Measures for enhancing street cleanliness

• Street cleanliness is an integral part of environmental hygiene and public health. It can reduce disease transmission and help curb rodent infestation, as well as create a favourable cityscape to enable citizens to enjoy an improved quality of life. An added benefit is improvement in the city's international image, thereby conducive to attracting more foreign investments and promoting development of tourism. In Hong Kong, street cleanliness has long been a topic of society concern, and has seen rekindled attention recently. To coordinate efforts in rooting out the environmental hygiene issues, the Government set up an inter-departmental task force in July 2022 to draw up various improvement plans.
• Globally, many developed places have strived to maintain or enhance street cleanliness with different measures. Singapore is well-known as a clean city and has committed an ongoing effort to keep its fame. Meanwhile, the City of Los Angeles ("City of LA") and New York City ("NYC"), the two most populated cities of the United States^{1Legend symbol denoting See The Brookings Institution (2021).}, endeavour to improve street cleaning with the adoption of technology such as data application and solar power. This issue of Essentials gives an account of the issues faced in Hong Kong, followed by a discussion on the approaches taken by the above overseas places, from the perspectives of (a) mode of delivery of public cleanliness services; (b) technology and data application, as well as other innovative means for improving street cleanliness; and (c) education and publicity efforts alongside deterrent punitive measures.

