Get public on side for Hong Kong waste-charging plan
- Hong Kong authorities have time and again failed to implement the scheme and the reason is clear: the average person has yet to be convinced of its viability
It is disappointing to learn that authorities have scaled back a planned trial run of Hong Kong’s pay-as-you-throw scheme days before its April 1 start.
Officials must redouble efforts to make best use of the months left before the important policy is implemented citywide in August.
Decades in the making, the system requiring all rubbish to be collected in prepaid bags costing 11 HK cents (1 US cent) per litre has already been delayed twice.
The most recent setback was in January, when Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan said a limited test focused on government buildings would be done first, providing “real cases” so a confused public could see what to expect.
However, last Friday, his department revealed that only one government office block in West Kowloon and two public housing estates would be among the 14 premises involved.
The other locations include private residential buildings, shopping centres, residential care homes and restaurants.