Hongkongers in trial run of waste-charging scheme worry over insufficient bins for food scraps, limited opening hours
- Restaurant urges more support for food waste recycling as it is expected to spend as much as HK$6,000 on designated bags each month
- ‘If we can have a food waste recycling bin, we will save a lot of trash bags,’ manager says
An insufficient number of bins for food scraps and their limited operating hours may prompt Hongkongers to throw away the recyclable material as rubbish, participants in a trial run of the city’s waste-charging scheme have said.
The trial, launched on Monday, is expected to gauge the city’s readiness for the official start of the scheme in August, which requires all residents to throw out their rubbish in government-approved bags available in nine sizes at a cost of 30 HK cents (4 US cents) to HK$11. An HK$11 special label is also available for large or oddly shaped items.
Odi Chan Fung-yee, manager of trial participant Hsin Kuang Banquet Hall in San Po Kong, called for more support for food waste recycling on Tuesday, as the restaurant would have to spend as much as HK$6,000 on the designated bags a month, which was more than their usual expense.
“The existing workflow in our kitchen already separates food waste from other trash … if we can have a food waste recycling bin, we will save a lot of trash bags,” she told a radio programme.
“Our manpower does not allow us to deliver the food waste to [public] recycling spots, they may not be willing to do so either.”
Chan was also concerned that they needed to use more bags, as they could only use 70 per cent of the capacity of each bag to ensure it could be tied up perfectly as required by the government, saying “the cost would be much higher that way”.
Fourteen locations were involved in the soft launch: one government building, two public housing estates, three private residential buildings, two care homes, two shopping centres and four eateries.
Genius Court, a private residential estate in Kowloon City which has 140 households, also took part in the pilot scheme.
Due to the lack of food waste recycling bins in the area, the Environmental Protection Department sends a food waste collection truck to the neighbourhood, providing services from 7.30pm to 9.30pm every day.
Ng Po-keung, a district councillor for Kowloon City, said residents hoped the government could extend the operating hours of the collection service, so they did not need to rush downstairs.
“They need more recycling spots for food waste, this is a large district and some other residents may need to walk seven to eight blocks to reach the truck.”
Ng added that some residents were still clueless about the trial run.
“They do have a property management company, but they do not know where to buy the bags, how much they cost, how the company would carry out its duty and whether there would be extra cost incurred. They have no clue.”
Lawmaker Frankie Ngan Man-yu, who visited participant Kato Home for the Elderly in Tuen Mun, said the facility was trying to cut food waste as well, adding medical waste such as diapers, wound dressings and masks could hardly be recycled.
Ngan said that while a refuse collection point that also came with a food waste bin was within a 10-minute walking distance, residents were unlikely to visit the recycling station that was 30 minutes away.
Sze Lai-shan, deputy director of the Society for Community Organisation, said some residents of the two “three-nil” buildings participating in the trial run chose to use their own bags instead of the designated ones on Monday as they were still confused. “Three-nil” buildings are those that lack property maintenance companies, owners’ corporations and residents’ organisations.
“There’s no way to monitor the situation if they do not have a cleaner and are taking their trash out on their own,” Sze said. “I am not sure what the government wants to find out.”
In response to an inquiry from lawmakers in January, the Environment and Ecology Bureau said Hong Kong had 449 public food waste bins across the city. Sha Tin had 62 bins, more than any other district.
But no food waste bins were available at private housing estates in Central and Western, Southern, Sham Shui Po and Tai Po districts. There were none in Wan Chai and Yau Tsim Mong.
The Environmental Protection Department earlier said it was working to install more than 700 bins in all 213 public rental housing estates by August, covering a third of households.
In a scheme targeting private housing estates that began last December, there were only 73 responses as of February 16 out of 1,000 households invited to start recycling their food waste.
Out of 3,000 restaurants invited to use food waste collection points set up at 49 refuse stations, only 11 per cent did so in February.