• The issue of street cleanliness has come under spotlight from time to time, particularly concerning blackspots with poor hygiene and frequent rat occurrence. While the Government has been conducting anti-rodent operations at targeted areas alongside enhanced cleaning, the result has not been satisfactory. Tackling cleanliness issues has been facing various challenges in the city, which are conceivably attributable to the following major factors:
  • (a)
    Scattered cleansing responsibilities: street cleansing services chiefly comprise street sweeping and waste collection. While the services are mainly provided by the Food and Environment Hygiene Department ("FEHD"), the responsibilities are considered fragmented. FEHD's services cover pavements, carriageways, flyovers and road dividers while cleansing of footbridges, pedestrian subways and highways is under the purview of the Highways Department ("HyD"). As a particular example on how fragmentation of responsibilities may impact cleaning services is that sweeping of footbridge lift floor is overseen by FEHD whereas washing of floor and other parts of such lifts (e.g. wall, buttons) is undertaken by HyD.^{2Legend symbol denoting See Food and Environment Hygiene Department (2022a), Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene (2021) and Subcommittee on Issues Relating to the Improvement of Environmental Hygiene and Cityscape (2021).} Such excessively detailed division of labour has given rise to grave concern over efficiency and cost effectiveness of street management;^{3Legend symbol denoting See 民主建港協進聯盟(2022) and 東方日報(2021).}
  • (b)
    Acute sanitary conditions with illegal waste disposal in "three-nil" buildings: illegal disposal of waste on streets is a cause of poor sanitation and rodent infestation. Apart from areas where food premises are located, the situation is particularly worrisome in the vicinity of "three-nil" buildings. Lacking a management unit to coordinate waste collection, some households tend to dispose of domestic waste in the nearby public space (e.g. roadside, beside public litter bins) for convenience.^{4Legend symbol denoting See Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene (2021) and 香港經濟民生聯盟(2020).} FEHD has indeed installed Internet Protocol cameras at blackspots^{5Legend symbol denoting Currently, Internet Protocol cameras are installed at 309 blackspots across the territory. See Food and Environment Hygiene Department (2022b).} to facilitate enforcement actions, and deployed large covered rubbish bins from dusk to dawn for "three-nil" building residents' use on a trial basis. Nonetheless, the result appeared not so effective as it was found that some of these bins overflowed with waste quickly, partly due to unexpected use by passers-by and neighbouring shop operators as well;^{6Legend symbol denoting See GovHK (2021) and 無限香港基金會有限公司(2021).}
  • (c)
    Weakening deterrent effect of the current fixed penalty level: under the Public Cleansing and Prevention of Nuisances Regulation (Cap. 132BK), public cleanliness offenders will be prosecuted by summons.^{7Legend symbol denoting Under the Regulation, any person depositing litter in a street or public place will be prosecuted and liable on conviction to a fine up to HK$25,000 and to imprisonment for six months. See Food and Health Bureau (2021b).} In 2002, a simplified fixed penalty system against such offences of minor nature came into effect through the enactment of Fixed Penalty (Public Cleanliness and Obstruction) Ordinance (Cap. 570)^{8Legend symbol denoting The minor public cleanliness offences under the fixed penalty system are (a) littering; (b) spitting; (c) unauthorized display of bills or posters; and (d) fouling of street by dog faeces. See Food and Environment Hygiene Department (2022a).}, with the penalty level originally set at HK$600 and raised to HK$1,500 in 2003.^{9Legend symbol denoting In fact, in the wake of SARS outbreak in 2003, the Government set up a task force named "Team Clean" led by the then Chief Secretary for Administration to develop and take forward proposals to entrench a high level of environmental hygiene. In addition to proposing to raise the fixed penalty level, it had also recommended imposing community service order for repeated offenders, which the Government did not pursue further upon consultation with Legislative Council Members and other stakeholders. See Legislative Council Secretariat (2005), Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene (2005) and Team Clean (2003).} The system became the major means of enforcement against littering, constituting 99% of the enforcement actions between 2014 and 2020. However, its deterrent effect appears diminishing over time as reflected in the growing number of fixed penalty notices issued, from 28 800 in 2014 to 39 200 in 2017, and further to 41 700 in 2020.^{10Legend symbol denoting See Food and Health Bureau (2019, 2021b).} Thus, there have been calls for the Government to raise the penalty level which has been kept intact for two decades;^{11Legend symbol denoting See 東方日報(2020).}
  • (d)
    Inadequate technology adoption in refuse collection facilities: FEHD has been applying mechanized methods in some street sweeping and waste collection services, including the adoption of mechanical street sweepers and mini-street washing vehicles.^{12Legend symbol denoting To widen technology application, FEHD incorporates the requirement of adopting technologies proved effective into service contracts with cleansing contractors, subject to their compatibility with existing contracts. See Food and Health Bureau (2021a, 2022).} Meanwhile, after several years of consultation with different stakeholders, a new design of public litter bins had been unveiled with the award of production contract in May 2022 for field trial. The new design can improve efficiency by reducing physical strain of cleansing workers during waste collection; however, it does not come with any technology-enabled smart element.^{13Legend symbol denoting See Environmental Protection Department (2022), GovHK (2019, 2020) and 香港01 (2020).} While the Government has revealed that feasibility testing of various technologies (e.g. street leaf vacuum cleaner, solar-powered compacting refuse bins) is being conducted in designated areas (e.g. rural areas of Yuen Long District), some considered it necessary to expedite technology deployment and automation of street cleansing work;^{14Legend symbol denoting See Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene (2021) and 香港經濟民生聯盟(2020).} and
  • (e)
    Lacking continuity of cleansing campaigns and territory-wide monitoring: to enhance public awareness of their responsibility for street cleanliness, the Government from time to time carried out territory-wide inter-departmental cleansing campaigns. Under the campaigns, the Government stepped up cleansing work and inspections, and held publicity and public education activities with different themes (e.g. construction waste disposal, clean shorelines). The latest campaign of this type was the two-month "Keep Clean 2015 @ Hong Kong: Our Home" Campaign. Reportedly, however, many hygiene blackspots restored to their original conditions shortly after the campaign, casting doubt on the long-term effectiveness.^{15Legend symbol denoting See Food and Health Bureau (2015), Legislative Council Secretariat (2017) and 東方日報(2015).} It is notable that in 2004, the Government introduced the Community Cleanliness Index to monitor the cleanliness level of every district on a quarterly basis based on on-site rating of selected locations, but the monitoring work ceased in 2008 following a review of the index project after which the Government took the view that the index had achieved the intended objective of arousing community awareness of environmental hygiene. There have been voices in society demanding re-launch of the monitoring index to enable a more accurate grasp of the situation and evaluation of effectiveness.^{16Legend symbol denoting See GovHK (2009) and 香港01 (2022).}
• More recently, the Government has established the District Matters Co-ordination Task Force comprising various bureaux and departments to deal with the long-standing environmental hygiene and street management problems.^{17Legend symbol denoting The problems planned to be addressed by the task force include illegal refuse deposits, street obstruction, rodent infestation, water seepage in buildings, water dripping from air-conditioners and "garbage apartments". See GovHK (2022a).} Two phases of work have been set out, with the first being a three-month "Government Programme on Tackling Hygiene Black Spots", and the second on cityscape improvement work (e.g. improving street furniture). Meanwhile, the Task Force has pledged to (a) establish a standard mode of operation for handling inter-departmental problems; (b) supervise relevant bureaux and departments to set sustainable action plans, key performance indicators and a system for evaluating measures' effectiveness; (c) develop a mechanism for the community to monitor the Government's work; and (d) continue to promote community participation, publicity and education. Moreover, the Government will review relevant hygiene and sanitation legislation to consider the adequacy of the current penalty, among other matters.^{18Legend symbol denoting See GovHK (2022c).}

