Lunar New Year Fair sites cleaned up (with photo)

     The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) today (February 5) collected an estimated total of 258 tonnes of refuse at 15 Lunar New Year (LNY) Fair sites throughout Hong Kong. The figure represented a decrease of roughly 72 tonnes compared with the amount last year.

     "Among the refuse cleared, some 58 tonnes were collected at the Victoria Park LNY Fair, around 38 tonnes less than the quantity last year," an FEHD spokesman said.

     The spokesman noted that the FEHD, as in the past years, continued its collaboration with the Environmental Campaign Committee and the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) to organise "Green LNY Fairs" this year. In addition to the collection of general recyclables including waste paper, plastics and metals in every LNY Fair site, collection of bamboo sticks, wooden pallets and unsold peach blossom trees was expanded to cover all 15 LNY Fair sites in Hong Kong. To enhance recycling of resources, additional recyclable items including polyfoam, glass bottles, and other wilted and unsold flowers in all LNY Fair sites, as well as food waste at nine LNY Fair sites with fast food stalls were also collected.

     About 82 tonnes of bamboo, 18 tonnes of wooden pallets, 28 tonnes of peach blossom trees, other wilted and unsold flowers as well as five tonnes of food waste were collected while the quantities of polyfoam and glass bottles collected are being verified. The EPD will make arrangement for putting all recyclables to their best use through upcycling, recycling or donation to other organisations and members of the public.

     The department deployed 266 staff members, 41 refuse collection vehicles and street cleaning vehicles to clean up the Victoria Park venue. The other 14 LNY Fair sites were cleaned up by the department's cleansing contractors.

     The spokesman added that 1 179 unsold pots of flowers and plants gathered in the fairs were delivered to 199 elderly homes/residential care homes for persons with disabilities and 10 public hospitals today by 22 volunteer teams made up of FEHD staff.

     All site clearance work was completed at about 5pm. After thorough cleansing, the venues were restored to their original state.