8:30am-9:15am: littering fine

8:30am-9:15am: Paul Zimmerman, Southern District Councillor

8:30am-9:00am: Lawrence Iu, executive director, Civic Exchange

9:00am-9:15am: Beatrice Siu, Senior Office of Public Affairs, Greeners Action

9:15am-9:25am: menopause

9:15am-9:25am: Dr Vivian Wong Taam, honorary president of the Hong Kong Association for Integration of Chinese-Western medicine 

9:25am-9:30am: World Cup

9:25am-9:30am: Atom Cheung, RTHK sports reporter

On Thursday’s Backchat, we‘re looking at the government’s proposal to double the littering fine to HK$3,000, to boost its deterrent effect.

It’s also looking at quadrupling the penalty for illegal shop extensions and the illegal dumping of construction waste to HK$6,000.

In a paper submitted to Legco, the government said it was necessary to raise the statutory penalties , to sustain, consolidate and enhance environmental hygiene in the long run.

The proposal comes as the number of fixed penalty notices for offences of Obstruction of Public Places almost doubled from 2019 to 2021, according to figures from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department.

So how effective will higher penalties be? What impact will it have on Hong Kong’s effort to reduce overall waste?

After 9:15 we’ll look at calls for the government to provide better support for women going through menopause?

And at 9:25 we‘ll get the latest World Cup update from our sports correspondent