Hong Kong will boost recycling, keep waste-charging as safety net: minister

Hong Kong aims to increase the recycling rate by 2 percentage points within the next two years without the help of the controversial waste-charging scheme, which has not been abandoned but merely put “on standby,” the environment minister has said.

Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan told lawmakers on Monday that the government could reintroduce the scheme “when necessary”, but a decline in waste volumes and an uptick in the recycling rate in recent years indicated that current efforts were very effective in achieving the same goal.

Environmentalists, meanwhile, said the “pay-as-you-throw” scheme was an irreplaceable policy capable of driving even more significant changes, urging the government to ride the trend and launch a pilot scheme on its own premises to strengthen public confidence.

Tse said the government’s commitment to promoting waste reduction and recycling and achieving zero landfill by 2035 remained unchanged.

“We are not cancelling the waste-charging scheme. If our efforts yield positive results in the future, perhaps we no longer need the scheme; otherwise, we will need to reconsider deploying the tool of the waste-charging scheme.”

Tse said the government had already fulfilled its duty to heed public opinion, upholding the “result-oriented” principle and effective management in handling the scheme, pledging to continuously step up publicity and education, and enhance the recycling network.