What can be done to reduce solid waste?
The Legislative Council's environmental affairs panel was told that solid waste dumped in landfills last year was 0.5 per cent more than that of 2007.
According to the 2005 waste-management strategy to cut waste by 1 per cent every year until 2014, the government missed its waste-reduction target. Lawmakers are calling for litter charges to be levied on households and businesses ('Lawmakers call for litter charges as targets missed', April 28). But their calls may be futile.
Acting Secretary for the Environment Kitty Poon Kit put the waste increase in 2008 down to the 11 per cent increase in commercial and industrial waste.
She cited robust economic growth and the strong tourism influx during the first three quarters of 2008 as possible contributing factors.
She said increased economic activity could generate more trash, but she seems to have overlooked the actual 0.8 per cent increase in population over the same period that would directly contribute to more waste.
As visiting tourists tend to take their belongings and shopping home rather than leaving these behind as souvenirs for our landfills, a growing tourism industry cannot be a reasonable excuse for the waste increase.