Trash Talk: Hongkongers could be charged for their rubbish

Do you throw drinks cans, takeaway boxes and, god forbid, toilet roll centres into the bin? Well all that thoughtlessness could soon start to cost you, if recommendations from Hong Kong’s Council for Sustainable Development go into force.

Following a public consultation (so it was all your idea anyway), the council is proposing that Hong Kong’s 2.3 million households are given special bags that would help calculate how much they should pay for the amount of trash they create.

And before you start thinking you can just casually sneak it out into the alley without anyone noticing, CCTV equipment to monitor illegal dumping has also been suggested.

The scheme could see households paying between HKD30 and HKD44 a month for waste management services, which the council’s chairman, Bernard Chan, hopes will increase recycling among communities.

The new measures could come in as early as 2016, but there would be a grace period to allow building owners to implement the changes.

So for now, you can just keep being the lazy big waster you are. But let it be known that the world, especially the polar bears, is frowning on you.



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