Sze Lai-shan, the deputy director of the Society for Community Organisation (SoCO), said the announcement was good news for the city’s underprivileged, who were worried about increases in their cost of living.

“Suspending the scheme is the right thing to do, but what’s the point of shelving it indefinitely?” she asked.

“Members in our neighbourhood are not against the idea of being more environmentally friendly, they just question whether the waste-charging scheme can achieve its purpose.”

The pay-as-you-throw scheme, first proposed by authorities in 2004, would have required people to dispose of their trash in designated plastic bags available in nine sizes, priced from 30 HK cents to HK$11 (US$1.41).

The scheme’s citywide launch has already been pushed back twice, from last December to April and again to August 1.

Authorities decided to run a two-month trial scheme from April at 14 premises across the city, but the compliance rate was as low as 20 per cent.

Some people who took part said the bags were too expensive and the guidelines were unclear.

Rubbish collectors also faced a larger workload and longer working hours amid a manpower shortage.

Sze said the trial run would have been “more meaningful” if the government had communicated better with residents in “three-nil” buildings – those without maintenance companies, owners’ corporations or residents’ organisations to manage them.

“How can the government gauge their challenges if they couldn’t even ensure every household gets their designated bags in the first place?” Sze asked.

The trial run included two three-nil buildings in Sham Shui Po.

Sze said the public wanted the government to increase the number of recycling spots across the city, including those for regular recyclables and food waste, as well as for large and oddly sized items.

“It would be best if there was a recycling station every two blocks. That would be more convenient for elderly people,” she added.

Sze said the government should also combat the use of excessive packaging and tackle uncertainties over how garbage illegally disposed of would be handled.

Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades president Simon Wong Ka-wo agreed that shelving the scheme would come as a relief to the industry.

“The waste charging scheme is causing us distress,” he said. “It will increase the workload of employees and bring extra operating costs.”

Wong estimated that larger restaurants would need to fork out an extra HK$8,000 to HK$10,000 every month to buy designated bags and handle waste.

He said smaller ones would need to pay HK$1,000 to HK$2,000 more.

Wong argued that increased costs would further hurt businesses already struggling in the economic downturn.

“The government should re-evaluate the details of the policy and try to obtain a consensus from every stakeholder before proceeding with its implementation, which should be done in a step-by-step approach,” he said.

“The result will only be counterproductive if the government pushes ahead with it when everyone is not ready.”

Grace Li Fai, a care home operator and honorary chairwoman of the Elderly Services Association of Hong Kong, said that the suspension was “not a bad thing” for the industry as they had yet to find a solution to the increase in costs.

She earlier predicted that based on present usage levels, some of the larger care homes would need to pay hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars each year on the designated bags.

Li said food waste and diapers accounted for most rubbish generated by care homes, but the latter was not recyclable and could not be avoided.

“The extra cost will inevitably be transferred to care home residents – we must not forget that wool always comes from the sheep’s back,” she added.

“But no one wants to raise the charges because the occupancy rate at many care homes has dropped to about 80 per cent after the Covid-19 pandemic. Everyone wants to retain their customers.”

Li said she wanted authorities to introduce subsidies for sectors that might struggle to cut back on their waste.

Johnnie Chan Chi-kau, former president of the Hong Kong Association of Property Management Companies, said his sector would welcomed a delay.

But he added the scheme should not be scrapped because legislation had been passed.

“We support the implementation of the scheme in phases,” Chan said.

He added that government-owned premises could take the lead in implementation of the policy.

Chan added that, despite a Legislative Council paper that said some cleaners affected by the trial run had quit over increased workloads, he had not spotted that trend.

“In fact, we have seen an increase in manpower from 30 per cent to 100 per cent has been deployed to help deal with the amount of waste,” Chan said.

Additional reporting by Ambrose Li