New IACM waste disposal equipment causes controversy

Rua da Penha

Some residents in the St Lawrence Parish are dissatisfied about the garbage collection facilities that the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) is placing in the area. The bureau has been trying to replace the old style commercial dumpsters in the city with  compacting trash collectors in order to reduce the adverse effect of the garbage collection points to the surrounding environment.  However, residents believe that the IACM should exercise more caution when choosing the locations in which to place the collectors.
The Times recently visited a collection facility on Rua da Penha and found two traditional commercial dumpsters as well as a nearly completed IACM construction that will supply electricity and water to the future compacting trash collector. The facilities are situated near the entrance of a residential building, the Edificio Golden Dragon. Ms Ho, a resident on Rua da Penha, criticized the structure and said that it looks like an ancestor tablet. “Some people are superstitious. Imagine how you would feel if every time you open your gate’s building, and this thing [the waste disposal] is the first thing you see,” she said.

Rua de São Lourenço

Ms Ho thinks that officials should have chosen a better location for the collection facility. In fact, she suggested that the problem can be solved simply by moving the collectors and the structure two parking spots away to the other side of the building.
Her opinion, however, is in stark contrast to that of Ms Lau, another resident of Golden Dragon. Ms Lau pointed out that even if IACM moves the facility to the other side of the building, it is still going to affect those living in it.
She said that Golden Dragon residents have been tolerating the trash collection point downstairs for a long time. “Those apartments facing [the collection facility] have always been affected by the smell and mosquitos. The lower level apartments never open their windows,” she claimed.
Apart from the hygiene issue, Ms Lau said that a trash collection point acts as a magnet for illegal trash disposal. She claimed that every night there are people dumping oversized trash items, such as unwanted furniture and even construction materials. “Those people just piled their things around the bins and blocked the whole sidewalk,” she said. Sometimes during the Chinese Ghost Festival, burnt paper sacrifices were disposed in the collectors without being extinguished, which turned the trash collectors into safety hazards. Ms Lau said that she has rushed downstairs several times to put out a fire in the collectors.
Even though the government is going to replace the traditional commercial dumpsters with the compacting trash collectors, Ms Lau said, based on her understanding, that it will generate a considerable level of noise when workers replace collectors each night.
As a result, Ms Lau suggested that the government should not place a trash collector in front of her building. Instead, she said that there is space available opposite her building in front of a CEM electric substation.
Ms Lau in fact revealed that residents of her building have raised the issue to IACM and received replies from the authorities last Friday and this Monday. “[IACM] said that they are going to discuss the issue with other relevant departments and may consider relocating the trash collection point,” she confirmed.
In an e-mail reply to the Times, IACM explained that they were trying to address environmental issues in Rua da Penha by replacing the commercial dumpsters on the street with compacting trash collectors. It claimed that the new collectors can resolve the issues such as smell and mosquitos. It also said that the construction in front of Edificio Golden Dragon is close to completion and authorities are currently waiting for it to be connected to the water pipe and electricity networks. However, since the response to Times was sent prior to the bureau’s response to Golden Dragon residents, it is not certain whether IACM is still planning to complete the construction of the trash collection structure.
The Golden Dragon residents are not the only group that found the location of IACM’s trash collection facility less than considerate. The Times understands that St Lawrence Church was also in dispute with IACM several years ago regarding a plan to build a trash collection point outside the stone wall of the church’s foundation. A source in the parish told the Times that the bureau was planning to build a garbage chamber alongside the church’s foundation walls. However, the authorities did not proceed with the plan due to public backlash and the opposition of the parish.
Currently, IACM has placed a compacting trash collector on the road near the church and planted some bushes to shield it from the sidewalk. Nevertheless, our source in the parish said that this is still not a satisfying solution and has urged IACM to move the collector to outside a park nearby.
An IACM official also told the Times that the bureau has been trying very hard to minimize the impact of the trash collection facilities on the residents. However, he argued that no matter what decision the bureau has made, it is deemed to draw criticism from the public.