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Opinion | Waste charging delay: how Hong Kong can make it count
- Officials should use the extra time to improve the city’s waste management facilities, such as by expanding the recycling network
- To minimise hiccups once the scheme does kick in, the authorities must strengthen communication and support the most vulnerable people and businesses
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One of Hong Kong’s most heated debates of late has been about the delay, once again, of the plan to charge residents for waste disposal, which was due to start on April 1, but will now largely take effect from August 1. As the scheme will apply to every household and business in the city, it has attracted much attention.
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Waste charging policies have been implemented worldwide and people are never thrilled to have to pay. But that does not mean society should not support Hong Kong’s waste charging scheme – which is badly needed.
The repeated delays to the scheme are undesirable. But, faced with escalating public pressure because of many unresolved issues with the scheme, the authorities had to push it back to calm sentiment.
It has been almost 30 months since the scheme was passed by the Legislative Council. All the preparation work should have been completed, including public briefings and promotions to develop a reasonable level of understanding among residents, with any queries, whether raised through radio phone-in programmes or at public briefing sessions, settled.
Unfortunately, that is not the case. One radio listener recently phoned in to say that she usually disposed of her takeaway food and drink containers in a little plastic bag, and that when the waste charges take effect, she would have to wrap this in a designated bag, a double bagging that she considered more environmentally unfriendly.
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This view, in a way, reflects the level of environmental awareness of some Hongkongers. It leads to deeper questions around why we have yet to stop using disposable food containers or switched to reusables for takeaways. If we had done so, there would be no problem over the disposal of single-use tableware – which so many Hongkongers seem addicted to.
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Can Hong Kong’s consumers say ‘no’ to plastic?
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