Hong Kong produces too much waste, a problem that most people are becoming aware of thanks to the proliferation of recycling bins and news reports about the landfill shortage. But waste management is about much more than providing bins and landfills. Different kinds of waste require different solutions - and often have significant costs attached. The Environmental Protection Department (EPD)'s job is to ensure the most appropriate options are applied in Hong Kong.

		An artist's impression of the special facility for low-level radioactive waste. The Environmental Protection Department is building a special facility for low-level radioactive waste on Siu A Chau. The facility will meet international safety standards, have 24-hour radiological monitoring and open in 2004.

Waste can be reduced, re-used, recovered, recycled or converted into energy before landfilling is even considered. The EPD has developed programmes and built facilities of high international standards to transfer, treat and dispose of waste. Still, Hong Kong is producing more waste than our landfills can cope with. They will be full within the next seven to 11 years if waste loads continue to grow at the present rate. This poses a great challenge for the community, and the department. We will need to take tough decisions, and build on our past waste management experience and strengths, if future waste arisings are to be dealt with properly.

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Hong Kong produces 9 440 tonnes of municipal solid waste per day - enough to fill more than three Olympic-sized swimming pools. One of the first goals in managing waste is to reduce that amount so there is less waste to treat or dispose of. This is a considerable challenge for Hong Kong, given that municipal waste loads have increased by 1.6 per cent per year over the past five years while the population has grown by only 0.8 per cent.

(Top) An exhibition on the Waste Recycling Campaign in Housing Estates. (Middle) Used electrical and electronic items collected by St James' Settlement are either donated to the needy if still in working condition, or dismantled to recover materials for recycling. (Bottom) The Hon Elsie Leung, GMB, JP, Secretary for Justice and Mr Mike Stokoe, Deputy Director (centre right and left, front row), with other guests at the presentation ceremony of the Wastewi$e Scheme.

Municipal waste is waste produced by households, commerce and industry. About 41 per cent is now recycled - a jump of five per cent over 2002 due to an exceptionally high demand for waste metal - but only a relatively small portion of the total comes from the domestic sector, which recycles around 14 per cent of its waste. Several programmes therefore have been introduced to improve waste recovery from households. The largest is the Waste Recycling Campaign in Housing Estates which began as a pilot programme with 41 housing estates in 1998. It now reaches more than 1 333 estates covering some 1.58 million households. In 2003 the campaign collected over 146 000 tonnes of waste paper, 9 000 tonnes of aluminium cans and 1 000 tonnes of plastic bottles (see Community Awareness chapter for details).

New programmes have also been introduced on a pilot basis to collect used products, such as computers and electrical goods, which do not have a ready market. They are either re-furbished or dismantled to recover metals and other recyclable materials. The principle here is not for the government to provide a recycling service, but to determine the viability of recovering these materials so producers can take on the responsibility themselves, passing on costs to customers if necessary. Many other places have already adopted product responsibility schemes, such as Europe, Japan and Mainland China, and Hong Kong lags far behind in this area.

Hong Kong's first attempt at product responsibility was with mobile phone batteries, starting on a voluntary basis in 2002. The response was lower than expected, indicating more work needed to be done to understand the markets, logistics and feasibility of these schemes. Eventually, mandatory schemes may be required. In 2003, new pilot schemes were introduced in partnership with two community organisations, the Caritas Youth and Community Service and the St James' Settlement. The Caritas group collects computers, while the St James' Settlement is collecting electrical and electronic equipment. Items that are still in working condition are donated to the needy and the rest are dismantled to recover materials for recycling. The EPD also ran a trial scheme to collect used tyres for recycling and is now consulting tyre associations, car owners and other stakeholders on the best arrangement, should it be decided to go for large-scale recovery.

Apart from testing the feasibility of recycling specific types of waste, the government is also trying to get more people into the habit of separating their waste. A dry-wet waste separation trial began in March 2003 involving residents from four housing estates. Each household was provided with green bags for dry, recyclable waste and black bags for wet, non-recyclable waste. During the first six months of the 12-month trial, more than 1 000 green bags were collected each day.

All the above measures will help to ensure that 40 per cent of municipal waste is recycled by 2007. That target was laid down by the government during a review of the Waste Reduction Framework Plan in 2001. While the continued growth in municipal waste is a long-term concern, a more urgent problem is construction waste.

About 7 000 tonnes of construction waste were deposited in landfills each day in 2003 - roughly 40 per cent of the total waste being dumped. The figure fluctuates from year to year, but is rarely below 7 000 tonnes per day. The seven to 11 years of life left in existing landfills could be reduced to only four to seven years if no suitable outlets for inert construction material are identified.

One way of reducing construction waste is to separate inert materials, such as earth and rocks, for re-use. The material can be used in reclamation sites and has also been tested for use in concrete, roads and drainage channels. To encourage more waste separation, the government required public works contractors to include a waste management plan in their tenders from 1 July 2003, which outlines how contractors will carry out on-site sorting and minimise waste generation. Their performance is monitored and, if the plan is correctly carried out, they receive special payment under their contract. Work is proceeding to introduce a similar plan for private sector projects.

Another way to reduce waste is to charge producers directly for waste handling or disposal. This is a practice carried out in most countries, from Vietnam and Peru to Sweden and Canada. A long-standing proposal on construction waste charges was tabled before the Legislative Council in December 2003 and is awaiting approval. Inert material brought to a public fill (reclamation) site would be charged $27 per tonne. Mixed waste that contains at least half inert material could be brought to a sorting facility at $100 per tonne. Mixed waste with less than half inert material could be disposed of at landfills at $125 per tonne. These charges are in the low to middle range of that charged by other countries. By introducing charges, Hong Kong would be joining most of the rest of the world in making waste producers shoulder some of the cost of waste management.

