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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Wong Kam-sing, on municipal solid waste charging after attending a public event today (September 26):
Reporter: Can we still drag our feet on waste charging and is it possible that the legislation could be passed by LegCo before your term ends?
Secretary for the Environment: As I said earlier, the quantity-based waste charging has been in discussion for about a decade. It is really time for us to make a decision and push the policy through the Legislative Council. So it is critical for us to have the tool to reduce waste and also promote recycling. It is our aspiration to have it timely implemented and get it through the (Legislative) Council to become our policy.
Reporter: Do you believe that if the Government provides more and better recycling facilities to the citizens, it can help reduce waste at source? Do you think the Government is playing an important role?
Secretary for the Environment: I agree with you that the Government does have an important role to support waste reduction and recycling. As said in our blueprint on waste, we are having a very clear timetable to incrementally increase the support to recycling, including the support to the recycling industry, so that we can have a kind of matching infrastructure to support waste reduction and recycling.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Thursday, September 26, 2013
Issued at HKT 18:34
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