Having been to places where waste segregation is a common practice, I think charging Hong Kong people for rubbish generated could be an effective way to reduce waste.

Hong Kong is a top-rated city when it comes to economy and progress, but lags behind in environment-friendly practices. Locals enjoy the convenience of throwing trash anywhere – rubbish bins everywhere might be a sign that encourages people to dump things instead of thinking twice. Recycling is more of a public show than an inspiration for people to emulate as evidenced by the colorful rubbish bins placed in prominent areas while households and businesses are mostly unable or unwilling to follow such example. There is no mechanism that penalizes those who throw out a boatload of garbage or rewards those who practice desired efforts such as waste segregation and reduction.

That’s until a proposal to have people pay to have their rubbish dumped is raised. Obviously, locals would react adversely to this plan, knowing that this means money out of their pockets. But careful planning and a proper information drive could generate public support, especially among those who are also fed up with the lack of effort in reducing waste in Hong Kong.

One way is to require the public to buy standard sized bags for garbage disposal, a method implemented in Taipei and Seoul where the average amount of garbage generated per person daily is 410 and 350 grams, respectively. Each Hong Kong local throws away an average of 870 grams of rubbish daily. In fact, Hong Kong produced more than twice as much rubbish per person per year (921kg) as the Japanese (410kg) and South Koreans (380kg), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found out.

To encourage recycling, such bags can be labeled with specific tags for easy identification and processing by collectors.

This proposal might work. When the plastic bag levy was introduced years ago, authorities noticed drops in use of bags at supermarkets and encouraged people to bring their own reusable bags. However, it also created more questions: who should keep the levy from consumers, should the implementation be expanded to other businesses and who should be exempted from paying the levy?

I am sure there will be issues such as households or businesses failing to properly segregate garbage, illegal dumping, or the livelihoods of people who earn a living from collecting recyclable waste. It’s not perfect, but certainly a step in the right direction.

If there is a city that needs to change its habits when it comes to reducing waste, then Hong Kong is it. It doesn’t have the luxury of space and its reputation as a polluted city will only get worse until concrete action is undertaken.