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Following is a transcript (English portion) of the Secretary for Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao's meet-the-media session after attending the forum, "Source Separation of Domestic Waste Programme" today (May 25):
Reporter: Are you satisfied with the recycling rate at the moment? What more can be done to raise it?
Dr Liao: For the domestic waste, it is only 16% recycled, so the rate is low. I don't think I am satisfied with this, that's why we are promoting it in all sorts of ways. One of these is what we are doing now. We have 346 housing estates joining the scheme. We are trying to make the separation at source more convenient for residents, so that they would be more willing to do the separation. And we are seeing a reduction overall in domestic solid waste. But we have not been able to come up with a definite percentage yet.
Reporter: ...to maintain the fire safety and the need to increase containers...?
Dr Liao: Yes, certainly. Because everything we do with the building, putting in these containers, we actually consulted the Fire Services Department first to make sure the safety factors come first.
Reporter: But there has been criticism of the possible blockage of these recycling bins...?
Dr Liao: Yes, that's why there are a lot of constraints on how much we can do on a floor-by-floor basis. And that's why we have all these stainless steel containers that are fire resistant.
Reporter: ...about the legislation...?
Dr Liao: Yes, that's why I was saying in my speech it is important that we first of all find out what are the effective methods and then we will legislate accordingly, instead of the other way around. Legislate on something that people cannot live with, it would become a woe. So we'd rather try these out in the pilot schemes, to try out what would be the effective measures and then the next step would be to legislate.
Reporter: Can you see that the overall recycling rate going beyond the 20% target?
Dr Liao: Yes, of course. We have done a lot of study to predict how much can be recycled. It is of course only an estimate. And the efforts we are making now with the EPD are to increase that number as far as possible. If we find a method that everybody buys, of course, we can increase it much more than 20%.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript).
Ends/Thursday, May 25, 2006
Issued at HKT 18:26
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