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On June 5, World Environment Day, over 20 environmental groups and representatives of the waste-recycling industry launched a joint petition to urge the Environment Bureau to put forward a legislative proposal for municipal solid waste charging, before the Legislative Council breaks for the summer in mid-July.
As early as 1994, the Environmental Protection Department commissioned a waste reduction study, and identified a basket of measures – including waste disposal charges – to this end. Since then, repeated public consultations on waste management strategies have been launched, but the responses seem to have had little effect.
Former environment chief Sarah Liao Sau-tung formulated a 10-year waste management policy framework for the 2005 to 2014 period. This recommended that the waste charging bill be introduced by 2007. However, it is 2018, and Legco has still not received draft legislation.
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Secretary for the Environment Wong Kam-sing stated in March last year that the bureau would try to submit the legislative proposal by the first half of 2017. But the first half of 2018 is now almost over. Environmental groups are concerned that if the bureau doesn’t act within the remaining four weeks before the Legco summer recess, the waste charging law is unlikely to take effect by 2019.
Waste fee plan set for delay as Hong Kong Legislative Council must still review possible bill
Mainland China’s restrictions on accepting foreign waste and the critical plastic pollution problems worldwide made plastics the focus of both Earth Day and World Environment Day this year.
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