Plan to charge households, businesses for rubbish disposal

At least a fifth of the city's waste can be diverted from landfills if refuse charging is widely adopted by 2016, the undersecretary for the environment says.

Making households and businesses pay for rubbish disposal is under serious consideration, Christine Loh Kung-wai said, as the city struggles to reach agreement on landfill extensions and the introduction of incineration.

Loh said waste could be reduced by at least 20 per cent by 2020, assuming a charge was introduced across the board from 2016.

"This is just a very conservative estimate," she told the yesterday. "But we are very serious about this. We will be extremely upset if we are not able to do this."

Next month the Council for Sustainable Development will launch a four-month consultation to gauge views on how to implement waste charging.

The city dumps about three million tonnes of waste a year at the Tuen Mun, Ta Kwu Ling and Tseung Kwan O landfills, which have two to six years to go before they reach capacity. This compares with landfills elsewhere in the world, some of which have about 40 years left.