The new environmental hygiene chief revealed her plans yesterday for a 'cultural revolution' to clean up the streets - by changing the name of litter bins.
But Rita Lau Ng Wai-lan's scheme fell foul of legislators who laughed it off as rubbish.
Mrs Lau declared that bins, commonly called lap sap sheung in Cantonese, were not a place for lap sap, or rubbish.
'I believe we should give lap sap sheung a new name. I would like it to be called guo pei sheung [fruit rind box],' Mrs Lau said.
She said it would be a 'cultural revolution' to change people's perspective of the 16,000 litter bins on the streets.
'The problem here is that most people put [larger rubbish] in litter bins,' said Mrs Lau, who took the helm of the new Food and Environmental Hygiene Department this month.
