Hong Kong’s much-awaited e-waste recycling program remains a long way from reality.

 

The government still has no timetable for release of a bill to enable the planned Producer Responsibility Scheme (PRS), Environment Secretary Edward Yau has admitted.

 

He told legislators in a meeting last week that the government would meet with electronic manufacturers and retailers “later this year” to discuss the scheme. 

 

The biggest sticking point is that the government, the industry and consumers can’t agree on how to charge for the plan, which has been under discussion for the last two years. 

 

An alliance of importers, retailers and manufacturers advocates the Japanese model of charging consumers only when they dispose of their e-waste. It has rejected a government proposal to add an e-waste tax on imports.

 

Environmental group Friends of the Earth (HK) has called on Yau to release a draft of the bill, pointing out that similar laws “have been enacted and applied in nearly 40 regions and countries, such as Taiwan, Singapore, Japan and South Korea in Asia.”