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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
The Democratic Party feels that to achieve the targets of educating the public, we must first of all provide opportunities for wide participation including a scheme for segregation of household waste and a network of material recovery points. This way, members of the public can participate and understand their role in society. It helps to enhance individual experience in environmental protection and to nurture a sense of responsibility and a code of ethics for environmental protection. It does much more than staying put at the level of chanting slogans. We know that segregation and recovery of waste is not yet a popular but rather a strange concept to many people in Hong Kong.
Apart from providing chances of participation, we should also introduce economic incentives such as the setting up of material acquisition centres. On the one hand, such centres increase the recovery rate, on the other, they make the public more aware of how to handle waste recovery in their daily lives and serve the purpose of inspiring an imperceptible but positive influence.
The Democratic Party is in full support of the Waste Reduction Study Reports in promoting waste recovery and recycling. We suggest that the Government should amend the Buildings Ordinance requiring the reservation of spaces in building designs. I hope the Urban Council can take a leading role by implementing the Priority Purchase Scheme internally, improving the Green Manager plan and urging the Government to step up education on environmental protection as soon as possible.
Mr. Chairman, I so move.
MR. CHAN KWOK-LEUNG (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, I second the motion.
Ms. GRACE AU YUK-HAN (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, in recent years, under the active promotion of green groups, Hong Kong people have seen a lot of changes in this connection and the Government as well as other organizations have implemented measures to realize the target of environmental protection through basic changes to the daily habits of our people. However, if we look at the fast food culture of Hong Kong people, their habit of throwing away what they have used is still deep-rooted. We obviously cannot change the wasteful habit of our people overnight. So, I think this is the reason why past campaigns for environmental protection have little effect.
Environmental protection is clearly a long-term task. The Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL) thinks the Government should study various ways to get across the message of environmental protection to our everyday life. At the meeting of the Public Health Select Committee last week, Members agreed to set up a working group to actively pursue this important task.
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