The Macau Residue System Company (CSR) has revealed that around 287 tones of used furniture was collected and destroyed during the week of Chinese New Year, between February 12 and 18.
Non-governmental-organization (NGO) Caritas disagrees with the CSR’s option for destroying the used furniture, arguing that it should be distributed to the underprivileged.
The discarded furniture was retrieved from 108 collecting points set up by the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM). During the Lunar New Year it is tradition for every Chinese family to thoroughly cleanse their house and get rid of objects deemed not useful or old.
“In previous years IACM hasn’t received any expression of interest by associations regarding the used furniture thrown away, so all the items collected went directly to Macau’s trash incinerator,” IACM told Lusa.
Caritas has another version of events and has proposed to the government that the furniture could be distributed to low-income families.
“I proposed several times to the government that a collecting place should be set up for the furniture, [which] could be distributed afterwards with the support of NGOs for free or against a symbolic price. I never got any answer; I don’t think it’s a priority,” Paul Pun, Caritas’s secretary general, said.
“It would be great if the government could create a space to store the furniture. (…) And if nobody took the furniture in the space of one month, it could be burned,” he added.
Wine imports stall in 2014
Wine imports to Macau grew 2 percent year-on-
year in 2014, totaling MOP1.461 million. French brands lead the preferences of the local importers by far, holding a 77 percent quota. In second place come Australian brands, registering an increase of 44 percent year-
on-year with a market share of eight percent. Portuguese wines, traditionally popular in Macau, have a 7 percent share and occupy third position overall. They continue to be the most significant Portuguese export to Macau. Germany ranks fourth (3 percent share) and registered an abrupt fall of 33 percent in sales. It is followed by the United States, Chile, Italy, Spain and South Africa respectively.
According to Hugo Bandeira, the food and beverage manager at the Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT), these results indicate stagnation in the local wine market.
“The market has stalled and there weren’t enough restaurant or hotel openings to justify a change in that trend,” Mr Bandeira told Radio Macau. He added that the scenario will probably change with the upcoming opening of new resorts.
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