Hong Kong businesses and residents have called for more support for recycling as the city began a trial run of its waste charging scheme, with one restaurant involved in the pilot phase saying it expected to spend an additional HK$6,000 per month once the measure is officially introduced.
Originally scheduled to launch on Monday, Hong Kong postponed the full implementation of the already-delayed waste tax scheme in January. While the official roll-out date was pushed to August 1, a trial run began on Monday at 14 premises across the city.
For the duration of the trial period, merchants and residents at the 14 places – which include government buildings, public and private housing estates, shopping malls, residential care homes, restaurants, and buildings without property managers or residential organisations – will receive designated rubbish bags for free.
By handing out the bags for free, the government seeks to test how well Hongkongers understand the scheme, which has been designed to reduce domestic waste by requiring residents to dispose of rubbish using only designated bags.
The manager of a restaurant involved in the pilot scheme, who gave her surname as Chan, told RTHK on Tuesday morning that based on her experience of running the trial on Monday, she expected the restaurant to use at least two 660-litre waste bags and two 240-litre waste bags per day.
“That will cost around HK$6,000 per month [once the scheme is officially launched],” Chan said in Cantonese. “We can’t transfer those costs to customers. Business is quite slow at the moment and it will make things worse if we increase the price.”
Difficulties of recycling
To reduce the amount of waste it disposed of, Chan said the restaurant had started recycling glass bottles and cans, but that doing so required more manpower. Restaurant staff has also tried to recycle food waste, but had found it difficult as there were no food waste collection bins nearby.
With the introduction of the waste tax, concern about the availability of recycling facilities in the city has grown. According to the Environmental Protection Department, as of January 2024, there were 449 smart bins at public and private housing estates for the collection of food waste.
However, there were rarely any recycling facilities at residential buildings without property management.
Local resident Chan told RTHK in Cantonese that Hong Kong should not roll out a waste charging scheme before people had developed a recycling habit. “[Hongkongers] do not have habits for recycling, and [the government] introduces charges for waste. That places a burden people and depletes their resources,” he said.
‘Three-nil’ buildings
Two “three-nil buildings” have been included in the waste charging scheme’s trial run, both of them located in Sham Shui Po. “Three-nil” refers to apartment blocks that do not have any form of residential organisation or property management, often resulting in poor hygiene management.
Sze Lai Shan, a social worker in Sham Shui Po and the deputy directory of Society for Community Organization, told RTHK that residents of the two buildings had not been clearly briefed before the pilot scheme rolled out.
Some residents had not received the designated waste bags before Monday, Sze added. “They were confused whether they should use other bags to dispose of their waste. Will they violate the law if they do?” Sze said in Cantonese.
“Residents [in the two buildings of the pilot scheme] are not very clear about waste charging scheme. The government should have more communication with the residents, to understand their difficulties to implement waste charge, for example, how they will dispose of large items,” Sze said.
The social worker urged authorities to set up more recycling facilities to support three-nil buildings.
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