The Food & Environmental Hygiene Department will bolster promotion and education on environmentally-friendly burial practices in the coming year, Secretary for Food & Health Dr York Chow says.

He told the Legislative Council today it will take a period of promotion and education for the public to accept using eco-coffins.

The department will hold monthly talks on environmentally-friendly burial practices at Kowloon Park and distribute VCDs to organisations providing elderly care and services to promote eco-coffin use.

The department will also liaise with the funeral trade to study the feasibility of according priority to applications for cremations using eco-coffins and requiring undertakers to provide eco-coffins under licensing conditions. Thirteen of the 95 licensed undertakers in Hong Kong offer eco-coffins.