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Hong Kong's Chemical Waste Treatment Centre has provided the reception service since April 1993.
To promote the pollution prevention objective, ocean-going ships are currently disposing of MARPOL wastes through the centre free of charge.
"The initial free service has meet the objective. In keeping with the polluter pays principle, it is appropriate for ship operators to contribute to the cost of waste treatment and a fee should be imposed on ocean-going ships for the use of the centre.
"Being generators of operating wastes, ships have an obligation to contribute to the disposal, treatment and collection costs. There is no reason for the public to shoulder all the costs; some parts should come under commercial overheads," the spokesman said.
The charging scheme for ocean-going ships comprises two components: collection and treatment; and should recover about 20 per cent of the variable operating costs of the centre in respect of MARPOL waste treatment and all the associated administrative costs.
The charges are set to be comparable to those charged by some major ports, and have excluded the fixed operating costs of the Chemical Waste Treatment Centre in respect of MARPOL waste treatment.
"The fixed operating costs of the Chemical Waste Treatment Centre representing about 13 per cent of the total operating costs, is to be borne by the Government," the spokesman said.
Upon the implementation of the charging scheme, ship operators are not expected to risk prosecution by avoiding proper discharge and dumping MARPOL wastes indiscriminately into the sea.
The spokesman said: "It is not a compulsory requirement for ships to use the centre. There are third party operators which may offer collection services."
The Director of Marine, who is the authority administrating the charging scheme, has the statutory power to deal with illegal discharge of MARPOL wastes ⚫from ships, and will step up enforcement efforts should this become a problem.
The spokesman said it was unlikely that the charging scheme would lead to a serious worsening of marine environment.
End/Wednesday, July 12, 1995