Hong Kong is no stranger to clean-up campaigns. Apart from a continual advertising blitz by the Government urging people not to throw litter, there was a high-profile publicity exercise in the early 70s featuring a nasty little litterbug called Lap Sap Chung.
He captured the public imagination in a big way. Nobody wanted to be shown up as a lap sap offender, so for the duration of the campaign, the streets became noticeably cleaner. When he faded from the scene, so did the good habits he inspired. But the public are about to get a sharp reminder, backed by strengthened penalties and stronger enforcement.
This is a three-year programme, initiated in the Chief Executive's Policy Address and spearheaded by the Secretary for Environment and Food Lily Yam Kwan Pui-ying. It will cause a shake up in shops and markets where hygiene standards are often below acceptable levels and urgently in need of improvement.
The construction industry, which in the past has sometimes treated waste dumping as an inherent right, must also bear in mind that it will pay if it ignores the rules. Exactly how much has not yet been revealed, but it is one area where realistic fines are long overdue.
An obstacle to an improvement in civic responsibility is the fact that where fines exist, they are often derisory and cause no problems to the transgressor. But that is not the only difficulty. Twice last year the efforts of hawker control officers to keep the streets clean came to nothing when courts threw out one case of littering and another of spitting on the pavement. After that experience, officers are likely to be wary of pressing charges.
Another difficulty may stem from the 3,300 voluntary redundancies applied for in Mrs Yam's sector, and the 1,200 in Leisure and Cultural Services - the department mainly involved in cleansing activities. A manpower shortage will make enforcement more difficult. Perhaps if the campaign captures public attention in the same way as Lap Sap Chung, it will not be necessary to be heavy-handed. But if persuasion fails, harsh fines are the obvious answer.