1993 — Page 108

Urban Council Proceedings 市政局議事錄 All AI Reviewed

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216

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

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217

3. MR. MA LEE-WO asked the following question (in Cantonese):—The three concepts commonly accepted as the most important in promoting environmental awareness are the '3Rs': Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The Urban Council is the collection authority responsible for the collection of household waste. What programs have we done to promote and put the 3Rs into practice regarding waste collection? If none, will the Urban Council consider launching waste reduction and recycling programmes (i.e., separate collection of waste) to show our keen support and contribution to building a better environment in Hong Kong?

MR. WONG SHUI-LAI, VICE-CHAIRMAN OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in English):—This question asks what Council programmes are in place, if any, concerning the reduction, re-use, and recycling of waste.

The Urban Council, as the Collection Authority, is in favour of waste separation and reduction and is actively supporting recycling. For the present, to show Council's support for the '3Rs', the Urban Services Department has taken several initiatives to implement various supporting schemes. These include:

(a) Carrying out a waste paper recycling scheme by placing waste paper collection bins in transport termini and public thoroughfares in Central District. The scheme is ongoing and serves to remind the public to participate in conserving our environment by recycling waste paper. To further arouse public awareness and concern, the scheme will be extended to Yau Tsim District sometime in March.

(b) Assigning dedicated teams to collect waste tyres separately for treatment by EPD.

(c) Provision of logistical support to waste recycling and minimization activities organized by schools and other organizations.

(d) Establishment of an office paper recycling scheme within Urban Council venues and offices of the Urban Services Department to promote environmental awareness among office workers.

(e) Encouraging the management of private housing estates to establish paper recycling schemes within the estates.

(f) Disseminating the message of using fewer plastic bags in markets and retail outlets. The Department is represented in the Working Group on Plastic Bags (Wet Market) formed by the Consumer Council to work out a strategy to reduce the use of plastic bags. In the meantime, thousands of cloth shopping bags have been distributed as give-away items to the public to promote the concepts of re-use and 'Bring Your Own Bag' (BYOB). Efforts have also been made to promote the concept of BYOB further by requesting UC market stall operators to use fewer plastic bags in their daily operation.

(g) Incorporating the concept of '3Rs' in Keep Hong Kong Clean Campaign activities.

The Council is the Collection Authority in the urban area responsible for the collection of domestic waste amounting to 3,100 tonnes a day. At present, the Council's resources are dedicated to maintaining an efficient domestic waste collection service, and clearly, this service currently in place does not encompass any sort of segregation of sorted waste at refuse collection points (RCPs).

A prerequisite to the collection of segregated waste by the Council would be that the Administration (as Waste Disposal Authority) must decide that it wishes, as a policy matter, to establish facilities for the reception of segregated waste. In such an event, and were Council, as a consequence, to become involved in a comprehensive waste separation scheme, the additional resource input required would be major and would involve, inter alia, a significant increase in the number of refuse collection vehicles; new categories and numbers of waste receptacles; significant additional staff; and, by no means least, the need to enlarge all on-street and off-street RCPs, assuming such enlargement would be practically possible. The financial and other resource implications for the Council have not been assessed in any detail but would be very considerable indeed.

The system of domestic waste collection in Hong Kong is rather unique. Numerous private refuse collectors (PRCs) are employed to collect household refuse for delivery to Council's refuse collection vehicles at the RCPs. During the operation of the PRCs, most of the recyclable materials from the refuse have been sorted out for sale to waste processors or recycling establishments. The level of such recycling activity in Hong Kong is higher than in most other jurisdictions. For example, some 36% of the domestic waste stream is extracted for recycling, by export or by domestic reprocessing. The annual level of recycling of certain items is especially high: paper—510,000 tonnes, ferrous metals—400,000 tonnes, non-ferrous metals—163,000 tonnes, plastics—241,000 tonnes. The result of this activity is that most items which can be readily extracted from the waste stream for recycling have already been extracted. Extending recycling activities for additional items, especially those from contaminated post-consumer waste, will not therefore be easy. It would require, on the part of the Waste Disposal Authority, significant new inputs in terms of plant and equipment.

In fact, the amount of waste collected by the Council (daily 3,100 tonnes) only represents 10% of Hong Kong's total waste yield. The general interest of Environmental Hygiene would surely be better served by, in the first instance, focusing on other categories of waste (i.e., construction or demolition waste) rather than the 80% putrescent waste deposited at the disposal facilities by the Council waste collection service. That other categories of waste should receive primary focus is certainly the view of the Administration.

In countries such as Germany, France, Canada, and the United States, stringent laws have been introduced for the separation of recyclable materials by households. However, experience shows that practically, the marketplace cannot readily absorb the separated waste, resulting in piles of waste paper, scrap metal, and plastic waste being stored at sorting plants and storage grounds waiting for delivery to reprocessing or recycling plants. This problem has yet to be solved.

