Our Community
Residents dump three-coloured waste separation bins
by Melody Chu
Residents in some public housing estates sell their waste paper, aluminium cans and plastic bottles on their own for money, instead of putting the materials in the government¡¦s much-publicised three-coloured recycling bins placed at their buildings.
The amount of recyclable wastes collected from waste separation bins in public and private housing estates, meanwhile, has decreased sharply, raising concerns over the effectiveness and management of the recycling system.
But the government does not consider the figure change as a fall in waste collection, as it has started a new scheme to encourage housing estates to place separation facilities on each floor to divide the wastes into more categories for recycling.
Figures from the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) showed that the total amount of wastes recovered in the campaign of three-coloured waste separation bins in housing estates dropped one-third to 100,000 tons in the fiscal year of 2004-05 from 148,900 tons in 2003-04. The figure for 2002-03 was 147,800.
The quantity of all three kinds of recyclable materials collected had declined, with that of waste paper being fallen the most, to 97,900 tons in 2004-05 from 140,100 tons in 2003-04.
In Lok Wah (South) Estate in Kwun Tong alone, the amount of waste paper collected dropped to 91 tons in 2005 from 164 tons in 2004. Up to September this year, the quantity of paper obtained was just 79 tons.
Residents sell the materials directly to recycling companies rather than putting them into waste separation bins, said Kwok Kar-leung, housing manager of the public rental housing estate of 6,800 households.
There are trucks of the recyclers parking near the estate to buy recyclable wastes from the residents. Mr Kwok said the estate would not stop the residents from selling those
materials, as the wastes would go for recycling anyway.
A resident of the Lok Wah (North) Estate who only identified himself as Wong said it was common to see residents from his estate and the Lok Wah (South) Estate to sell recyclable materials to two recycling companies. One of the recyclers is responsible for collecting waste paper and aluminium cans from the three-coloured waste recycling bins in the estates while the other collects plastic bottles.
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