Lawmakers have criticised the government over its promotion of food waste recycling, with legislator Tony Tse saying the recycling rate of around five percent was "not good enough".

Discussing the latest government figures at a special Legislative Council Finance Committee meeting on Wednesday, Tse noted that food waste reached 3,300 tonnes a day in 2022, making up a third of the rubbish in the SAR's landfills.

In response, the Director of Environmental Protection, Samuel Chui, said while the food waste recycling rate still hovered at around five percent, officials have been doing more.

He said smart recycling bins have already been placed at some 70 percent of public housing estates, serving 1.5 million residents - and more can be expected soon.

"We are progressively increasing the number of food waste processing facilities in public housing estates," he told lawmakers.

"This August, all public housing estates will be equipped with a smart food waste processing bin that covers over 30 percent of the citizens in Hong Kong."

For private buildings, Chui said they could apply for government funding to install the bins and officials would try their best to help.

While there have been complaints the bins were often full or malfunctioning, Chui stressed that from official data, the bins worked around 99 percent of the time.

During the short periods when they were out of action, he said the machines were either full, or there were signalling issues.

The director reiterated that when the food waste recycling bins were around 70 percent full, management firms or cleaners would be notified to unload them.