Government recognises the importance of recycling

I refer to the letter by Patsy Leung headlined 'Waste separation and recycling face many obstacles' (South China Morning Post, July 10).

We recognise that waste prevention and recycling requires the direct and active participation of the public. Therefore, we have reinforced our efforts since last September to establish a long-term public education and community involvement programme to boost public awareness and active participation of the public in waste prevention and recycling.

We have launched two new announcements of public interest and produced TV programmes on waste separation and recycling. Exhibitions on waste issues will continue to be held in commercial centres.

In addition, we have recruited all 180 public housing estates and 870 private estates, as well as nearly 70 per cent of all primary and secondary schools to the waste recycling programme. Moreover, 10,400 environmental protection ambassadors in schools and public and private housing estates have been recruited to help spread the message of waste separation and reduction.

Apart from environmental education, it is important to provide sufficient facilities and services to foster public participation. We have already placed 19,600 waste separation bins in public places, schools and housing estates. The results are encouraging and the quantity of recyclable material collected has been on the rise. We plan to increase the number of waste separation bins to 28,000 in the financial year 2002-2003. We have introduced measures to ensure that the collected recyclable material is used for recycling and not dumped in landfills. Also, the Housing Department has implemented a pilot trial with waste separation bins on each floor of two public housing estates and plans to extend the trial to more estates.

We have also been encouraging managers and owners of private housing estates, shopping centres and commercial buildings to provide waste separation facilities and services.