【明報專訊】The Incident

There's no such thing as a free lunch, but under new government proposals, Hong Kong people have to part with their money even when they dump their foam food containers.

In September 2013 the government published a consultation paper on a waste charging scheme, which was first proposed 10 years ago. The government came up with three proposals. The first is household-based, requiring that every household pay a monthly fee dependent on the amount of waste it produces.

The second and the third proposals are building-based. Under these proposals, the weight or volume of solid waste the whole building has generated would be measured, and a charge would be levied on it. These proposals would mean a family of three may be charged $30 to $74 a month.

As much as 13,400 tonnes of waste is sent to landfills every day in Hong Kong, the per capita waste generation being 1.27 kilogram, more than twice as much as that of Taiwan, which is 0.39 kilogram, or that of Korea, which is 0.45 kilogram. Both Taiwan and Korea have seen a dramatic drop of waste generation since their governments introduced their respective waste-charging schemes.