• Other highly urbanized places like Singapore, City of LA and NYC all strive to maintain or improve street cleanliness as well. Notable examples and practices adopted by these places are discussed below:

• In the past, Singapore was similar to Hong Kong in that different agencies were responsible for the cleansing of public areas within their remit (e.g. National Environment Agency ("NEA") for pavements and roads, National Parks Board for parks). To enable better delivery of public cleanliness services, the Division of Public Cleanliness ("DPC") was formed under NEA in 2012.^{19Legend symbol denoting DPC was formerly known as the Department of Public Cleanliness. See National Environment Agency (2020).} DPC has progressively consolidated public cleanliness responsibilities scattered across various agencies to achieve greater productivity and efficiency in public cleanliness.^{20Legend symbol denoting The cleansing of Housing & Development Board estates and town centres is still under the purview of Town Councils. See Centre for Liveable Cities, Singapore (2016) and Parliament of Singapore (2013).} All cleanliness-related reports made by citizens are centrally handled by DPC, which can avoid confusion and shorten the processing time.^{21Legend symbol denoting See Parliament of Singapore (2012).} Besides, the public can conveniently report public cleanliness issues and track the processing status through a mobile application "myENV" that provides integrated information and services about environment, water services and food safety.^{22Legend symbol denoting The information and services available in "myENV" cover weather, air quality, dengue hot spots, alerts on flash floods, water service disruptions, hawker centres, etc. See National Environment Agency (2021c).}

• Technology is increasingly used to tackle garbage problem and help maintain city cleanliness. In Singapore, sensors are installed on public litter bins at locations with high waste volume to detect their fill-level. Whenever the bins are almost filled, notifications will be issued to cleansing workers for timely clean-up. The sensors' records are useful for better bin distribution and schedule of bin clearing as well. Sensors, along with Global Positioning System and cameras, are also adopted in mechanical sweepers for road cleansing in Singapore. If work performed by sweepers does not meet the agreed standards (e.g. not following the scheduled cleansing route), alerts will be sent to officers concerned so that immediate request for rectifications can be made to contractors.^{23Legend symbol denoting See Eco-Business (2016), GovInsider (2020) and National Environment Agency (2021d).} Furthermore, the city is also developing autonomous environmental service vehicles ("AESVs") for road cleansing. Proof-of-concept trials of these AESVs^{24Legend symbol denoting In accordance with Singapore's safety framework for autonomous vehicle trials, AESVs are required to have a safety driver on board at all times, who is trained to take immediate control of the vehicles when needed. See National Environment Agency (2021d).} conducted in small-scale testbeds in 2021 has paved the way for the pilot deployment in the near future.^{25Legend symbol denoting This robotics solution for street cleansing work is part of the Environmental Robotics Programme, which is an initiative under the Environmental Services Industry Transformation Map unveiled in 2017 for improving productivity and promoting better jobs in the cleansing industry. See National Environment Agency (2021b, 2021d, 2022).}
• Across NYC, some 850 solar-powered smart compacting litter bins are deployed, accounting for 3.7% of the city's public litter bins.^{26Legend symbol denoting See NYC OpenData (2022).} The bins not only have the real-time notification function to enable prompt waste collection but also offer storage capacity several times more than traditional bins through the use of compactor inside. The deployment of smart bins in Times Square, the focal location in NYC, has proved a success in reducing the weekly frequency of waste collection per bin from an average of 28 to 14.6 times. It is estimated that the unit cost of smart bins including maintenance is approximately US$7,000 (HK$55,000), in comparison to the relatively modest cost of the ordinary ones at US$600 (HK$4,700) each. According to the NYC government, it would keep the current scale of deployment with continued evaluation.^{27Legend symbol denoting See Bigbelly, Inc (undated), City of New York (2017), New York City Department of Sanitation (2019) and New York Daily News (2021).}
• In City of LA, it has adopted a data-driven approach to monitor street cleanliness. City of LA is notably a pioneer city in the United States in conducting a regular cleanliness assessment of every street, namely CleanStat Program. The assessment commenced in 2016 and is carried out at least twice a year. Using a mobile application "ArcGIS Collector", the programme's crew take photos of each street segment with latitude and longitude marked, and rate each of which as "Clean", "Somewhat clean" or "Not clean" based on the following factors: (a) litter; (b) bulky items; (c) weeds; and (d) illegal dumping. The results are then released through an online map indicating the rating of each street segment for the public to monitor the cleanliness situation. The data so collected has uncovered factors contributing to heavily impacted areas (e.g. proximity to major highways is highly correlated to high level of illegal dumping), thereby enabling the city government to plan better routes for waste collection and prioritize street cleansing work and placement of new litter bins. Since the launch of the monitoring system, the proportion of street segments received the rating of "Clean" increased substantially from 61% in the first quarter of 2016 to 91% in mid-2021.^{28Legend symbol denoting See CBS Los Angeles (2016), Data-Smart City Solutions (2017) and LA Sanitation and Environment (2022b).} To reduce manpower requirement and provide ongoing real-time assessment, City of LA is collaborating with a university to develop a more automated assessment system which applies machine learning to street cleanliness rating based on video footage from cleansing vehicles.^{29Legend symbol denoting See Results for America (2018).}

