'Restaurants struggling to be ready for waste charges'
The catering sector lawmaker, Tommy Cheung cast doubt on Saturday on whether his industry will be ready for the long-delayed introduction of waste charging on August 1, while there've also been questions over whether the SAR has the right recycling facilities. The pay-as-you-throw scheme was supposed to take effect this month but has been pushed back until August.  Speaking on a Commercial Radio programme, Cheung, who is also a member of the Executive Council, said that caterers were already grappling with a labour shortage, and now needed to work out how to sort through about 1,200 tonnes of kitchen waste in the territory each day. "The staff are not worried about jobs and employment. In the Kowloon City area, we are already paying some HK$22,000 a month to hire a dishwasher. It's no joke," Cheung said. “And now we also need to ask the staff to learn how to properly sort out the food waste in the kitchens all over again. We can’t see how the over 20,000 licensed premises in the industry can handle such issues on August 1." Speaking on the same programme, lawmaker Lo Wai-kwok, who chairs the Business and Professionals Alliance, said that the original purpose of the charging scheme was to encourage people to generate less waste.  But he noted that such an aspiration won't be achieved unless the authorities make recycling easier by providing better and more convenient facilities, as seen in other regions such as the mainland and Japan. “And if Hong Kong does not have such relevant supporting facilities, we cannot expect that residents will do more to recycle because of the fees,” he said. Speaking on an RTHK programme, another member of the Executive Council, Lam Ching-choi, said rolling out waste charging in one go will be challenging, given that it affects the lives of all seven million residents and it’s always difficult to change people’s habits. “As a doctor myself, I have also been trying to change people's habits in various aspects ... for example, encouraging them to do more exercise, to have healthier diets. It's easier said than done. And now you will have to change the habits of seven million residents, it's a huge challenge.  “But we have to grit our teeth, and not think that we have to reach 100 points in one go ... maybe aim to reach 60 or 70 points first at the beginning... take one or two years to get everyone used to this new habit and keep improving,” he noted. His remarks came as the government rolled out trials at 14 premises across the territory from April 1. Lam said that authorities will collect feedback from the public and may adjust certain details as needed, such as changing the size of the charging bags, and see whether the bags are easy to knot. He also expressed confidence that more alternative products will be offered to replace plastic tablewares as the first phase of the regulation banning disposable plastic tableware and other plastic products will take effect from April 22.