Advertisement
Advertisement
Wilson Yip says the most critical point is: will people change their behaviour?

Pay-as-you-throw waste pilot scheme has limited impact

Amoy Gardens trial gives policymakers food for thought as they discuss how to make waste charging work to ease pressure on landfills

A pilot pay-as-you-throw waste-charging scheme resulted in only a moderate decrease in the amount of rubbish being sent to landfills, initial findings from the exercise show.

The findings from the study at Amoy Gardens in Kowloon Bay emerged ahead of a meeting of the Council for Sustainable Development today to discuss what method to recommend to the government, which plans to bring in charges citywide as early as 2016.

Waste charging is seen as key to tackling the city's dismal recycling rates and averting a waste disposal crisis as landfill sites reach capacity.

But disagreement remains over whether charges should be levied on individual flats or per block, and whether they should be calculated by volume, weight or per bag of waste.

Four of the 19 blocks at Amoy Gardens were selected to join the six-month trial, along with six other estates across the city, in an effort to test the logistics of waste charging.

Unlike the other estates, some households at Amoy Gardens had to actually pay the charges, though they will be refunded. The trial was accompanied by a drive to encourage recycling, including new collection points for recyclable material.

Different methods of charging were introduced at three of the blocks in late May, with the fourth serving as the benchmark.

At one, households had to buy designated garbage bags, at sizes of five to 15 litres and with charges of 50 cents to HK$1.50.

The other two methods were based on the whole block; one calculated by waste volume, the other by weight. No payments were collected and there was no change to the collection method.

"We are the only estate that really charges the residents for the bags they get," said Wilson Yip Hing-kwok, chairman of the estate's owners committee and a Kwun Tong district councillor. "But we will refund the fees to the residents after the trial."

Yip said preliminary results showed that the total waste disposed of per day, excluding items collected for recycling, fell 4.7 per cent across the four blocks, from an average of 1,047kg to 997kg. Each block has about 250 flats.

In the first month of charging, June, the block using prepaid bags cut the amount of waste it threw away by 1 per cent, and a further 2 per cent in July. But last month waste levels increased 2.5 per cent, although they remain slightly below the figures for May, before the trial began.

However, the amount of recyclable material collected, including food waste, rose 40 per cent over the three months.

The block trialling weight-based charging saw a strong start, but waste levels for last month bounced back and slightly surpassed the level from May.

At the third block, the number of 660 litre bins needed to store the rubbish fell 3 per cent.

But Yip said all of the methods, combined with the introduction of more outlets to collect nine different types of recyclable material, had an impact.

"The charging methods are like different yeasts for baking bread. Some bake bigger bread, some smaller. But the most critical point is: will people's mindsets change and will it change their behaviour," he said.

While prepaid bags are seen as fairest, Yip said only about 60 per cent of households bought the bags and only half of those actually used them. "Some still wrap their rubbish in plastic bags they got from the wet market or for takeaway food," he said. "They might wonder why they have to pay for a trash bag when they get a free one that is to be thrown away anyway."

The poor design of the bags was also a problem: they featured handles, and did not fit neatly into domestic bins, Yip said.

Volume-based fees could lead to overcharging as rubbish might not be compacted properly, he added.

But whatever the system, Yip stressed the need for engagement with residents.

"We need to knock on their doors and make home visits intensively to explain the purpose of the trials, on top of a lot of education and publicity activities," he said.

Yip said he felt the prepaid bags were the "most effective" and "fairest" method, but only if 70 to 80 per cent of residents were determined to enforce it. He also urged officials to leave some leeway for individual estates to decide on the best method, rather than taking a blanket approach. Prepaid bags were also being tested at Chai Wan Estate. A spokesman for the estate owners said the trial went well, although some residents failed to use the designated bags.

"Some don't use any bags at all as they throw away very little waste per day," he said. Estate management gave out 20 free 15-litre bags per month to each flat, and residents could ask for more, smaller bags if they ran out. No payment was involved.

The Orchard in Quarry Bay, which has many Japanese and Korean residents who are familiar with waste charging from home, was testing volume-based charging. The other estates involved were Island Resort in Siu Sai Wan, Tak Tin and Kwong Tin estates in Lam Tin, and Chun Seen Mei Chuen in Kowloon City.

The government hopes waste charging will help slash the amount of rubbish the city generates by 40 per cent by 2020. On average, each Hongkonger generates 1.36kg of waste each a day, compared to 0.77kg in Tokyo.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Waste fee pilot has a limited impact
Post