Clarification goes to waste over street rubbish bins

People can dispose of "a small amount" of garbage in street rubbish bins but they have to interpret the definition of what constitutes "a small amount" themselves, environmental officials said.

With the waste charging scheme taking effect on April 1, Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan addressed 12 common questions that the public had in a blog post on Tuesday.

One was whether people needed to use designated bags for small personal items - tissue papers, lunch boxes and popsicle sticks - they want to throw away outdoors.

Tse said people could put personal garbage into street bins but that they should not dispose of household waste in this manner.

But he did not define how much garbage was considered as "a small amount."

The assistant director of environmental protection, Theresa Wu King-yan, said: "I cannot answer this hypothetical question."

She added: "It would be illegal if people put rubbish beside bins as they would be bringing rubbish when the bins are already full and might face a penalty of HK$3,000."

Tse told Legislative Council members yesterday that the EPD's Green Outreach has been promoting the waste charging scheme to the public since mid-August.

By the end of last month, it had carried out 900 promotional activities, attracting over 90,000 participants, with the promotions covering estates and residential buildings that house 60 percent of the population.

By the end of last month, the EPD had held 52 briefings for building organizations to 6,000 stakeholders, including the property management trade, cleaning companies and owners' corporations.

Tse on Tuesday said property management companies would not be responsible for household garbage but would have to "clean up the mess" by collecting rubbish that had not been properly disposed of.

Wan Chai councilor Peggy Lee Pik-yee said she has received more calls from confused residents after Tse's comment.

She said EPD officials had said in district council meetings that owners' corporations should purchase large-size designated bags to handle waste that residents had disposed of without using designated bags.

But Lee said many owners' corporations did not think they should not have to pay for those who did not abide by the law.

Therefore, many such corporations are still struggling and exploring how to comply with the law.

Greenpeace project officer Leanne Tam Wing-lam said there is still a gap between public understanding of the measures and the government's publicity efforts.

"Although industry insiders believe the government has formulated a number of guidelines, people still do not understand them or how to follow them," she said.

"We do not expect the policy to be perfect in the first place, but the government should establish communication or inquiry channels. Then people would know how to handle problems that arise in the process."