Sheepish on Charging for Garbage in HK

Residents will be charged for their garbage in August now

Hong Kong was going to finally implement its municipal waste-charging scheme on April 1, but apparently the public is still unsure about how it all works and so it will be delayed by another four months to August.

The public's lack of understanding is apparently the fault of the Environment Bureau and Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has asked the bureau to work harder on how to educate people on how to dispose of their waste properly.

Shouldn't that have been done ages ago? Or did the bureau -- and by extension the government -- assume everyone knows what they're supposed to do?

There are nine different sized garbage bags

From August, Hong Kong residents can't just throw their garbage into random plastic bags -- they must use designated ones that they can buy at supermarkets, convenience stores and pharmacies. They come in nine different sizes and the cost of these bags will pay for handling the trash in the landfill.

The scheme is in the hopes that people will find it expensive to pay for their trash to be processed so they will be incentivised to reduce their waste by recycling paper, plastic, and glass, or even do the dirty deed of separating their food waste and disposing of it in a special food waste bin.

But does the government have enough capacity to handle so much recycling? And does the general public know what can and cannot be recycled? 

The current state of awareness of separating waste is horrendous just by looking at the garbage boxes on the street with several different slots for paper, plastic and metal. Many people just randomly throw their garbage into any slot! More education should have been done ages ago.

Do people even know how to use this properly?

Nevertheless the fact that the new garbage scheme will be delayed another four months is pathetic -- why not start it anyway in residential areas because there is a six-month grace period? People will learn very quickly on how to use the bags and reduce their waste by recycling. There will be growing pains, but people learn by doing.

For restaurants there has to be a way for them to collect and dispose of it efficiently. Simon Wong is the honorary chairman of the Institute of Dining Professionals and says sorting out food waste means restaurants will have to hire more staff to do this when it's already hard enough to find dishwashers.

There is also the valid concern about preventing mosquitoes and food odours when dealing with food waste.

Restaurants don't have the time or energy to take out food waste and dispose of it elsewhere. The government has to make it easy for them to do this.

Sadly it seems the officials who thought of this waste-charging scheme don't have any idea how to put this in practice because they don't even do this at home! Someone else takes out the garbage for them so they have no inkling of what is involved. Have they ever separated their garbage and taken it to recycling spots? If only they knew... 

Palm Springs: La Qinta Art Saturday

Strolling down the main street to check out the art fair

On Saturday we visited La Qinta, a city in Palm Springs, in between Indian Wells and Indio.

It was originally an agricultural town in the late 19th century, and is home to some 40,000 residents. It is best known for its golf course, La Qinta Resort and Club which dates back to 1926, and was where director Frank Capra wrote the screenplay for Lost Horizon.

Colourful glass sculptures for sale

As it was the weekend, it just so happened there was an outdoor art fair there so we parked the car and took a stroll along Main Street that was closed off for pedestrians.

Many people brought their dogs on leashes as they walked from stall to stall. Vendors were selling jewellery, ceramics, glass pieces, and large canvas paintings. We snagged a beautiful silver chain bracelet that would have cost more in a jewellery store.

The atmosphere was very laid-back and there was a musician busking and selling his CDs too. One stall sold miniatures of well-known landmarks like the giant pink elephant sign "Rancho Super Car Wash", and "Bombay Drive-In" complete with retro-looking cars.

Meanwhile many of the colourful paintings were inspired by the mountains and the dessert landscapes. One would need a very large wall to hang them on!

Iron bark eucalyptus with inlaid turqoise, malachite

One of the most beautiful things we saw was wood carved into large bowls and polished. Picking them up they are not heavy, and make for a stunning highlight piece on a coffee table or dining table. They only start at US$300...!

More Bureaucracy to Recycle Glass

Only a tiny fraction of the glass bottles in HK are recycled

The government is making glass recycling more complicated than it needs to be.

It has now announced that from May 1, glass bottle suppliers must pay a recycling levy and register with the government before distributing their products.

Overflowing bins are not emptied

Suppliers will have to pay a HK0.98 levy for every one-litre bottle they distribute in the city, and register with the Environmental Protection Department before distributing them in Hong Kong.

The department added suppliers must submit returns and annual audit reports, and keep records related to the returns.

So far 900 suppliers have applied for the scheme as of late April, and two granted exemptions because they already have their own system of collecting and treating glass containers.

Why is the government making glass recycling so difficult with all this extra paper work? 

And when it refers to glass suppliers, does that mean the manufacturers of glass bottles and not say, wine companies selling wines or beer companies selling beers?

Why not focus on the task at hand -- recycling as much glass as possible? There's an NGO called Green Glass Green that tries to pick up as many glass bottles as they can, giving bins to businesses to put their glass bottles in and are then collected regularly.

Make recycling easier in HK

But that is just one group. And shouldn't the government encourage users to return bottles to stores and getting a small refund? At least a few main glass collection points around the city? Surely that wouldn't be difficult to set up near garbage disposal sites? Who doesn't want extra money in their pocket? That alone is incentive enough.

The bigger question is why the government is so behind when it comes to recycling. It's a no brainer.