• Piles of garbage bags placed on the roadside by businesses is a common phenomenon in NYC, which not only render hygienic issue but also take up significant pavement space.^{30Legend symbol denoting Businesses are in fact allowed to use containers of their choice for placing the bags of garbage on the roadside but the containers have to be removed shortly after waste collection. As such, businesses tend to simply place the bags direct on the roadside in front of their premises for collection, creating serious hygienic issues. See New York City Department of Sanitation (2022d) and The New York Times (2020).} In view of this, NYC runs the "Clean Curbs Pilot Program" allowing and subsidizing eligible businesses to deploy their own containers that must be sealed, rodent-proof, and meet other standards in terms of size, non-flammability, etc. Interested parties are required to submit their proposal including the concept/design of the proposed container and preferred siting for evaluation and approval. Successful applicants are responsible for purchasing, installing and maintaining their containers, but they will receive subsidies for the purchasing cost, at a maximum of US$20,000 (HK$157,000).^{31Legend symbol denoting Applicants will be selected for grant funding based on the (a) potential to improve waste management practices, cleanliness and/or quality of life (40%); (b) demonstration of need and/or equity (30%); and (c) capacity to execute on the project (30%). See New York City Department of Sanitation (2022b) and New York City Department of Sanitation et al. (2022).} The NYC government considers that sealed containers help keep streets tidy and alleviate problems associated with rodents and pests, so it has planned to extend the pilot programme to the entire city.^{32Legend symbol denoting See New York City Department of Sanitation (2022e).} Likewise in residential setting, a one-year pilot programme of a similar approach will be rolled out in late 2022. Initially, the government has selected six locations for installation of rodent-resistant containers based on data gathered during waste collection. Different from the "Clean Curbs Pilot Program", trash containers under this pilot are government-provided. They are lock-enabled and exclusively accessible by residential building staff and cleaning service workers. The programme's effectiveness and potential for implementing in other locations will be reviewed after the pilot period.^{33Legend symbol denoting See New York City Department of Sanitation (2022c).}

