of behavioural changes, but to find extra income to pay for rising waste treatment costs and collection fees and compensation in the face of widespread community opposition.

With the government aggressively trying to expand landfills and the huge price tag associated with such an expansion, it would be naive not to associate fees collected from municipal solid waste charging with landfill expansion expenses and compensation to communities affected by such expansion programmes, both of which have nothing to do with reducing our overall waste.

Second, even if coercive measures are enforced, there are still many ways for people to get around waste charging in a legitimate manner.