Hong Kong should delay waste-charging scheme until spring to prevent garbage build-up over Christmas, Lunar New Year breaks: industry group

Hong Kong should wait until spring to introduce a waste-charging scheme as the city does not have enough sanitation workers to handle an expected peak in demand over the Christmas and Lunar New Year holidays, an industry group has said.

Authorities plan to introduce an 11 HK cent (US$0.01) charge for government-designated garbage bags at the end of the year, after the Legislative Council passed an amendment to the Waste Disposal Ordinance in 2021.

The Environmental Services Contractors Alliance on Friday said it did not have the manpower or time to prepare for the scheme's intended launch in December.

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"The government has not publicised or educated the public on any specific implementation models regarding garbage collection since the legislation passed in 2021," the group said. "If the government insists on implementing it by the end of 2023, we are afraid we will be unable to cooperate, thus creating confusion."

The alliance represents seven business groups and about 200 companies, which cover services such as recycling and pest control.

The amount of garbage would "increase exponentially" during the winter holiday season, while the Lunar New Year break would create a manpower crunch as more than 30 per cent of sanitation workers would be on leave, the industry group said.

"It would be mission impossible for the industry to recruit additional manpower to handle work related to the garbage levy during this period," it said.

The levy is part of a raft of measures proposed by environmental authorities to help reduce the amount of waste generated by households.

In 2021, the city handled 4.15 million tonnes of municipal solid waste, 70 per cent of which was sent to landfills.

Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan has repeatedly said authorities were confident the scheme could be rolled out by the end of 2023. The city had already announced an 18-month transition period to prepare the way.

A source familiar with the situation said the Legislative Council had not set a definitive launch date for the government to follow.

Alliance spokesman Raymond Yau Pui-lam said the industry would have to learn a new waste management model, which would take time. "At least we should wait until April when people return to work," he added.

The government has already faced some setbacks ahead of the launch, such as the Environmental Protection Department last November withdrawing the tender for the new bags after the suggested prices were "far beyond" the government's expectations. A retender was later launched in March and ended two months later.

A spokeswoman on Friday said the department had received 45 bids during the retender.

"We have completed the preliminary tender review and will submit the tender review report to the relevant department for final approval," she said. "We expect to award all contracts in July or August 2023, with a view to starting the production of designated bags and designated labels in the third quarter of this year.

"To ensure that the designated bag has sufficient storage capacity to meet the demand, we have required the designated bag manufacturer and logistics contractor to have sufficient capacity to meet the additional demand in the contract."

Legco's environmental affairs panel is also expected to discuss the scheme next Friday, with officials expected to explain how it will be introduced.

The scheme's launch will start off with a six-month adoption period, during which authorities will distribute bags for free to 1.05 million households in public flats, rural areas and residential blocks with no owners' corporations.

Panel chairwoman Elizabeth Quat said it was important that all parties, including cleaning and property management companies, were on the same page before the initiative began.

Edwin Lau Che-feng, executive director of environmental group Green Earth, said some of the concerns raised by the alliance were valid and showed a lack of communication between the government and its partners in the scheme.

Greenpeace campaigner Leanne Tam Wing-lam urged authorities to set a precise start date. "People are prone to procrastination. If the government can't give the public a date, no one will care about the scheme," she said.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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