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The Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, today (February 10) called on people to support the Lunar Year End Recycling Campaign when she visited model estates in source separation of domestic waste.
The campaign, launched by the Environmental Protection Department, aims to encourage housing estates to strengthen their waste recovery activities by collecting recyclable and reusable materials, such as waste paper, plastics, metals, books, old clothes, toys, computers, electrical and electronic appliances, and furniture for resale to recyclers or donation to charitable organisations.
The department will open 13 refuse transfer stations for the collection of recyclables from tomorrow to February 17 (Saturday) for the public's convenience. Details of the campaign are available at the department's website at www.epd.gov.hk.
In today's visit, Dr Liao first went to Cheung Wo Court in Kwun Tong to see how the estate modified its refuse rooms to accommodate floor-based source separation facilities.
She then proceeded to Sau Mau Ping Estate to see the progress achieved by the estate management on source separation and waste recycling.
She also went to the Royal Peninsula in Hung Hom to meet with residents who have been participating in the trial scheme on Municipal Solid Waste Charging and listened to their views and comments on the scheme, in particular the design of the designated bags and food waste bags.
The Royal Peninsula is one of the five selected housing estates trying out both "designated bags" for disposal of non-recyclable domestic waste and "food waste bags" to separate food waste from domestic waste.
The trial scheme is to examine the logistical arrangements for waste recovery and disposal in different housing settings for reference in the feasibility study of introducing a variable rate charging scheme, and will end next Wednesday (February 14).
Useful information on the trial scheme will be collected through a questionnaire survey in the coming weeks for analysis by the department.
"I am pleased to see the positive attitude and increasing response from the residents to separate domestic waste at source. Efforts of the residents and estate management in waste reduction and recovery are much appreciated," she said.
As of December, 2006, a total of 490 housing estates with 670,000 households had enrolled in the territory-wide programme on source separation of domestic waste.
Ends/Saturday, February 10, 2007
Issued at HKT 17:25
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