'Designated garbage bags a burden for disabled people'
A concern group on Wednesday urged the government to provide free garbage bags for disabled people to handle medical disposables after the waste charging scheme takes effect next year. Under the pay-as-you-throw scheme which is intended to reduce the amount of waste going to landfills, people will be required to buy designated bags for their rubbish from April 1. It is estimated that a three-to-four person household will have to pay between HK$30 and HK$50 to dispose of their waste each month. The Direction Association for the Handicapped recently interviewed 180 disabled people and their carers, and almost 90 percent of them said they are unable to reduce their use of medical consumables, such as disposable gloves and diapers. The group said about 30 percent of the respondents expect their monthly spending on designated rubbish bags to be around HK$140 – about four times that of a normal household. An officer with the group, Pearl Siu, said the policy is unfair to disabled people. “The rationale behind this scheme is to be environmentally friendly, to reduce carbon footprint, to reduce the amount of waste we produce. But this should be under the circumstance that the waste can be reduced,” she said. “For patients – the heavily-handicapped people, long-term illness patients – they have no choice.” The group’s vice-chair, Steve So, said authorities need to do more to relieve the financial burden of people with disabilities. “We suggest the government to allow disabled people and chronic patients to get rubbish bags for disposing medical consumables at district support centres with their medical certificate,” he said. Responding to media enquiries, the Environmental Protection Department said it is difficult to create exemptions for specific kinds of waste. "The legislation on waste charging that has been passed does not empower the government to provide free rubbish bags for medical consumables," it wrote. "It would also create administrative or enforcement difficulties if we use different rubbish bags for specific products because it would be hard to verify the identity of the person using the rubbish bags." But it said the government would provide a monthly HK$10 subsidy for those in need, to cover the costs._____________________________
Last updated: 2023-12-27 HKT 21:07 