Views sought: Secretary for the Environment, Transport & Works Dr Sarah Liao chats with a Royal Peninsula resident on the trial scheme on municipal solid waste charging.

Secretary for the Environment, Transport & Works Dr Sarah Liao has urged the public to support the Lunar Year End Recycling Campaign, which ends February 17.

Recyclable and reusable materials collected will be resold to recyclers or donated to charity.

The campaign will encourage housing estates to boost waste recovery activities by collecting recyclable and reusable materials, such as waste paper, plastics, metals, books, old clothes, toys, computers, electrical and electronic appliances and furniture.

The Environmental Protection Department will open 13 refuse transfer stations for the collection of recyclables from tomorrow to February 17 for public convenience.

Estate visit

Today Dr Liao went to Cheung Wo Court in Kwun Tong to see how the estate has modified refuse rooms to accommodate floor-based source separation facilities. She proceeded to Sau Mau Ping Estate to see the progress of source separation and waste recycling.

As at December, 490 housing estates with 670,000 households had enrolled in the city-wide programme on source separation of domestic waste.

Dr Liao then met with residents of the Royal Peninsula in Hung Hom, who have been participating in the trial scheme on municipal solid waste charging, and listened to their views, in particular the design of the designated bags and food-waste bags.

It is one of the five selected estates trying both designated bags for disposal of non-recyclable domestic waste and food-waste bags to separate food waste from domestic refuse.

The trial, ending February 14, will examine the logistical arrangements for waste recovery and disposal in different housing settings for reference in the feasibility study of introducing a variable rate charging scheme. Information will be collected through surveys.