‘No clue’: Hong Kong district councillor, environmentalist say frontline workers, residents ‘unprepared’ for April 1 trial run of waste-charging scheme
- Eastern district councillor Lam Wing-shing raises concerns about short notice, says trial run has caught residents by surprise
- ‘The additional step of waste sorting and recording data … is likely to overwhelm the workers,’ he adds
Hong Kong frontline workers and residents are “unprepared” for a trial run of a controversial pay-as-you-throw scheme set for next week, a district councillor and an environmentalist have said, citing the short notice and insufficient information.
Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan, meanwhile, told lawmakers on Monday that the government would keep an open mind on whether the charging scheme should be further revised or delayed after the trial results.
At the Legislative Council environmental affairs panel meeting, Tse was under pressure from lawmakers who said many residents were still unprepared and that there were still many concerns ahead of the launch time in August.
Tse stressed that while the government had no plans to further delay the scheme at this stage, it would decide the next step by June after the trial run.
“If adjustment is needed, more coordination is required, or big changes [to the scheme] might be needed, we keep an open mind and will decide the next step after assessing the overall results of the [trial run],” he said.
Authorities earlier said the trial run of the already delayed waste-charging scheme would be launched on April 1 and would cover only 14 premises. Among the locations are a government office block and two public residential buildings, including Lin Tsui Estate in Chai Wan.