Pay-for-rubbish bill is likely to be aggressive, environment chief says

Aggressive recommendations on fees for waste are likely to be incorporated in full when the government submits its draft bill to the Legislative Council, the top environment official has hinted.

Secretary for the Environment Wong Kam-sing said all recommendations gathered by the Council for Sustainable Development in its public consultation last year were "highly representative" of all stakeholders and that the government would respect this.

Earlier this week, Wong said that as with past reports from the council, "the government would ... to a high degree think it is a direction worth accepting".

Wong said the bill was in the process of being drafted but could not say when exactly it would be tabled. The government has pledged to introduce the levy by 2016.

Among recommendations in the council report submitted to Wong's bureau in December is a volume-based, household waste charge using prepaid designated rubbish bags at a monthly cost of HK$30 to HK$44 per household of three.

It also proposed a three-year transitional period for residents of buildings that need to reach consensus on implementation, granting them the option of adopting a charge per block or estate.

Wong said incentives - and disincentives - would be provided, including an incremental increase in the charge, to ensure these estates eventually switched to charging by household using the prepaid garbage bags.