CO129-627-2 Fertilizer factory new territories- contains drawings 1-12-1950 - 31-1-1952 — Page 34

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EC/254/25.

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34

22nd December, 1951.

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The impression we have arrived at as the result of our enquiries is that although there is much discussion and dissemination of literature concerning sewerage-cum-refuse composting, the body of scientific knowledge does not in the United Kingdom at least appear to have yet been thoroughly synthesized and collated. It would thus probably be impracticable to find anyone in the United Kingdom who could be regarded as a complete authority on all aspects of the matter.

It was the opinion of those with whom we discussed the matter and this endorses the general lines followed so far in connection with the Hong Kong installation - that each plant must be designed specially to suit the particular local conditions and that these conditions must be thoroughly studied before design is undertaken. If the most satisfactory results are to be consistently obtained seasonal changes, e.g. rainfall, may be an important factor.

It appears that composting on the large scale envisaged for Hong Kong has yet to be put into practice, and, this being so, whether it would be advisable to set into operation a plant of this size before a pilot plant had been designed and erected and the results observed is open to considerable doubt.

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There may be analytical data available in Hong Kong as regards the town refuse and from the small scale composting operations now apparently in operation at Tsun Wan as regards the composted product, and, if so, this will doubtless be of assistance to those who take over the formulation of the Scheme and shorten the time required before a full scale plant could be confidently designed. Mr. Brunt's Report shows that a considerable amount of miscellaneous data has been collected but checking, verification and expansion seem indicated as a natural corollary

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The whole matter can be roughly divided into four components Scientific, Civil Engineering, manufacture of plant, and marketing of product. Whether the first two have as yet been sufficiently examined is possibly open to doubt, and if this doubt is valid an attempt at this stage to formulate a full scale constructional scheme on which a realistic estimate could be based may lead to disappointment later.

It can be assumed that the Mitchell Group will be mainly interested in the manufacturing side, although they informed us that a present member of their staff had been working on the general question of composting for a number of years.

The Scientific and Engineering aspects are of at least equal importance, and in respect of the latter of these it appears from Mr. Brunt's Report that the cost of the actual mechanical plant would only be one factor in the cost of the whole installation.

It seems that considerable Civil Engineering work, in which the Public Works Department will be interested, may be required, and I am not sure to what extent that Department has been concerned with events up to the present.

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