A project that encourages residents to recycle their food waste will soon kick off in Tai Hang, with organisers setting up smart bins in the neighbourhood with an expected reach of up to 1,000 households.

Sponsored by the government’s Environment and Conservation Fund, the initiative will focus on 40 older single-block buildings and so called three-nil buildings – blocks that lack a residents’ organisation, owners corporation or property management – in the area.

The five bins, sporting a purple colour scheme, will be set up in Tai Hang from November and will serve the community there until September.

They also have features such as fill-level detection and auto-deodorisation.

The New People's Party’s Jeff Wong, who is helping to coordinate the project, said organisers will also set up a street station there to collect food waste twice a week.

“We are aiming for 700 to 1,000 households to use our scheme or use our recycling system,” he said after attending the scheme’s opening ceremony on Tuesday.

“Later on, we will organise a lot of activities and events such as talks or workshops to educate the residents to use our recycling system,” he added.

As part of a pilot scheme last December, authorities installed smart food waste recycling bins at a number of private housing estates that were chosen through an application process.