Authorities urged to introduce waste recycling plan

Waste recycling and street parking were the themes of a lively debate during yesterday’s AL plenary meeting.
Lawmaker Chan Hong urged authorities to introduce changes, while the Secretary for Transport and Public Works argued that there’s no need for new laws regarding waste separation and recycling. “Separation of waste is much more a matter of educating society and not about forcing them to comply with a law,” Raimundo do Rosário said. However he also asserted that the works undertaken so far in “raising awareness” of waste recycling “was a total failed plan.” Nevertheless he points to the approach of “intensifying works with society and namely with schools” to tackle this problem.
In other topics, lawmaker Wong Kit Cheng questioned the government about penalties and the abuse of public street parking, urging the government to revise the law concerning penalties for illegal parking.
He also urged the government to release the parking spaces that are reserved for use by the public services in order to increase the turnover of those parking spots used by the general public.
The secretary agreed that “the penalties are relatively low” and that he is considering “intensifying them in order to increase the deterrent effect.”
Regarding the use of parking spaces by public services, Mr Rosário retorted that “this work is being done and we have already reduced the number of parking spots we are using by 26 when compared with last year.”
According to the figures of the Transportation Bureau (DSAT) public services are currently using a total of about 350 parking spots across the territory, a figure that authorities are trying to reduce. RM