Pro-establishment lawmaker Rebecca Chan has urged the government to postpone the waste charging scheme for a second time, citing a survey conducted by the legislator which showed a large percentage of interviewees supported a delay.
The online survey, conducted from April 30 to May 6, collected 959 effective responses. Chan said at a press conference on Thursday that, while 58 per cent of people supported recycling and waste reduction, 78.1 per cent said they “agreed” or “highly agreed” to postpone the official roll-out of the waste tax.
The waste tax, a policy to encourage recycling by asking people to pay-as-they-dispose, was first proposed in 2005 by the government.
The bill was introduced to the legislature in 2014 and passed in 2021, when 37 pro-establishment legislators voted for it. Only opposition lawmaker Cheng Chung-tai voted against.
The government had announced the policy would be implemented on April 1, but it later postponed the roll-out. Instead, a trial-run across 14 locations was launched starting from April 1, though the government’s own environmental department was exempt.
Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk said in early May that “many problems” had emerged from the pilot scheme and that the authorities will review the programme by the end of May.
Meanwhile, the pro-Beijing camp began criticising the scheme in early April. A pro-Beijing heavyweight said on April 8 that authorities should halt or delay the policy as it was originally proposed by the “radical opposition” and was “mission impossible.”
On Thursday, Chan said results of the survey implied that the government should better promote the policy, as 54 per cent of interviewees said they were not familiar with the waste tax.
Among all interviewees, 68 per cent lived in private residential estates or subsidised-sale housing while around 20 per cent lived in public housing estates.
For most residents, the scheme will mean buying government-authorised rubbish bags, which are available in nine sizes from three to 100 litres, with each litre costing HK$0.11. Under the scheme, a household throwing out one 10 litre bag per day would pay about HK$33 a month to dispose of domestic waste.
In 2022, the disposal rate of municipal solid waste in Hong Kong was 1.51 kilograms per person, per day, according to the Environmental Protection Department.
Who disapproves?
According to an online survey conducted by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) , which interviewed 1,812 people in April, fewer than 30 per cent of people support the waste tax policy, without consideration for the timing of its implementation.
Among people across the political spectrum, pro-establishment supporters saw the highest rate of disapproval of the policy, with 63 per cent against the policy. 27 per cent supported the policy, whilst others stated “half half” or “not sure.”
Meanwhile, 50 per cent of people who belong to pro-democracy camp were against the policy.
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