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'Give us time' to trial waste-charging scheme

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Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu cautioned against drawing hasty conclusions from the results of a trial run of the waste-charging scheme to be launched Monday.

Speaking before the Executive Council yesterday, Lee said the government will work out details of the pilot scheme and give feedback to the Legislative Council in May at the earliest.

"We will pragmatically conduct the trial run, with each premises equipped with a special team to follow up on issues that may arise," he said.

Fourteen premises will be involved in the trial run, including government buildings, public housing estates, malls and restaurants.

Lee also said the special teams will collect opinions and participation status from different stakeholders, such as frontline cleaners, households and property management companies during the four-month trial.

Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration Warner Cheuk Wing-hing will lead an inter-departmental group to oversee the trial run.

Lee said the pilot scheme would instill greater confidence in the government, though he did not respond to a question on whether the scheme would be postponed again if results were unsatisfactory.

"I hope the public will give us time to conduct the trial and decide on the next step," he added.

The trial run is designed to enable the government to develop practical plans for the citywide launching of the waste-charging scheme that has been postponed to August 1.

However, lawmakers have raised concerns about the timing of the scheme's launch due to insufficient recycling facilities and the weak economy.

Speaking on a radio program yesterday, lawmaker Lau Kwok-fan suggested the government add more locations, including more government offices, schools and markets, to the trial run list to achieve a more practical result.

He said the current premises only involved about 1,000 households in public housing estates and private buildings, far fewer than the 10,000 households involved in the waste charging scheme pilot in 2014.

Lau said it is not ideal to implement the scheme on August 1 as citizens still need more time to adapt.

Lawmaker Doreen Kong Yuk-foon said on the same program that the government should develop sufficient recycling facilities before implementing the scheme.

She also agreed it is not the "best timing" to launch the scheme on August 1 under a weak economy.

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