- Environmental Protection Department says 100 public housing complexes will get additional receptacles by February 10; 30 private estates to get another 100
- Most private housing properties are unaware of a government-funded initiative that provides free installation and maintenance of smart food waste bins
A smart food waste recycling bin is seen installed in Ping Shek Estate, Choi Hung. Authorities have urged the government to widen the distribution of these bins. Photo: Sun YeungHong Kong authorities have been urged by lawmakers and a scholar to widen the distribution of collection bins for food scraps in the city. The goal should be to cover all districts and residential estates, as the government ramps up publicity over a waste-charging scheme postponed amid public confusion.
Legislator Edward Leung Hei on Thursday called for more food waste collection bins to be rolled out after the Environmental Protection Department said the day before that additional ones would be installed at all public housing estates this year.
“I believe most residents living in private housing have not seen food waste recycling bins,” he told a radio programme.
The department said 100 public housing estates would welcome the first batch before February 10, ahead of the waste-charging scheme’s introduction on August 1.
Authorities also aimed to install another 100 bins at 30 private housing estates.
But Leung said the government has the means to speed up the proposal.
“It is not ideal that only 30 private estates will have the bins installed by Lunar New Year in February,” he said. “There should be better recycling facilities to go along with the launch of the waste-charging scheme, otherwise it will only create inconvenience for people.”
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Leung added that most owners’ corporations in private housing estates he visited were unaware of a government-funded initiative, which began in December last year, providing free installation and maintenance of smart food waste bins. An owners’ corporation is an independent body overseeing common areas of a residential building.
Authorities procure food waste bins and cover the related rental expenses, including repair and maintenance fees as part of the initiative. One smart bin is allocated for every 500 households, while a maximum of 20 bins can be granted to a private housing estate.
Leung urged the government to take “proactive steps” to promote the offer, noting that six districts, including Wan Chai, Central and Western, and Southern, did not currently have official food recycling bins.
Leung said residents in those districts had to travel to the nearest Green@Community facility to do their recycling, but lawmaker Judy Chan Kapui pointed out that food waste recycling was not always available even at those stations.
Chan, a former district council member, said none of the private estates in Southern district had applied for government funds for setting up the bins, as some large developments had been self-operating their own rewards system to encourage recycling.
She said the fund, which requires estates to have at least 1,000 flats, had excluded smaller estates.
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“I suggest the Home Affairs Department coordinate with these small estates and make a bundle application if possible,” she said on the same radio programme.
Professor Jonathan Wong Woon-chung, director of Hong Kong Organic Resource Centre, said the government should be mindful of the cost of putting up many smart recycling bins, although it was still in a position to set up a better recycling system for residents.
“In this phase, the government should initiate a system that outlines different recycling options for estates,” he said, adding that ones that could not afford to buy smart recycling bins could compromise by using, for example, a sealed bin for food waste collection.
The professor emphasised the need of extending the allocation of recycling bins in every estate, as residents might feel more motivated to recycle if it was practical and on their doorstep.