Hong Kong’s environmental protection measures have been a source of controversy in recent months, and the “plastic-free” arrangements implemented on Monday (22nd) have caused more confusion and dissatisfaction. The Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute released a poll on “Municipal Solid Waste Charging” on Tuesday (23rd). As many as 68% of the people surveyed opposed the implementation of garbage levy on August 1. If the implementation date is excluded, the opposition dropped to 54%. Minyan also invited some people to participate in the “Careful Poll” and found that the number of people supporting the concept of waste recycling doubled after the discussion. Minyan CEO Zhong Tingyao said: “The discussion is helpful in changing public opinion.”
“Chasing News” special reporter Wesley Yip
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From the 12th to the 18th of this month, the Hong Kong Civil Research Institute successfully invited 1,809 people over the age of 18 to conduct an online questionnaire survey in the organization’s opinion group to understand their opinions on the garbage levy. The results showed that 68% of the respondents opposed the SAR government’s implementation of garbage levy on August 1, while only 12% were in favor. If the implementation date of the policy was not taken into account, the opposition dropped to 54%, while the number of supporters rose to 27%. More than half, 51%, of the people opposed the government’s implementation of waste recycling concept through garbage levy, while only 28% supported it.
Minyan also successfully invited 14 respondents to participate in the “Thinking Poll”, which is based on the method established by Stanford University in the United States to invite the public to discuss topics in groups. 71% of the participants originally opposed the implementation of garbage charging on August 1. After discussion, the opposition rate was reduced to 62%, and the support rate was also reduced from the original 21% to 15%. If the implementation date of the policy is not taken into account, the opposition proportion dropped from 57% to 43% after the discussion, and the support proportion increased from 21% to 36%. As for whether they support the government’s implementation of the concept of waste recycling through garbage levy, the opposition proportion dropped significantly from 57% to 29% after the discussion, while the support proportion also nearly doubled from the original 29% to 57%. Chung Ting-yao said that the research method of “Careful Polling” is to enable the public to think about issues more rationally and objectively through discussion, and to provide public opinion data after considering the opinions of all parties. He summarized the online deliberative poll and believed that the participant data showed that “discussions are helpful in changing public opinion.”
“Lianhe Zaobao” refers to the outbreak of “environmental protection crisis” in Hong Kong
Liang Zhiyin, organizational director of the Cleaning Workers Union who attended the same occasion, said that cleaning workers are more worried about the actual implementation of garbage levy. In addition to the increase in workload, they may also have disputes with citizens. She pointed out that frontline workers were confused and received no response, so they tended not to support the garbage levy and would rather maintain the status quo. Another guest present, Liu Zhifeng, the director-general of Green Earth, believed that the government’s public education and explanations were insufficient, but he did not agree with the government’s retreat. He believed that garbage levy should be implemented as scheduled on August 1, and suggested that the government strengthen supporting facilities for recycling.
In addition to the controversy over garbage levy, the implementation of the “plastic-free” arrangement (control of disposable plastic) on Monday (22nd) also caused confusion. Many netizens uploaded pictures and posted paper spoons, paper straws, paper forks, and paper knives. In some cases, there are even complaints that there are insects in the paper soup. Some netizens also discovered that Donki has switched to using cartons to pack sushi sashimi, which is like “blind box sushi”, “the inner cage (the sushi in the package) cannot be seen at all.” Hong Kong’s rival Singapore, its mainstream media “Lianhe Zaobao” also recently published a signed article commenting on Hong Kong’s “environmental crisis.” The article points out that the “plastic removal order” is not like the garbage levy, which has caused controversy before it was launched and was forced to be postponed. It reflects that if the government wants to effectively promote environmental protection policies, it should implement them in stages and provide good publicity and support to allow the industry time to adapt. . The article points out that postponing the garbage levy will affect the government’s prestige and give people the impression that it is acting rashly. It believes that when promoting policies, the SAR government should proceed step by step rather than in one step.
Public sentiment index shows that “Hong Kong people” are an “unhappy” group
In addition, the Hong Kong Public Research Institute also released the second-generation public sentiment index on Tuesday, which showed that place of birth and social class (type of housing) have little impact on public sentiment. “A certain identity can affect his public sentiment, combined with his views on the government, officials, and social conditions.” Chung Ting-yao explained that the public sentiment index is used to show citizens’ mentality, just like the Hang Seng Index shows economic and stock market activities.
Chung said, “The general climate affects all groups equally.” In other words, social class has little impact on Hong Kong people’s happiness, but their place of origin and self-identity have a greater impact on people’s mood. “People born in Hong Kong, The index is 100, so neutral.” For people born outside Hong Kong (including mainland China and others), the sentiment index is about 130. Chung Ting-yao explained, “People born in Hong Kong and those born outside Hong Kong are obviously two different groups of people in terms of mood.” The sense of identity is also echoed. Those who claim to be “Hong Kong people” have an index of about 80, which means they are an “unhappy” group; those who claim to be “Chinese” have an index of about 130, which means they are a “happy” group.
Minyan stopped publishing ten survey series including June 4th in July last year. Zhong Tingyao emphasized that Minyan is not flat, “Today is also a new beginning, and everyone will see a new research model (online thoughtful polling).” He said that after last year’s mid-term summary, he decided to do more secondary data analysis and also put the original data online for the public to access for a nominal fee. “We have more than 30 years of private research data and can do a lot of academic research. ,Policy Research”.
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