ENG-1992 — Page 436

THE ENVIRONMENT

territorial waste disposal strategy

strategy is to develop three large landfills in remote areas of the New Territories to provide the necessary capacity for disposal of waste for the next 20 years.

These landfills will be served by a network of refuse transfer stations located in the urban area. The refuse transfer stations will receive waste collected by small refuse collection vehicles and deliver the waste in bulk to the landfills in sealed containers either by road or marine transport thereby reducing the overall transportation cost and minimising environmental nuisances. The landfills and transfer stations will be designed, constructed and operated to the highest environmental standards by experienced waste management

contractors.

Tenders for the design, construction and operation of the three landfills are being invited from pre-qualified international waste management contractors. The expected dates of commissioning are West New Territories Landfill, 1993; South-East New Territories Landfill, 1994; and North-East New Territories Landfill, 1995.

The territory produces large quantities of solid wastes from construction activities, some 12 400 tonnes per day during 1992. The disposal of such large quantities of wastes at existing landfills in recent years has led to a short term critical shortage of waste disposal capacity. To overcome this problem the capacity of the existing landfills is being increased and arrangements were made to advance the programme of some reclamation activities so that suitable construction wastes could be used to create land, rather than using up valuable landfill space.

The decomposition of refuse produces not only large quantities of a highly polluting liquid called leachate, but also produces gases, some of which may be explosive under certain circumstances. Studies on the collection, treatment and disposal of landfill gas and leachate generated from the existing and completed landfill sites are being carried out. These studies will identify solutions to mitigate the landfill gas and leachate problems and finalise the requirements for fitting pollution control systems and landfill restoration works. A gas control system was installed at Sai Tso Wan landfill in 1991 and the system is operating satisfactorily with no sign of gas migration off the site.

The phased restoration works programme developed under a study for the completed urban landfills at Jordan Valley, Ma Yau Tong Centre, Ma Yau Tong West, Gin Drinkers Bay and Ngau Chi Wan will proceed in 1993. Studies on the restoration of Tseung Kwan O landfills, the North-West New Territories landfills and Shuen Wan landfill were commissioned in 1992 and the steps to implement restoration works will commence after completion of the studies in 1993.

Refuse transfer stations

As part of its waste disposal strategy, the government is developing a network of refuse transfer stations. They will centralise the collection of refuse and ensure that its transport to remote landfill sites is effective and economical.

The transfer stations will be built to high environmental standards and their develop- ment will enable the government to close the poorly located incinerators currently operating in Hong Kong. This will eliminate a significant source of air pollution in the urban area.

The first transfer station at Kowloon Bay has been in service since April 1991. It is operating satisfactorily, processing an average of 1 600 tonnes of municipal refuse per day.

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