Hong Kong charged the garbage tax

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China will issue a garbage dump tax to solve environmental problems caused by garbage.

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When new taxes are applied, people will have to pay for the rubbish they throw out of the house. The larger the amount of garbage, the more money people have to pay, AFP reported.

A man makes a living by working as a garbage collector in Hong Kong. (Photo: cairnsmedia.com)

'The problem of waste is becoming more urgent and the city has to deal with it. Garbage taxes can force people to change their daily routines , "said Edward Yau, head of Hong Kong's Environment Agency.

Garbage tax has been applied on Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand islands.

Hong Kong generates about 19,000 tons of hard waste every day, of which 9,100 tons are dumped into landfills. Only 52% of all waste is recycled.

Every Hong Kong resident discharges an average of 921kg of rubbish per year, twice as much as each Japanese (410kg) and Korean (380kg), said the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The city abandoned three incinerators in 1989 because they polluted the environment and adversely affected human health. So today the treatment of waste depends entirely on garbage dumps.

"The government will receive people's comments on the three-month dumping proposal," the Hong Kong government spokesman said.