Recycling levy a price worth paying

There is a need for a greater sense of urgency in the city's approach to waste reduction and recycling. This is particularly true of electronic items which cannot be incinerated or thrown into our remaining landfills without the risk of environmental damage through seepage of hazardous materials. It is good therefore that the government has settled a key issue in the disposal of electrical and electronics products once a HK$400 million e-waste recycling plant is up and running at Tuen Mun.

To finance operation of the plant, a disposal fee will be levied on consumers when they buy television sets, refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, air conditioners and computing products. As a result, going by overseas experience, prices will rise by anywhere between HK$100 and HK$250 for home appliances

The alternative was to rely on people to do the right thing and pay for disposal and recycling years later when they have no further use for an appliance or product. That would have been a recipe for evasion.

In an attempt to avoid an effective price increase, industry and retailers argued for payment at the point of disposal - when discarded products were returned to the retailer. The Environmental Protection Department rightly rejected this. One of its main concerns was that this would encourage fee evasion through illegal dumping, which is responsible for environmental degradation in the New Territories.

Environmentalists are unhappy that retailers are not to be compelled to pay a share of the cost of disposal and recycling of goods they sell. A Friends of the Earth spokesperson said that if the advance disposal fee was to be charged separately it was likely consumers would pay in full. But if it was included in the retail price this would at least offer retailers the flexibility of bearing part of it as part of a competitive pricing strategy.

Sadly, however, the reality is that the consumer will pay one way or the other, since the only limitation on retailers passing on their costs is how much the market will bear. On the other hand, even if payment of the fee is separate from the purchase and acknowledged clearly in the receipt, there is nothing to stop retailers from trying to attract business by offering to discount the fee to bring the total price down, and then paying the balance, or quoting a discounted price for the product without the addition of the disposal fee - in the same way cheap air tickets are quoted without the addition of airport taxes etc.