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Integrated Waste Management Facilities
Objective
The IWMF aims to substantially reduce the bulk size of mixed MSW and to recover useful resources. It will minimize the landfilling of waste significantly, thereby extending the useful life of landfills in Hong Kong.
Technology
The IWMF will be developed in phases. The first phase will have a treatment capacity of 3,000 tonnes each day. It will adopt advanced incineration as the core treatment technology as well as a demonstration scale recycling plant for the recovery of recyclables from mixed MSW.
Environment and Health
The IWMF will adopt state-of-the-art technologies and pollution control measures. It will comply with the most stringent international emission standards for the protection of public health and the environment. Advanced technologies are able to reduce pollutant emissions from incineration very significantly. For example in Germany, the amount of waste incinerated in year 2000 doubled that in 1990, but due to the adoption of advance control technologies, the dioxin emission was only one-thousandth of that in 1990. Overseas experience and studies have also demonstrated that advanced incineration plants that complied with stringent emission standards would not cause adverse health impacts.
Benefits
Apart from avoiding the need to landfill more than 2,500 tonnes of waste each day and recovering nearly hundred tonnes of material (e.g. metals) each day, the first phase IWMF would recover energy from the MSW which could be turned to electricity for supply to more than 100,000 households in Hong Kong, thereby reducing the use of fossil fuel for electricity generation. The first phase of IWMF would contribute positively to the reduction of Green House Gas emission in Hong Kong.
Way Forward
A comprehensive site selection exercise that aimed to determine potential sites for developing the first phase IWMF was completed in January 2008. Two potential sites are identified, namely the Tsang Tsui Ash Lagoons sites in Tuen Mun and the Shek Kwu Chau site (to be reclaimed) to the south of Lantau Island. The government will conduct detailed engineering and environmental impact assessment studies for these two sites to ascertain their overall suitability. These studies would be completed in 2010 at which time a final choice of site could be made. Following tendering and construction, it is expected that the first phase IWMF would be commissioned in the middle of next decade.
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