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HONG KONG Urban COUNCIL
78% of our solid waste come from the service and commercial sectors. Most of these refuse are delivered by private contractors to the landfills, the remaining 22% are collected by the two Municipal Councils and Government departments concerned, and then delivered to the landfills. So we can see that one very important role of the Urban Council is collection of waste. Thus, the Council has the responsibility to urge the Government to reduce the production of solid waste through financial or administrative measures, and to actively examine ways of refuse collection in line with the policy of waste categorisation and recycling.
Hong Kong does not have a definite policy to implement categorisation of solid waste and reduction of solid waste by recycling and reusing. Therefore, the Urban Council should take the lead in implementing the measures for waste categorisation. For example, mobile refuse collection vehicles with sorting function should be acquired which should be stationed at parks and busy streets, especially those in Central District or Nathan Road. Specially designed refuse containers to collect refuse by categories should be placed at temporary refuse collection points. The Department should also work jointly with the Housing Authority and Housing Society to implement categorized waste collection schemes in housing estates with the aim of collecting the major items of refuse, i.e. waste paper, aluminium cans and plastic bottles for categorisation and recycling. The message of waste reduction and recycling can be disseminated through cultural and recreational activities organized by the Urban Council. At present, it seems that few of the cultural and recreational activities organised carry such messages.
Lastly, may I mention the following. In the past, the Urban Council spent lots of money annually in publicity, in particular publicity for the Keep Hong Kong Clean Campaign. Of course, to a certain extent the campaign is a success but the Council has done too little in terms of environmental protection and hence we must come up with some specific plans or trial schemes in order to protect our environment. What is urgently needed is for the Council to urge the Government to formulate and implement a comprehensive set of policy of waste management and also to have a thorough review on the collection of waste. Apart from making plans to achieve waste reduction, efforts should be stepped up to call for support towards the refuse recycling scheme from private firms through publicity, education, research and sponsorship. Therefore, I support Mr. Daniel To's motion as I agree with the basic concept behind the motion.
MR. CHAN KWOK-LEUNG (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, although the Government has clearly set out the '3R' principles on environmental protection- reduction, re-use and recycling of waste in the Waste Management Policy, the implementation of these principles is far from satisfactory. In fact, much of the waste still has economic value and still can be recycled and reused. Mr. Daniel To has spoken on this just now and I shall not repeat the points. We have got quite a steady export market in terms of recycled paper waste, if the Government can expand the trial scheme on paper recycling and promote development of the waste recycling industry, then it can really achieve the aim of environmental protection.
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