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Page 108 of 132 216 HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL Page 108 of 132 217 3. MR. MA LEE-WO asked the following question (in Cantonese):—The three concepts commonly accepted as the most important in promoting environmental awareness are the '3Rs': Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The Urban Council is the collection authority responsible for the collection of household waste. What programs have we done to promote and put the 3Rs into practice regarding waste collection? If none, will the Urban Council consider launching waste reduction and recycling programmes (i.e., separate collection of waste) to show our keen support and contribution to building a better environment in Hong Kong? MR. WONG SHUI-LAI, VICE-CHAIRMAN OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in English):—This question asks what Council programmes are in place, if any, concerning the reduction, re-use, and recycling of waste. The Urban Council, as the Collection Authority, is in favour of waste separation and reduction and is actively supporting recycling. For the present, to show Council's support for the '3Rs', the Urban Services Department has taken several initiatives to implement various supporting schemes. These include: (a) Carrying out a waste paper recycling scheme by placing waste paper collection bins in transport termini and public thoroughfares in Central District. The scheme is ongoing and serves to remind the public to participate in conserving our environment by recycling waste paper. To further arouse public awareness and concern, the scheme will be extended to Yau Tsim District sometime in March. (b) Assigning dedicated teams to collect waste tyres separately for treatment by EPD. (c) Provision of logistical support to waste recycling and minimization activities organized by schools and other organizations. (d) Establishment of an office paper recycling scheme within Urban Council venues and offices of the Urban Services Department to promote environmental awareness among office workers. (e) Encouraging the management of private housing estates to establish paper recycling schemes within the estates. (f) Disseminating the message of using fewer plastic bags in markets and retail outlets. The Department is represented in the Working Group on Plastic Bags (Wet Market) formed by the Consumer Council to work out a strategy to reduce the use of plastic bags. In the meantime, thousands of cloth shopping bags have been distributed as give-away items to the public to promote the concepts of re-use and 'Bring Your Own Bag' (BYOB). Efforts have also been made to promote the concept of BYOB further by requesting UC market stall operators to use fewer plastic bags in their daily operation. (g) Incorporating the concept of '3Rs' in Keep Hong Kong Clean Campaign activities. The Council is the Collection Authority in the urban area responsible for the collection of domestic waste amounting to 3,100 tonnes a day. At present, the Council's resources are dedicated to maintaining an efficient domestic waste collection service, and clearly, this service currently in place does not encompass any sort of segregation of sorted waste at refuse collection points (RCPs). A prerequisite to the collection of segregated waste by the Council would be that the Administration (as Waste Disposal Authority) must decide that it wishes, as a policy matter, to establish facilities for the reception of segregated waste. In such an event, and were Council, as a consequence, to become involved in a comprehensive waste separation scheme, the additional resource input required would be major and would involve, inter alia, a significant increase in the number of refuse collection vehicles; new categories and numbers of waste receptacles; significant additional staff; and, by no means least, the need to enlarge all on-street and off-street RCPs, assuming such enlargement would be practically possible. The financial and other resource implications for the Council have not been assessed in any detail but would be very considerable indeed. The system of domestic waste collection in Hong Kong is rather unique. Numerous private refuse collectors (PRCs) are employed to collect household refuse for delivery to Council's refuse collection vehicles at the RCPs. During the operation of the PRCs, most of the recyclable materials from the refuse have been sorted out for sale to waste processors or recycling establishments. The level of such recycling activity in Hong Kong is higher than in most other jurisdictions. For example, some 36% of the domestic waste stream is extracted for recycling, by export or by domestic reprocessing. The annual level of recycling of certain items is especially high: paper—510,000 tonnes, ferrous metals—400,000 tonnes, non-ferrous metals—163,000 tonnes, plastics—241,000 tonnes. The result of this activity is that most items which can be readily extracted from the waste stream for recycling have already been extracted. Extending recycling activities for additional items, especially those from contaminated post-consumer waste, will not therefore be easy. It would require, on the part of the Waste Disposal Authority, significant new inputs in terms of plant and equipment. In fact, the amount of waste collected by the Council (daily 3,100 tonnes) only represents 10% of Hong Kong's total waste yield. The general interest of Environmental Hygiene would surely be better served by, in the first instance, focusing on other categories of waste (i.e., construction or demolition waste) rather than the 80% putrescent waste deposited at the disposal facilities by the Council waste collection service. That other categories of waste should receive primary focus is certainly the view of the Administration. In countries such as Germany, France, Canada, and the United States, stringent laws have been introduced for the separation of recyclable materials by households. However, experience shows that practically, the marketplace cannot readily absorb the separated waste, resulting in piles of waste paper, scrap metal, and plastic waste being stored at sorting plants and storage grounds waiting for delivery to reprocessing or recycling plants. This problem has yet to be solved. Page 108 of 132

