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Opinion | Only solution to waste-charging scheme doubts is intensive public education
- Daily TV broadcasts giving advice on each category of waste would help ensure everyone is well prepared ahead of the full roll-out of the scheme
- To delay again after one high-profile postponement would make the government look indecisive
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Hong Kong may be past the point of no return with respect to the introduction of its charging scheme for domestic waste. But are we ready?
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The Municipal Solid Waste Charging Scheme (as the plan is formally known) had been due to start on April 1, but the launch was delayed for four months to allow time for a trial run and some further fine-tuning.
Under the scheme, everything not being recycled has to be disposed of in designated bags. These come in nine sizes, which householders must buy in advance. The underlying philosophy is that this process will minimise waste disposal by encouraging recycling.
The imminence of the start date has forced me to really focus on the subject for the first time, and brought home the extent of things I do not know. So I have questions, but also some suggestions of how they might best be answered.
Start with recycling. We are a major newspaper-consuming household (three Chinese and four English per day, plus some weekly magazines). Up to now, we have put all we wished to discard into white plastic bags and arranged for them to be taken down to the rubbish collection area on the ground floor, from where they disappear smoothly, presumably to be recycled.
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Unless otherwise directed, I intend to continue to use ordinary bags in this process. Can someone confirm that recyclers are able to deal with colour supplements and magazines as well as ordinary newspapers?
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