ENG-2011 — Page 344

300 The Environment

Construction Waste

The construction industry generated 18.8 million tonnes of construction waste in 2011. Of that, about 94 per cent was inert and suitable for re-use. The policy has been to maximise the recovery and re-use of inert materials and minimise their disposal at landfills. The construction waste charging scheme introduced in December 2005 provides an economic incentive for reducing construction waste. The Government continues to deliver inert materials to the Mainland for re-use in reclamation projects there.

Large-scale Waste Treatment Facilities

Hong Kong has to deal with a large volume of non-recyclable waste and needs new state-of-the-art, cost-effective facilities to treat such waste and reduce its volume. A multi-technology approach is needed so that wastes of different nature can be dealt with by the most suitable technology. The Government is pursuing the first phase of a large-scale Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) that will adopt advanced incineration as its core technology and turn waste into energy. It will also develop Organic Waste Treatment Facilities (OWTF) to treat source-separated organic waste such as food waste and turn it into useful resources. However, even with such facilities, waste reduction at source is still necessary and the residual waste will still need to be disposed of at landfills.

In order to deal with the ever-increasing sewage sludge generated from the sewage treatment works, the design and construction of a dedicated Sludge Treatment Facility at Tsang Tsui near Nim Wan, Tuen Mun commenced in October 2010 with a view to starting operation in late 2013. It will adopt an advanced incineration technology and has a treatment capacity of 2 000 tonnes per day. The facility will be equipped with a waste-to-energy installation and the EPD plans to export the surplus electricity generated from sludge incineration to the public power grid.

Import and Export of Waste

Import and export of waste are regulated by a permit system under the Waste Disposal Ordinance (WDO). The control is in line with the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, which adopts a prior informed consent procedure for shipments of controlled waste. The WDO was amended to incorporate the Basel Ban in 2006 and no import permits will be issued for hazardous waste from developed countries.

The EPD participates in international programmes deterring illegal waste shipments. It has established intelligence networks with many overseas control authorities and taken part in joint enforcement exercises against these shipments. Also, the Mainland of China and the HKSAR have collaborated to control transboundary movements of hazardous waste between the two areas under a formal agreement since 2000. Joint enforcement actions amongst the HKSAR and the Mainland control authorities were regularly made to curb waste smuggling activities across the border.