Baseline (Original)

Page 108 of 132 216 HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL Page 108 of 132 217 3. MR. MA LEE-Wo asked the following question (in Cantonese):—The three commonly accepted as the most important concepts in promoting environmental awareness are the '3Rs': Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Urban Council is the collection authority responsible for the collection of household waste. What programs have we done to promote and to put the 3Rs into practice with regard to waste collection? If none, will Urban Council consider to launch waste reduction and recycling programmes (i.e. separate collection of waste) to show our keen support and contribution in building a better environment in Hong Kong? MR. WONG SHUI-LAI, VICE-CHAIRMAN OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in English):—This question asks what Council programmes are in place, if any, in respect of the reduction, re-use and recycling of waste. The Urban Council as the Collection Authority is in favour of waste separation and reduction and is actively supporting recycling. For the present, to show Council's support in the '3Rs', the Urban Services Department has taken a number of initiatives to implement various supporting schemes. These include:- (a) Carrying out a waste paper recycling scheme by placing waste paper collection bins in transport termini and public thoroughfares in Central District. The scheme is on-going and serves to remind the public to participate in conserving our environment by recycling waste paper. To further arouse public awareness and concern, the scheme will be extended to Yau Tsim District sometime in March. (b) Assigning dedicated teams to collect waste tyres separately for treatment by EPD. (c) Provision of logistical support to waste recycling and minimization activities organised by schools and other organisations. (d) Establishment of an office paper recycling scheme within Urban Council venues and offices of the Urban Services Department so as to promote environmental awareness among office workers. (e) Encouraging the management of private housing estates to establish paper recycling schemes within the estates. (f) Disseminating the message of using less plastic bags in markets and retail outlets. The Department is represented in the Working Group on Plastic Bags (Wet Market) formed by the Consumer Council to work out a strategy to reduce the use of plastic bags. In the mean time, thousands of cloth shopping bags have been distributed as give-away items to the public to promote the concepts of re-use and 'Bring Your Own Bag' (BYOB). Efforts have also been made to promote the concept of BYOB further by requesting UC market stall operators to use fewer plastic bags in their daily operation. (g) Incorporating the concept of '3Rs' in Keep Hong Kong Clean Campaign activities. Page 108 of 132 The Council is the Collection Authority in the urban area responsible for the collection of domestic waste amounting to 3 100 tonnes a day. At present the Council's resources are dedicated to maintaining an efficient domestic waste collection service and clearly this service currently in place does not encompass any sort or segregation of sorted waste at refuse collection points (RCPs). A prerequisite to collection of segregated waste by the Council would be that the Administration (as Waste Disposal Authority) must decide that it wishes as a policy matter to establish facilities for the reception of segregated waste. In such an event, and were Council as a consequence to become involved in a comprehensive waste separation scheme, the additional resource input required would be major and would involve inter alia a significant increase in the number of refuse collection vehicles; new categories and numbers of waste receptacles; significant additional staff and by no means least, the need to enlarge all on-street and off-street RCPs, assuming such enlargement would be practically possible. The financial and other resource implication to Council have not been assessed in any detail but would be very considerable indeed. The system of domestic waste collection in Hong Kong is rather unique. Numerous private refuse collectors (PRCs) are employed to collect household refuse for delivery to Council's refuse collection vehicles at the RCPS. During the operation of the PRCS most of the recyclable materials from the refuse have been sorted out for sale to waste processors or recycling establishments. The level of such recycling activity in Hong Kong is higher than in most other jurisdictions. For example, some 36% of the domestic waste stream is extracted for recycling, by export or by domestic reprocessing. The annual level of recycling of certain items is especially high: paper-510 000 tonnes, ferrous metals 400 000 tonnes, non-ferrous metals-163 000 tonnes, plastics-241 000 tonnes. The result of this activity is that most items which can be readily extracted from the waste stream for recycling have already been extracted. Extending recycling activities for additional items especially those from contaminated post-consumer waste will not therefore be easy. It would require on the part of the Waste Disposal Authority, significant new inputs in terms of plant and equipment. In fact the amount of waste collected by the Council (daily 3 100 tonnes) only represents 10% of the Hong Kong's total waste yield. The general interest of Environmental Hygiene would surely be better served by, in the first instance, focusing on other categories of waste (i.e. construction or demolition waste) rather than the 80% putresable waste deposited at the disposal facilities by the Council waste collection service. That other categories of waste should receive primary focus is certainly the view of the Administration. In countries such as Germany, France, Canada and the United States, stringent laws have been introduced for separation of recyclable materials by households. However experience shows that practically the marketplace cannot readily absorb the separated waste resulting in piles of waste paper, scrap metal and plastic waste being stored at sorting plants and storage grounds waiting for delivery to reprocessing or recycling plants. This problem has yet to be solved. Page 108 of 132

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Page 108 of 132

216

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

Page 108 of 132

217

3. MR. MA LEE-Wo asked the following question (in Cantonese):—The three commonly accepted as the most important concepts in promoting environmental awareness are the '3Rs': Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Urban Council is the collection authority responsible for the collection of household waste. What programs have we done to promote and to put the 3Rs into practice with regard to waste collection? If none, will Urban Council consider to launch waste reduction and recycling programmes (i.e. separate collection of waste) to show our keen support and contribution in building a better environment in Hong Kong?

