The Environment 1 271
Legislation and Pollution Control
Hong Kong has eight ordinances on pollution control. They are the Waste Disposal Ordinance, the Water Pollution Control Ordinance, the Air Pollution Control Ordinance, the Noise Control Ordinance, the Ozone Layer Protection Ordinance, the Dumping at Sea Ordinance, the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance and the Hazardous Chemicals Control Ordinance. Most of them have subsidiary regulations and other statutory provisions such as technical memoranda.
The Government follows a set of environmental quality objectives to better protect public health and to preserve a natural ecosystem. The cost of imposing limits on polluting emissions is not higher than that needed to achieve conservation goals. These goals include making maximum use of the environment's natural capacity to absorb and recycle waste.
In 2008, EPD inspectors made about 50 000 visits to different locations around Hong Kong to enforce controls on air, noise, waste and water pollution and to deal with complaints about pollution. This resulted in some 513 prosecutions and nearly $3.4 million in fines.
The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (the Stockholm Convention), became effective to Hong Kong in November 2004 and the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade (the Rotterdam Convention) became effective to Hong Kong in August 2008. A local legislation, the Hazardous Chemicals. Control Ordinance, came into operation in April 2008 to regulate the import, export, manufacture and use of non-pesticide hazardous chemicals, including those subject to the regulation of the Stockholm Convention and the Rotterdam Convention.
The EPD also works with the construction industry, the catering industry, the vehicle repair industry, the property management sector and other trades to promote good environmental practices and compliance with pollution control regulations.
The EPD runs a Compliance Assistance Centre (CAC) where businesses may obtain updated information and advice on environmental compliance, pollution prevention and environmental management.
Air Pollution
Like most modern cities, Hong Kong's air is affected by pollutants emitted from a multitude of sectors, including transport, power generating and construction. The Government has been implementing various measures to improve air quality. Between 1990 and 2007, emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), respirable suspended particulates (RSP) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) have dropped by 35 per cent to 55 per cent.
The EPD operates a range of controls under the Air Pollution Control Ordinance (APCO) and its subsidiary regulations, including licensing of some large industrial facilities and specific controls on fuel quality, furnace and chimney installations, dark. smoke emissions, open burning, dust emissions from construction works, emissions
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