'Food waste bins to feature at all public housing'
Environment minister Tse Chin-wan on Wednesday said he expects each public housing block to have a food waste recycling bin within two years. Speaking to lawmakers at a Legco meeting, he said about 700 smart recycling bins for food waste were installed at about 90 percent of public estates across the territory. He expects the smart recycling bins would be installed at all public estates in Hong Kong by next month, which was a month ahead of the original schedule. Tse added more bins would be installed at public estates, with the goal of installing a bin at each public housing block within two years. But lawmakers questioned if the process could be shortened. "Some old residents told me that there are 11 blocks in their estate, with 380 units, but there are only three food waste smart recycling bins in the whole estate... Can we expedite the process and have one bin in each block within one year?" lawmaker Kitson Yang asked. Tse said discussions would be made with the Housing Authority. "We will see which residential buildings have higher usage of food waste smart recycling bins, and we will install more bins at those estates with higher usage. We will also replace the inner bins of the recycling bins more often to enhance its capacity," he said. Tse added that more than 400 smart recycling bins for food waste would be put into service at private housing estates in this financial year.