Green Groups Still Have Misgivings About Waste Plan

Green groups said the lack of a clear start date for the city's solid waste disposal scheme, which was endorsed by Legco on Thursday, is a cause for concern.

The government said it expects it will be another 18 months before people have to start paying for special bags to throw their rubbish away in, during which preparation work will be done including boosting recycling facilities and promoting the scheme.

"They've changed the wording from a preparation period from 12 to 18 months to at least 18 months. So potentially, it could be lengthened further in the next Legco," said Edmond Lau, Green Earth's senior project officer.

"Second, after the preparation period, they have an enactment date, but it is not determined now but in the future environmental affairs panel of the Legislative Council. Then it could another way (to delay the scheme)."

Leanne Tam, Greenpeace's project manager, echoed those views. Tam said in a statement that lawmakers "should not procrastinate and should confirm the enactment date of the bill immediately" as Hong Kong lags behind other countries in the matter.

Lau also spoke out against a decision not to charge the catering sector for the food waste it generates.

"The Legislative Council lawmakers are benefiting the food and beverage industry instead of everyone in Hong Kong, because they are providing free collection of food waste to all the food and beverage premises," he said.

But a catering sector representative, Simon Wong of the Federation of Restaurants, disagrees with Lau's assertion.

"You see that Hong Kong every day would dump about 3,600 metric tonnes of food waste in the landfill and the catering industry (accounts for) about one-third of the waste. Other than the catering industry, the other industries don't have that kind of food waste quantity generated per day. So, I won't say that is unfair for other industries as they don't generate so much waste," Wong said.