My Take | A rubbish scheme from no-can-do government
- The mandatory rubbish bags coming in 11 sizes, after some 16 years in the making, amount to self-parody in bureaucratic incompetence
After 16 years, the Hong Kong government has finally managed to introduce mandatory rubbish bags of 11 sizes from the smallest (three litres) at 30 HK cents to the largest (660 litres) at HK$73. The aim is to tackle the city’s accumulating mountains of rubbish. That was what the environment minister was already saying back then, more than a decade and a half ago.
In a newspaper photo, Wong Kam-sing, who has been the environment chief since 2012, gives a forced smile about the scheme that shows more embarrassment than genuine happiness or relief. Wouldn’t you?
Oh, did I mention the full plan won’t start just yet? Officials have been given at least 18 months to prepare for the implementation of the new system. After that, legislators will review its effectiveness and then decide whether people and businesses, given their economic conditions, can bear the burden of paying to dispose of rubbish.
The bureaucratic evolution of this rubbish scheme tells us a lot about how the post-handover government works, or rather, doesn’t work.
If charging mandatory rubbish disposal has taken so long to launch, what about far more complicated issues such as insufficient and poor housing, discriminatory housing rights in the New Territories, lengthening queues for many key medical specialist treatments, the exodus and emigration of public medical personnel, and the perceived decline of education standards in local schools?
