2 weeks Ago By SCMP Editorial
Anti-litter and public hygiene campaigns have had a mixed history in Hong Kong. In recent times that is not through want of drive from the top. For example, in the wake of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) epidemic in 2003, then chief executive Tung Chee-hwa appointed his chief secretary and eventual successor Donald Tsang Yam-kuen to head Team Clean, a task force charged with developing a sustainable approach to better environmental hygiene.
The basic fine for littering and spitting rose from HK$600 to HK$1,500. Aided by keen initial enforcement, with Sars fresh in the memory, the tougher penalty resulted in improved habits. But they did not last.
As Sars became a bad memory, the campaign faded from public attention. A redoubled effort was overdue to reinforce civic pride in the presentation of Asia’s world city. It came in 2022, when new Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu foreshadowed the adoption of tougher littering penalties.
As a result, the authorities issued more than 31,000 fixed penalty notices for littering offences last year, with higher fines set to bring in more than HK$95 million to government coffers, according to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department..
