“I have no idea how the scheme will be executed here,” he said. “The government says it will send outreach teams to ‘three-nil’ buildings to explain the plan, but I’ve never seen them, let alone care teams and district councillors.”
Under scheme, recently postponed from April to August, residents will be required to buy government-approved plastic bags, available in nine sizes, for 11 HK cents (1.4 US cents) a litre.
As Hongkongers prepare for the impending policy in different ways, many have urged the government to use the extra time to improve public education, strengthen recycling networks and listen to their perspectives to address the citywide confusion.
The 3,100 “three-nil” buildings in the city, which do not have property maintenance companies, owners’ corporations or residents’ organisations, have become a hot potato issue because most of them lack proper waste-handling systems.
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Critics and lawmakers have expressed concerns over enforcement challenges in such buildings, saying they could become hotspots for illegal disposal.
The government earlier pledged to distribute free designated plastic bags for six months from August to residents in three-nil buildings, public rental estates and rural areas to help them adjust to the scheme.
“It’s very convenient to dispose of your trash in Hong Kong. When such a privilege is taken away, people are likely to find other convenient ways,” Wong said.
At Wong’s six-decade-old, nine-storey building, which has no lifts or surveillance cameras, residents typically throw their rubbish in bins near staircases before it is collected by a private cleaner every night.
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But a check by the Post found that rubbish bags were not tied up properly and left on the ground, and some waste was not contained in a bag.
“Who would bear the responsibility for that garbage when the new rule takes effect?” Wong said. “The government may need to go from door-to-door, and at the right time, to see it for themselves and show us how it can be done.”
Wong, who regularly disposed of his waste at recycling stations, said he hoped the government would expand the availability of food-waste recycling bins, as the nearest one was a 15-minute uphill walk away from him.
As of mid-January, there are 449 food-waste recycling bins across the city, covering 1,000 buildings.
Michael Chan, secretary of the owners’ incorporation of the Tai On building in Sai Wan Ho, which has more than 2,000 flats and a shopping centre known for its food stalls, said he hoped authorities would clarify uncertainties about how the scheme would be enforced.
“People who eat at food stalls will usually dispose of their trash inside the building … we’re considering asking customers to return the trash to the stall, but what if they don’t follow the rule?”
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He added that some store owners would leave their carton boxes in the corridor for “cardboard nannies” to pick up, but they were worried about the potential legal risks following the new policy.
“We earlier joined a government briefing but there were too many people, we imagined many difficult scenarios but didn’t manage to get any answers,” Chan said.
Nevertheless, handling household garbage was more straightforward, he said, as they planned to report cases of illegal disposal to the Environmental Protection Department because paying for it with management fees would be unfair to those who followed the rules.
“If the condition of the trash was very bad and affected hygiene, we would have no choice but to take care of it with extra bags,” Chan said. “So we are hoping the government will respond to such reports swiftly, otherwise there will be no deterrent effect.”
At Richland Gardens in Kowloon Bay, which consists of 22 blocks and 5,900 households, the owners’ corporation ordered designated bags for use over three months in December, budgeting more than HK$280,000.
Ann Lee Sau-ping, secretary of the corporation, said the bags were for five blocks using garbage chutes. Going floor-to-floor with a standard 660-litre bin to collect the rubbish was not possible due to the building structure.
“The bags would easily break open when they reach the bottom of the chute, does that mean the garbage trucks would not collect them? But if we wrapped them in another designated bag, residents would be double-charged,” she said.
“All these enforcement details remain a mystery to us.”
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They also ordered smaller bags for cleaners to pick up the illegally disposed trash if it was left unattended for a few days.
“The government is heavily relying on owners’ groups, property management companies and cleaning firms to figure out how to carry out the scheme. If none of them care about it, the most straightforward option is always raising the management fee to cover the cost,” she said.
“That’s the last thing we want to do because the economy is already so sluggish.”
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