The Programme on Source Separation of Domestic Waste has made significant contributions to domestic waste recovery and waste reduction in Hong Kong, but there is still far to go. We will enlist about 400 additional housing estates by the end of 2010 to achieve our targets. We will also continue to strengthen our educational and promotional efforts to encourage more residents to participate in waste separation and recovery.

1 Recruitment

Our goal is to extend the SSW Programme to 1,140 housing estates by the end of 2009 from 996 at the end of 2008, and to reach 1,360 estates by the end of 2010. We are working closely with the Hong Kong Association of Property Management Companies, Housing Department, Hong Kong Housing Authority and the Hong Kong Housing Society, as well as visiting individual housing estates to expand coverage. We also liaise with the Government Property Agency to implement source separation in more than 60 government quarters.

Tangible help will be offered through the distribution of free waste separation bins to housing estates to place on ground floors to boost participation. Any estate can also apply for an Environment and Conservation Fund (ECF) subsidy to set up floor-based waste separation facilities.

We will also keep a close eye on the trend in the recycling market and work to ensure the collected recyclable materials are properly sent for re-use and recycling.

With the implementation of the amended building regulations, we will be seeing all new domestic buildings in the coming future to be provided with a refuse storage and material recovery room on every floor. This will provide physical support for further promoting source separation of waste.

2 Education and Promotion

Strident efforts will continue to be made to encourage everyone in Hong Kong to participate in source separation of waste. Territory-wide and district-based publicity campaigns, such as TV Announcements of Public Interests, advertisements in newspapers and on public transport, talks, exhibitions and road shows, will continue to be vehicles for promoting our message to the general public. The ECF has also set aside $50 million to support District Councils and community groups in launching educational activities with waste separation as one of the major themes.
In individual housing estates, we will seek to boost participation by organizing more educational and promotional activities, particularly in estates with relatively low waste recovery results. We will also continue to distribute leaflets and posters to housing estates to help them promote waste separation.