Environment chief Tse Chin-wan on Wednesday said the public have become more aware of the importance of recycling since the shelving of a planned "pay-as-you-throw" system last year.

On RTHK's Overview Policy programme, the minister said while many people agreed the policy should not be introduced at that time, the "controversy and discussions" did lead to big changes in behaviour.

"We see that our recyclables in our community recycling network doubled within a short period of time, and the food waste collected even jumped eight-fold," he said.

"We also see that this trend is still continuing."

Tse added that the amount of waste dumped in landfills has dropped 7.5 percent since John Lee became chief executive.

The secretary also said there has been rapid growth in the number of electric vehicles in Hong Kong, with the current 110,000 cars almost eight times the amount five years ago.

He said around four in five new cars purchased in Hong Kong are now electric.