“The government is clearly not serious
about cleaning up the environment in
Hong Kong.”
Lydia Chan (2)
Cindy Fong (7)
• Objective
To find out Hong Kong government’s
seriousness in cleaning up Hong Kong’s
environment.
Do you think Hong Kong is clean enough?
Major pollution problems in Hong Kong:
Land pollution
Land pollution
Current situation:
How serious the problem of solid waste is
Types of Solid Waste Disposed of at Landfills in 2005
Summary of the major types of solid waste disposed
of at waste facilities 1986 - 1998 (from EPD)
Domestic waste carries the largest percentage of solid waste disposed of at
landfills in 2005. However, this trend has been started since twenty years ago.
According to figures from Friends of the Earth.
Every day, the community of Hong Kong disposes
about 17,900 tonnes of solid wastes which 7,500
tonnes are domestic waste.
Domestic waste are wastes produced
by household, daily activities in
institutional premises and refuse
collected from public cleansing
services
Number of landfills in Hong Kong: 3
Total capacity of these three landfills:135 million cubic metres
South East New Territories
West New Territories
North East New Territories
Per Capita Disposal Rates of Municipal Solid Waste and Domestic Waste in 1991-2005
If population increases, per
capita level of domestic waste
increases…
The remaining landfill space
will cater for 6 to years only if
the situation continues
Findings
Government’s policy 1:
Source Separation of Domestic Waste
Waste Recycling Campaign in Housing Estates
A. Series of policies made by the Hong Kong
government_1
• Name: Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) (A trial scheme)
• Duration: Three months
• Content:
– Residents will use designated bags for disposing non-recyclable domestic
waste and will use “food waste bags” to separate domestic waste from
food waste
• Comments:
– The wastes collected in the programme were sent to landfills also
– The process before seemed to be meaningless and this trial program
seemed not well-planned
Government’s policy 2:
Supporting the No Plastic Bag Day
A. Series of policies made by the Hong Kong
government_2
• Name: No Plastic Bag Day (supported by the government financially)
• Duration: The first Tuesday of each month
• Content:
– Consumers are encouraged to bring their own shopping bags or to donate
$0.5 for each plastic bag they ask for on that day
• Comments:
– Encouraged citizens to bring their own bags and reduce the number of
plastic bags.
– It increased the awareness of using less plastic bag as to protect the
environment.
– Idea of No Plastic Bag Day should be expanded so that the number of
plastic bags disposed in landfills can be further reduced.
Government’s policy 3:
Fixed penalty of $1500 for Littering
A. Series of policies made by the Hong Kong
government_3
•
Name: A fixed penalty of $1500 for Littering
•
Duration: Started from 24th June 2003
•
Content:
– Anyone who commits such offers as littering, spitting, unauthorized
display of bills and posters, or fouling of streets by dog faeces in public
places in Hong Kong shall be liable to a fixed penalty of HK$1,500.
– Seven departments of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
government are responsible for enforcing this fixed penalty system.
•
Comments:
– An average of 2000 fixed penalty notices is given to citizens each month.
In certain extent, this policy is effective in deterrent citizens not to throw
rubbish on the streets.
– the amount of rubbish on streets is still in a great number
– citizens would repeat in committing the policy, indicating the enforcement
was not enough.
– some citizens are uncooperative with the enforcement officers.
– the government may employ more enforcement officers to enhance the
effectiveness of this policy.
B. Cooperation between internal departments of the
Environmental Protection Department
• Even though policies are made and facilities are
developed, without education, desirable results cannot
be achieved
• Use education as a means to arouse citizens’ awareness
of environmental protection
• Citizens would not have the initiative to cooperate with
government’s policies without knowing the reason for
protecting the environment.
C. Successful measures carried out by
the overseas governments
1/ Taiwan
• Make use of kitchen wastes in compost or change them
into organic soil to be resold later
-> similar measures will be suitable in Hong Kong
• The Taipei government requires all households to
separate wastes into different plastic bags every day
->those who produce more waste have to buy larger plastic
bag of higher price to encourages citizens to produce
less waste.
C. Successful measures carried out by
the overseas governments
2/ Singapore
• “National Recycling Programme”
-> To provide residents in HDB flats and landed estates
with recycling services
-> Recycling rate reached a new high of 51% in 2006, up
from 40% in 2000.
-> Waste disposed off in Singapore has decreased from
a peak of 7,600 tons per day in 2000 to 7,000 tons per
day in 2006.
Recommendations
1. Better education
• A long term solution to help increasing the
awareness of pubic
• To teach public and the younger generation
about the appropriate attitude in consuming
resources and changes their perceptions
• To promote the needs and advantages in
keeping Hong Kong clean
2. Better cooperation between
government departments
• To increase effectiveness and effeminacy
in carrying out policies or organizing
campaigns.
3. Better cooperation between the
government and green groups
• To share their points of view towards policies and include
different opinions
the policies can be more comprehensive and fulfill the humanoriented principle
• To organize activities or campaigns together (e.g. No
Plastic Bag Day )
 achieve the purpose of raising the awareness of the public in
cleaning Hong Kong
4. Legislation
• To improve situation in short term
 Citizens change behaviours to avoid being punished
 Effective in lessening the impact of pollution on the environment
• Easier for the government to carry out more strategies related to
environmental protection
 Necessary for the citizens to contribute their supports and efforts
 Impossible to protect the environment just with the policies carried out by
the government.
Conclusion
• Hong Kong government is passive and conservative in
carrying measures to solve the problem of land pollution
in Hong Kong.
not active in promoting the idea of environmental
protection among citizens
->Advertisements are not frequent and lead to failure of
campaigns.
hesitant to have measures that have great influence on
the current situation because of the pressure that it may
be blamed or criticized by citizens
->not willing to take the lead and make great changes.
Conclusion
willing to make Hong Kong a better place to live in and is
willing to clean it up,
->but, policies or campaigns are not as effective as
expected due to problems in cooperation between
internal departments of the Environmental Protection
Department, (e.g., the trial Municipal Solid Waste
program )
government can take the successful measures which are
carried out by other countries as a reference
-> can improve the situation and alleviate the problems by
putting more efforts and resources in carrying out
measures and promoting the proper attitude about
treating waste among the public.
Discussion
Discussion Questions
1. What can the students do to help to keep Hong Kong
clean?
2. If the Municipal Solid Waste Scheme is carried out in
Hong Kong, do you think that it is an effective way?
Please explain.
3. Suggest reasons why environmental problems exist in
Hong Kong.
4. Why is it necessary to protect our environment?
5. Apart from land pollution, how do you feel about the
other pollution problems in Hong Kong?