environmenthealth
An NGO serving Hong Kong’s low-income residents has urged the government to delay the enforcement of a controversial waste charging scheme among disadvantaged tenants of “cage homes,” subdivided units and those in “three-nil” buildings. “Three-nil” buildings are generally those which lack an owners’ company, residents’ organisation or property management firm to manage the building. Alongside eight residents, the Society for Community Organisation (SoCO) went to the Legislative Council (LegCO) on Tuesday to lodge a complaint and spoke of residents’ concerns about the upcoming waste charging sc...
Hong Kong Free Press
A government advisory body has conditionally approved a report on the environmental impact of building a technology hub near the city’s border with mainland China, despite criticism from green groups. The Advisory Council on the Environment (ACE), a government-appointed body, on Monday unanimously endorsed the government’s environmental impact assessment for the San Tin Technopole. See also: What is Hong Kong’s San Tin Technopole and why is the planned tech hub controversial? The report was submitted by the Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD). The planned tech hub will cover 62...
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong restaurants have been slow to switch to eco-friendly alternatives following the single-use plastics ban enacted on Monday, with many still using disposables. Single-use plastics including straws and utensils are forbidden under the ban. Restaurants have a six-month grace period to comply with the new rules, under which the government will not take enforcement actions. As the transition began on Monday, coinciding with Earth Day, chain eateries have been quicker to make the transition than smaller restaurants. Of the eight eateries visited by HKFP, only two had started using paper con...
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong’s Environment and Ecology Bureau is not participating in a trial of the city’s waste charging scheme, saying that the way rubbish was collected from its location in the Central Government Offices made it “not a suitable location.” First suggested by the government in 2005 before becoming law in 2021, the waste charging scheme was in January postponed from its April 1 launch date until August. Environment chief Tse Chin-wan cited public misunderstanding of the policy as the reason. At the time, Tse added that the scheme would be trialled by government offices from April, saying “then ...
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong’s ban on single-use plastics began on Monday, coinciding with Earth Day. A variety of disposable plastic tableware and other plastic products are now prohibited from being sold or taken away. The first six months following the roll-out will be an “adaptation period,” which means the government will not take enforcement action against non-compliant businesses. The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) said in an April briefing session that it will focus on “promotion and education” during this period, and send staff to inspect around 20,000 restaurants and 20,000 retail stores as ...
Hong Kong Free Press
Once again our government appears lost as it contemplates how to manage Hong Kong’s growing mountain of garbage. The logic of the endlessly postponed solid waste charging scheme is clear: if you charge residents to throw rubbish away, they will seek to minimise the charge by sorting it for recycling. Behaviour change. However, critical infrastructure and incentives are missing from the solid waste management scheme. Political leadership that prioritises the issue is also apparently absent. Rather, the government hasembarked on yet another trial to better understand the problems. In Hong Kong s...
Hong Kong Free Press
The Hong Kong government has defended its monthly spending of HK$3.75 million to maintain defunct Covid-19 isolation centres after one legislator described the bill as “shocking.” Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn addressed lawmakers in the Legislative Council on Wednesday as meetings to discuss the financial year’s budget continued. As part of initial questions asked by lawmakers ahead of the meetings, legislator Chan Hoi-yan had asked the Development Bureau how much the city was spending on maintaining the Covid-19 isolation facilities. The Development Bureau said in a written reply ...
Hong Kong Free Press
The Hong Kong government has said it will speed up food waste recycling and set up hundreds more smart bins to collect food waste before August, when the city officially rolls out its delayed waste charging scheme. The Environmental Protection Department said on Tuesday that 700 smart bins for food waste collection would be installed at 213 public housing estates across the city by August. These recycling facilities will serve around one third of Hong Kong’s population, the department added. Currently, some 530 food waste bins have been installed at 150 public housing estates. Hong Kong in Jan...
Hong Kong Free Press
More than 40 per cent of Hong Kong civil servants dismissed over the past five years were sacked over not complying with the city’s vaccination requirements when Covid-19 rules were in place. Out of the 50 dismissal cases as a result of misconduct, 21 were related to violating a policy requiring staff to be vaccinated against Covid-19. From February 2022, at the height of Hong Kong’s fifth and most fatal wave of Covid-19, visitors and staff at government buildings and offices were required to meet specific vaccination requirements unless they had valid medical exemptions. The policy was later ...
Hong Kong Free Press
A pro-Beijing heavyweight has urged the Hong Kong government to halt or postpone its already-delayed waste charging scheme, saying it was originally proposed by the “radical opposition” and calling it “mission impossible.” Lo Man Tuen, vice-chairman of All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, wrote in an opinion piece in Ming Pao on Monday that the first week of the scheme’s trial run had revealed a lot of problems with the scheme, causing it to become a controversial topic. “The controversial waste charging scheme was proposed by radical opposition factions (some of whom are even in...
Hong Kong Free Press
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