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1. As described in
Chapter 3 Organisation and Governance, the EPD
is funded from the Government's General Revenue Account. The total expenditure
for 2005 was $2.064 billion.
2. Looking ahead,
we have major projects coming up for waste management and sewage treatment
that will have financial implications for the community. The Government
will pay the capital costs of new facilities out of its coffers. For waste,
we need to spend over $8 billion to extend our landfills, plus an as-yet-unspecified
amount on integrated waste management facilities. For water, we will spend
$8.1 billion by 2013-14 to build Stage 2A of the Harbour
Area Treatment Scheme (HATS). However, the public should pay for the
operating costs of these facilities, in accordance with the principle
of polluter pays.
Polluter Pays
3. To help alleviate
the financial burden on taxpayers and encourage less wasteful habits,
the Government has increasingly adopted the polluter pays principle in
various policy areas. Currently, chemical waste producers pay part of
the cost of treating their waste, while homes and businesses pay a portion
of sewage treatment costs. In 2005, the EPD proposed adopting the polluter
pays principle in waste management policy. We also worked on proposals
to seek full recovery of sewage treatment costs.
| i. |
The Waste Disposal Ordinance was amended to enable
charges
for construction waste disposal. The charges, effective from
20 January 2006, will see waste producers pay $27 per tonne to dispose
of inert construction waste at a public fill reception facility
and $100 per tonne at a sorting facility if the waste contains more
than 50% (by weight) inert material. They can dispose of construction
waste at landfills only if it contains not more than 50% (by weight)
inert material, at $125 per tonne. Moreover, legislation on municipal
solid waste charging will be introduced into the Legislative Council
in 2007.
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| ii. |
A proposal to revise the sewage charges is being
developed, with the goal of putting it before the Legislative Council
in 2006. The Government currently spends $1 billion on sewage treatment
annually, which will increase by more than 50% when Stage 2A of
the HATS is commissioned. Households pay only half their share while
heavy polluters pay about 80% of the cost of treating the excess
pollution they produce. The proposal will aim to gradually increase
sewage charges to recover the full cost of sewage treatment.
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| A truck driver hands a chit to the
weighbridge operator at a landfill site. |
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| Household sewage charges are collected as part of the water
bill. |
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