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Keeping Hong Kong clean

No gimmick will do

In 1999, Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa stated in his Policy Address that environmental issues are the main focus of development. And after only a few months, the new environmental hygiene chief Rita Lau Ng Wai Lan was already reacting to the statement.

In January, Ms Lau proposed that all litter bins, commonly called lap sahp seung in Cantonese, should be called guo pei seung, which means “fruit rind boxes”.

Describing such a change as a “cultural revolution”, Ms Lau believed that people would learn that litter bins are not for large rubbish items (lap sahp), but for small pieces of rubbish, like fruit rinds.

At first glance, the whole idea by Ms Lau looks marvelous. No more money wasted on advertising and organizing campaigns. The name “fruit rind boxes” will tell Hong Kong people directly what rubbish they are designed for.

However, upon a closer look, it is not difficult to see that the idea of changing names was in fact based on one wrong assumption about Hong Kong people’s characteristics.

In the proposal, Ms Lau assumed that Hong Kong people would really read what is written on the bins before they throw rubbish into them. However, everyone knows how busy Hong Kong people are. There is probably no one who will really stop and take a look at the names on the bins.

A good illustration is the recycle bins with big recycling logos on them. Instead of used paper for recycling, those boxes are filled with various kinds of rubbish.

Therefore, there is really no point in changing the name of rubbish bins, as most Hong Kong people won’t even notice the difference.

In fact, the real problem the government has to solve is how to make Hong Kong people stop throwing large rubbish items into rubbish bins. And the answer to this is civic education.

As everyone knows, civic education is expensive, troublesome and time-consuming. However, that is the ultimate solution. There is really no need for government officials to keep searching for high sounding ideas. All these gimmicks just would not work in such matters.

After all, gimmicks like changing the names of rubbish bins will only have temporary effect. Changing the minds of people is everlasting.

Jenny Chung
Managing Editor

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