As David Akers-Jones points out, there are ways the government could facilitate the removal of dirty old buses from our roads (“Get rid of filthy buses with loans”, April 30).
The suggestion of bridging loans to allow the bus companies to retire these clunkers a few years early would be a simple, low-cost solution. But the often cited figure of buses accounting for up to 40 per cent of roadside pollution is slightly erroneous as they actually only account for 6 per cent of respirable suspended particulates across Hong Kong.
The higher figure was a Transport Department estimate of the possible contribution to roadside pollution in busy commuting corridors at peak times – essentially the worst-case scenario of the most number of buses on the road when the pavements are full of people going to work.
If the department actually wanted to reduce roadside pollution there is an even cheaper or near-zero cost solution to reduce the effect of dirty buses.
Simply make these busy commuter roads and congested tunnels low-emissions zones at peak times. Not only would this ensure bus firms use the latest Euro engine vehicles, where the most benefit can be derived, it would also stop old commercial diesel vehicles clogging up and polluting these roads during the rush hour.
Edward Rossiter, Tai Wai
People still misusing recycle bins
In the report, “Give us more bins to boost recycling” (May 2), you say that “once a recycling bin is contaminated with non-recyclable rubbish, it effectively becomes a conventional bin that will end up in a landfill site”.
But why does it become contaminated?
A few years ago, I had recycle bins installed in my village.
To this day, whenever I take my paper, plastic and metal out, the bins are either filled with ordinary rubbish or the wrong items are in the wrong bins.
On a recent trip, the paper bin was filled with styrofoam lunch boxes with half-eaten food spilling out. I can’t decide whether people are lazy, ignorant or just wilfully obtuse.
The bins are clearly labelled and colour coded; you’d think people would have figured out how they work by now.
Randall van der Woning, Tai Po