MR. WONG SHUI-LAI, VICE-CHAIRMAN OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in English):—This question asks what Council programmes are in place, if any, in respect of the reduction, re-use and recycling

of waste.

The Urban Council as the Collection Authority is in favour of waste separation and reduction and is actively supporting recycling. For the present, to show Council's support in the '3Rs', the Urban Services Department has taken a number of initiatives to implement various supporting schemes. These include:-

(a) Carrying out a waste paper recycling scheme by placing waste paper collection bins in transport termini and public thoroughfares in Central District. The scheme is on-going and serves to remind the public to participate in conserving our environment by recycling waste paper. To further arouse public awareness and concern, the scheme will be extended to Yau Tsim District sometime in March.

(b) Assigning dedicated teams to collect waste tyres separately for treatment

by EPD.

activities organised by schools and other organisations.

(d) Establishment of an office paper recycling scheme within Urban Council venues and offices of the Urban Services Department so as to promote environmental awareness among office workers.

(e) Encouraging the management of private housing estates to establish

paper recycling schemes within the estates.

(f) Disseminating the message of using less plastic bags in markets and retail outlets. The Department is represented in the Working Group on Plastic Bags (Wet Market) formed by the Consumer Council to work out a strategy to reduce the use of plastic bags. In the mean time, thousands of cloth shopping bags have been distributed as give-away items to the public to promote the concepts of re-use and 'Bring Your Own Bag' (BYOB). Efforts have also been made to promote the concept of BYOB further by requesting UC market stall operators to use fewer plastic bags in their daily operation.

(g) Incorporating the concept of '3Rs' in Keep Hong Kong Clean

Campaign activities.

Page 108 of 132

The Council is the Collection Authority in the urban area responsible for the collection of domestic waste amounting to 3 100 tonnes a day. At present the Council's resources are dedicated to maintaining an efficient domestic waste collection service and clearly this service currently in place does not encompass any sort or segregation of sorted waste at refuse collection points (RCPs).

A prerequisite to collection of segregated waste by the Council would be that the Administration (as Waste Disposal Authority) must decide that it wishes as a policy matter to establish facilities for the reception of segregated waste. In such an event, and were Council as a consequence to become involved in a comprehensive waste separation scheme, the additional resource input required would be major and would involve inter alia a significant increase in the number of refuse collection vehicles; new categories and numbers of waste receptacles; significant additional staff and by no means least, the need to enlarge all on-street and off-street RCPs, assuming such enlargement would be practically possible. The financial and other resource implication to Council have not been assessed in any detail but would be very considerable indeed.

The system of domestic waste collection in Hong Kong is rather unique. Numerous private refuse collectors (PRCs) are employed to collect household refuse for delivery to Council's refuse collection vehicles at the RCPS. During the operation of the PRCS most of the recyclable materials from the refuse have been sorted out for sale to waste processors or recycling establishments. The level of such recycling activity in Hong Kong is higher than in most other jurisdictions. For example, some 36% of the domestic waste stream is extracted for recycling, by export or by domestic reprocessing. The annual level of recycling of certain items is especially high: paper-510 000 tonnes, ferrous metals 400 000 tonnes, non-ferrous metals-163 000 tonnes, plastics-241 000 tonnes. The result of this activity is that most items which can be readily extracted from the waste stream for recycling have already been extracted. Extending recycling activities for additional items especially those from contaminated post-consumer waste will not therefore be easy. It would require on the part of the Waste Disposal Authority, significant new inputs in terms of plant and equipment.

In fact the amount of waste collected by the Council (daily 3 100 tonnes) only represents 10% of the Hong Kong's total waste yield. The general interest of Environmental Hygiene would surely be better served by, in the first instance, focusing on other categories of waste (i.e. construction or demolition waste) rather than the 80% putresable waste deposited at the disposal facilities by the Council waste collection service. That other categories of waste should receive primary focus is certainly the view of the Administration.

In countries such as Germany, France, Canada and the United States, stringent laws have been introduced for separation of recyclable materials by households. However experience shows that practically the marketplace cannot readily absorb the separated waste resulting in piles of waste paper, scrap metal and plastic waste being stored at sorting plants and storage grounds waiting for delivery to reprocessing or recycling plants. This problem has yet to be solved.

1993 — Page 108

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