Green practice blooms over festive plants

Households are being reminded to remove decorations and take their peach blossom plants out of pots before disposing of them at designated recycling points.

The government has initiated a collection program for peach blossom trees, which will continue until Sunday.

Residents can bring peach blossom bushes under two meters in height to district collection points, including 11 Green@Community recycling stations, 37 public refuse collection points and six outlying islands transfer facilities.

However, they have to remove all decorations such as fai chun and tape, and take the bushes out of pots first.

There have been mixed reactions regarding the recycling process for peach blossoms.

A man, Lam, said "the procedure to peach blossoms is too troublesome."

He visited a collection point in Kwun Tong yesterday but only to throw away gift boxes, red packets and other packaging received during the Lunar New Year holiday. "People might refuse to recycle peach blossoms due to the inconvenience and opt instead to dispose of them at regular refuse stations," Lam said.

Another, Kong, suggested the recycling be expanded to include other common festival plants such as narcissus and tangerine growths.

Kong believed that providing set collection points would help reduce the disposal of popular festival flowers and bushes in landfills. "Many people throw away these plants after the Lunar New Year every year, and if there were designated places, it would reduce the amount of plants being dumped as garbage."

He suggested that more people would be encouraged to recycle festival plants if recycling was extended to a wider variety of plants,making the approach more comprehensive.

The Environmental Protection Department, on its website, said the public is "encouraged to replant small potted plants such as tangerine trees and keep festival decorations for reuse to help reduce waste and conserve resources."

It said people who recycle peach blossoms at the 11 recycling stations would receive e-certificates and limited gifts as incentives.

For those who are unable to access the district collection points, a central collection point at YPark in Tsang Tsui, Tuen Mun, will also collect peach blossom plants without any height limitations from individuals, as well as commercial and industrial organizations, until March 2.

This additional collection point aims to accommodate those who may have larger or more numerous peach blossoms to dispose of.