Hong Kong leader John Lee says ‘too early’ to judge whether waste-charging scheme roll-out needs changes amid calls for further delay

“Since this is already the law, the government has to think of a serious way of going forward,” he told reporters before a meeting of the government’s key decision-making Executive Council. “But we also are willing to listen to views and we will pragmatically design the way forward as we go through the exercise and learn from the experience.”

He said an interdepartmental working group led by Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration Warner Cheuk Wing-hing will monitor, supervise and scrutinise the trial run to “plan the way forward” pragmatically based on the information gathered.

Lee stopped short of saying whether potential changes to the scheme’s implementation would cause the start date to be pushed back or could involve adjusting guidelines, such as through a phased introduction.

The participation rate and behavioural changes to reduce waste reduction would be among the elements to be closely watched by officials, Lee said.

“It is too early for us to make any conclusion,” he said.

Lee rejected a suggestion that further changes to the plan could deal a blow to the government’s credibility.

“I think a pragmatic government serious about doing all things after listening to people’s views and looking at results, statistics and opinions of the people who are involved, will create the community’s confidence in [the] government,” said Lee, hinting at the possible flexibility in implementing the scheme.

Edward Lau Kwok-fan, chairman of the legislature’s environmental affairs panel, also expressed reservations on Tuesday over the scheme’s August launch because of its complexity and the scale of the test run, citing the city’s prior experience of getting used to a plastic bag levy.

Hongkongers ‘unprepared’ for April 1 trial run of waste-charging scheme

“The plastic bag levy, which is much simpler than the waste fees, took over a decade to be implemented in stages, [the latter] will be more difficult and complex to try to introduce so many things all at once,” Lau said.

Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan told lawmakers on Monday the government would keep an open mind on whether the charging scheme should be further revised or delayed after the trial results.

The pay-as-you-throw scheme was initially slated to be implemented by the end of 2023, but was delayed to April 1 due to logistical concerns. Tse abruptly announced in January that the government had decided to postpone it again to August 1 after deciding more effective promotional efforts were needed amid public confusion.

The idea for a waste-charging plan was first floated by authorities more than 20 years ago.

Additional reporting by Oscar Liu