The government has not ruled out the possibility of relaunching the shelved municipal solid waste charging scheme in the future, according to the Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan on Saturday.

The scheme is halted until at least June 2027, when the current term administration ends, with Chief Executive John Lee saying this week that the public had not reached a consensus over the scheme's implementation.

Tse told RTHK that while there had been waste-reduction promotional efforts over the past two decades, they had not been too effective.

However, the amount of rubbish collected for disposal on a daily basis in Hong Kong had been reduced by 1,000 tonnes, or just under 10 percent, in 2024 from 11,500 tonnes in 2021, when the Legislative Council approved the bill allowing fees to be charged for waste.

This reduction, Tse said, shows the public has become much more aware of the need for waste reduction and has raised confidence that the SAR can reach its zero-landfill goal by 2035.

He said the government would consider rolling out the now-shelved scheme under certain circumstances.

"The solid waste charging scheme is now a backup tool. We are not giving up, nor scrapping it," Tse said.

"But whether we need to launch it depends on – first, if our progress in waste reduction reaches a bottleneck, when other solutions cannot help us reach our goal, then we would need this tool.

"Secondly, it also depends on public sentiment, the climate and the economic situation at the time – whether they offer us the conditions to do so."

The government has already earmarked a site in the Northern Metropolis to build the city's third waste-to-energy facility.

But Tse said the plant would not be necessary if the city manages to reduce its daily waste disposal to less than 9,000 tonnes, which could save the government tens of billions of dollars.

The amount of waste disposed of per day stood at about 10,100 tonnes in the first half of the year.

The first waste-to-energy facility off Shek Kwu Chau is expected to start running next year, while the second one is currently under tender.