Reducing waste loads at source is a major priority for the EPD, but it will not stop waste from arising. Another strand in waste management is to reduce the bulk of waste before it is disposed of, thereby extending the life of landfills.

The large quantities of waste generated daily in Hong Kong, combined with the limited availability of land, means waste treatment needs to be an integral part of how we manage waste. Until the early 1990s, Hong Kong used incinerators, but these were built to outdated standards and were polluting. In 2002 the EPD invited Expressions of Interest from Hong Kong and international operators on waste treatment options. 59 proposals were received and, in the past year, studies have been conducted on their technical and land requirements, costs, life cycles and environmental impacts. An advisory group comprising mostly non-officials, including key stakeholders, is overseeing the studies.

The proposals have been categorised into six types: composting, anaerobic digestion, gasification, a combination of mechanical and biological treatment, combustion of fuel derived from waste for the production of cement, and incineration. Some might be surprised to see incineration on the list, but modern incinerators meet much higher environmental standards than in the past and are being built in advanced countries such as Sweden and Germany. No decisions will be made until after a public consultation in 2004.

(Left) An integrated waste management facility to recover materials and energy from waste in the Netherlands (Courtesy of Lurgi Lentjes AG). (Right) Chemical Waste Treatment Centre at Tsing Yi.

Apart from treating waste to reduce its bulk, treatment is also required when the waste is hazardous or of a difficult nature. The EPD has operated a composting plant for livestock waste since 1991 and a Chemical Waste Treatment Centre since 1993. The chemical waste facility, on Tsing Yi Island, is equipped to treat a wide range of chemical and hazardous waste. New equipment was acquired in 2003 to handle mercury-containing waste such as fluorescent tubes and energy-saving light bulbs.

		(Left) Collection of clinical waste from a medical facility. (Right) Disposal of clinical waste at a landfill site. Clinical waste requires special handling. Currently, the waste is disposed of in specially dug trenches in two sanitary landfills managed by the EPD. In 2003 the EPD introduced an amendment to the Legislative Council to control the collection and disposal of clinical waste. Medical personnel would have to store the waste safely and hand it over to a licensed collector. The waste would be sent to the Chemical Waste Treatment Centre for incineration. The scheme was devised after extensive consultations with the medical community and is awaiting LegCo's approval.

Even after treating waste to reduce it, and after reducing waste arisings in the first place, there will still be considerable quantities requiring disposal. Hong Kong's three strategic landfills were supposed to last until 2020 when first planned in 1989. But the unforeseen growth in waste loads means they will only last until 2011-5, depending on the landfill site, leaving barely enough time to build another facility. The waste reduction and treatment measures described above will not be sufficient to buy more time for these landfills because many will come on stream too late.

Operations of Hong Kong Waste Treatment and Disposal Facilities Click to Enlarge

Hong Kong needs another 500 million tonnes of landfill capacity to meet our needs up to 2050. The existing landfills currently can provide 100 million tonnes. If they were extended, an additional 100 million tonnes of capacity could be created. The remaining 300 million tonnes of capacity would need to be found from another source. Solving the landfill shortage will take time, but in 2003 several steps were taken towards addressing this problem. A study on extending the existing landfills and identifying potential new landfill sites was completed in April 2003. It recommended that the proposed landfill extensions be acted on immediately. A detailed feasibility study and environmental impact assessment will be carried out on each individual landfill in 2004. On potential new landfill sites, the study noted that Hong Kong only had two or three options, given its limited land resources, and it was recommended that work proceed immediately to identify the most suitable site. The public will be consulted on both the extension of existing landfills and the building of new landfills.

(Top left) Island East Refuse Transfer Station (Top right) West Kowloon Refuse Transfer Station (Bottom left) North West New Territories Refuse Transfer Station (Bottom right) Island West Refuse Transfer Station

Hong Kong's waste crisis is severe. Difficult decisions need to be taken in the next few years on which new waste management facilities to adopt, where they should be built and how they should be paid for. These will require input from everyone in the community - and understanding. As described here, waste management is a complex topic. It is not enough to dig a hole and dump our waste. We must adopt safe ways of dealing with our waste for the sake of people's health and the environment. Managing waste is not just the responsibility of the government, but
one that everyone in the community must share.

		Electronic waste, including computer waste, can contain hazardous materials (such as toxic heavy metals) and cathode ray tubes. In 2003 it was noticed that used computer monitors and TV sets disguised as "for re-sale" were being shipped through Hong Kong to small villages in Guangdong for the dismantling and recovery of usable parts and materials. The methods used were often primitive. The EPD is a designated authority under the Basel Convention to control shipments of hazardous wastes in Hong Kong, so it alerted other member countries to the problem, including Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Canada where most of the waste had come from. They were asked to take steps to stop further illegal shipments and have responded well to the request. The EPD also worked with officials on the Mainland in joint operations to stop the illegal shipment of electronic waste. One Mainlander who was caught in Hong Kong was jailed for two months for exporting hazardous electronic waste without a permit.

		Landfills can have life in them after they reach capacity. A landfill at Sai Tso Wan, which operated between 1978 and 1980, has now been restored and converted into a grass soccer field and Hong Kong's first international baseball pitch. It also features a playground and jogging track. The facility started being restored in 1998 when pollution control measures, such as systems to monitor and collect landfill gas and leachate, were installed. It has also recently been equipped with wind and solar energy systems and a surface water recycling system. One issue for both existing and old landfills is landfill gas, which can either be burned off or collected for use as a non-fossil fuel source of energy. The EPD has been investigating sources for the gas and in 2003 was preparing a programme to sell landfill gas from the Northeast New Territories landfill to public utilities operators.