• To foster citizens' sense of responsibility to keep their surroundings clean, Singapore has been holding annual nationwide cleansing campaign since 1968 on a consecutive basis. The campaign was originally known as "Keep Singapore Clean" and lasted for one month every year, but was later rebranded to "Clean and Green Singapore" ("CGS"), promoted year-long with the dissemination of cleanliness messages through the mass media and an array of activities such as workshops and cleaning competitions.^{34Legend symbol denoting See Centre for Liveable Cities, Singapore (2016) and National Library Board (2012, 2016).} Specifically, SG Clean Day under CGS is held quarterly, during which there is no sweeping service in areas such as parks, gardens and even residential estates. To facilitate voluntary clean-ups, sheds (known as CleanPods) containing litter picking tools and equipment (e.g. buckets, garden carts) are introduced in the above places, and members of the public may use them for clean-up activities on their own initiative. In 2021, at least 20 000 users have registered their interest for clean-up activities and 280 organizations and groups have used the CleanPods.^{35Legend symbol denoting See National Environment Agency (2021a) and The Straits Times (2021).}
• Similarly, to encourage public participation, NYC has launched "Adopt-a-Basket Program" to invite businesses and organizations to help keep the city's public litter bins from overflowing, particularly in busy commercial areas where litter baskets are often filled quickly. Businesses and organizations can "adopt" a bin nearby. They will be provided with the necessary tools such as gloves and broom to clear the litter bin whenever it is full or nearly full. Such work includes replacing a new garbage bag, fastening the old ones and placing it next to the bin for collection by service workers. A certificate of appreciation for display will be presented to all participating organizations in recognition of their contribution to the community.^{36Legend symbol denoting See New York City Department of Sanitation (2022a).}

• While building a public cleanliness culture is imperative to environmental hygiene improvement, littering may still be a habit for some people, especially when deterrence is weak or non-existent. In this regard, Singapore takes strict enforcement actions against littering. For the first offence, a fixed penalty of S$300 (HK$1,670) comparable with that of Hong Kong will be imposed, but repeated offenders will be prosecuted with a higher fine which increases with the number of convictions.^{37Legend symbol denoting The maximum fine is S$2,000 (HK$11,100) for the first conviction and raise to S$4,000 (HK$22,200) for the second conviction, and further to S$10,000 (HK$55,500) for the third and subsequent convictions. See National Environment Agency (2019).} Most noteworthy is that repeated offenders may be required to perform Corrective Work Order ("CWO") which involves picking or sweeping up litter. CWO was introduced in 1992 with a view to imposing an deterrent effect while giving offenders the opportunity to experience the hardship faced by cleansing workers.^{38Legend symbol denoting See National Environment Agency (2019, 2020).} In 2019, Singapore stepped up efforts^{39Legend symbol denoting This is in view that the number of tickets issued for littering offences increased by 26% from 31 000 to 39 000 between 2016 and 2018. Over the same period, the number of CWOs issued saw a more significant growth of 53% from 1 700 to 2 600. See National Environment Agency (2019).} to deter offenders by posting notice boards around locations with CWO sessions to raise public attention, and making the design of vest worn by offenders during CWO session more distinguishable.^{40Legend symbol denoting The vest was previously in luminous yellow but some considered it like safety vests worn by workers. Therefore, the colour of the vest has been changed to dual luminous pink and yellow for easier identification. See National Environment Agency (2019).} The enhanced CWO appears to have exerted some deterrent effect, as the number of littering-related tickets issued dropping drastically from 39 000 in 2018 to 19 000 in 2020, although reduced number in the latter year might in part be explained by the COVID-19 social distancing measures.^{41Legend symbol denoting See National Environment Agency (2019, 2021e).}

• Unhygienic streets have wide-ranging impact on society, from public health and cityscape to citizens' well-being and even economic development. In Hong Kong, street cleansing issues have come under spotlight and the Government has recently established a task force to step up the efforts and improve the inter-departmental coordination. Like Hong Kong, Singapore's public cleansing responsibilities were fragmented in the past but it has since the 2010s progressively consolidated the work into a single dedicated division for higher efficiency. All three cities studied are increasingly adopting technology, such as rubbish bins equipped with sensors, solar power compactors, and data-driven cleanliness monitoring system. To improve the public hygiene in blackspots, NYC is trying out unconventional sealed garbage containers. While Singapore and NYC seek to enlist the public to voluntarily participate in cleansing programmes, the former also imposes rather deterrent legal consequence (i.e. CWO on top of fine penalty rising with number of convictions) on repeated littering offenders. Despite the varying circumstances in these places, their experience might still provide inspirations for Hong Kong to enhance street cleanliness from different perspectives.