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The Environment
Landfills
All municipal solid waste is disposed of at three large strategic landfills in the New Territories, which are operated to high environmental standards. To maintain an uninterrupted waste disposal service to the public, all three landfills need to be extended.
In 2015, the landfills handled 3.71 million tonnes of municipal solid waste. About 64 per cent was domestic waste and the remainder was commercial and industrial waste. On average, each person disposed of about 1.39kg of municipal solid waste daily. With the ongoing extension of two of the three landfills, the landfill space is estimated to be able to cope with the territory's waste disposal needs up to the late 2020s. A detailed study is under way on how to extend the serviceable life of the remaining landfill space to the mid-2030s.
Hong Kong has 13 restored landfills and some of them have been developed for public use. A Restored Landfill Revitalisation Funding Scheme, launched in 2015, funds the development of recreational facilities and other innovative proposals.
Planned Infrastructure
Hong Kong needs state-of-the-art, cost-effective facilities to deal with the large volume of non- recyclable waste and reduce the volume that requires landfill disposal. It needs a multi- technology approach so different types of waste can be dealt with by the most suitable technology. The first phase of the government's large-scale Integrated Waste Management Facility, to be built on an artificial island near Shek Kwu Chau, will adopt advanced incineration as its core technology to cut the waste volume by 90 per cent and to turn waste into energy, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emission. LegCo has approved the funding proposal and the facility is scheduled for commissioning in 2023-24. The territory also plans to build a network of five or six organic waste treatment facilities that will use biological treatment technologies to turn source-separated food waste into useful resources such as biogas, with compost as a by- product. The first such facility, at Siu Ho Wan, North Lantau, is under construction and is due to be commissioned in 2017.
These high-tech facilities do not eliminate the need for waste reduction at source. Landfills are still needed to hold residual waste. A study on planning future waste management and transfer facilities is under way to identify more strategic and regional waste facilities for handling solid
waste.
Chemical, Clinical and Special Waste
All chemical waste producers are required to pack, label and store their chemical waste properly before disposal at licensed treatment facilities. A trip ticket system tracks the movement of chemical waste from its origin to the final disposal point. The Chemical Waste Treatment Centre on Tsing Yi Island, operated by a government contractor, treated a daily average of 31.4 tonnes of chemical waste and 6.2 tonnes of clinical waste in 2015. Waste producers using its services pay part of the treatment cost.
The Low-level Radioactive Waste Storage Facility at Siu A Chau, an uninhabited island southwest of Lantau, is purpose-built to meet stringent international standards for the safe storage of low-
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