ENG-2014 — Page 300

14

The Environment

Waste Treatment and Disposal Infrastructure

Refuse Transfer Stations

MSW is collected and delivered to refuse transfer stations by refuse collection vehicles, containerised and then taken to landfills in bulk by sea or land transport. A network of six transfer stations and seven outlying islands transfer facilities handled 2.38 million tonnes of MSW in 2014. At present, about 80 per cent of Hong Kong's domestic waste is delivered via this network to landfills.

Landfills

All MSW is disposed of at three large strategic landfills in the New Territories, which are operated to high environmental standards.

In 2014, 3.57 million tonnes of MSW were disposed of. About 66 per cent was domestic waste and the remainder was commercial and industrial waste. On average, each person in Hong Kong disposed of about 1.35 kilogrammes of MSW daily. It is estimated that the three landfills will reach their design capacities one-by-one by 2019. Planning work for the extension of all three landfills is under way.

Hong Kong has 13 old landfills, which have been restored for safety and environmental reasons. Recreational facilities have been or will be built on most of the restored sites.

Planned Infrastructure

To deal with the large volume of non-recyclable MSW, Hong Kong needs new state-of-the-art, cost-effective facilities to reduce the volume of waste that requires landfill disposal. A multi- technology approach is needed so that different types of waste can be dealt with by the most suitable technology. The first phase of the government's large-scale Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) to be built at an artificial island near Shek Kwu Chau will adopt advanced incineration as its core technology to reduce the waste volume by 90 per cent and to turn waste into energy, thereby reducing local greenhouse gas emission. The environmental impact assessment report and the Outline Zoning Plan for the IWMF have been approved. The IWMF is scheduled for commissioning in 2022-23. In addition, Hong Kong also plans to build a network of five or six organic waste treatment facilities (OWTFS) that will use biological treatment technologies to turn source-separated food waste into useful resources such as biogas, with compost as a by-product. The first phase of the OWTF will be developed at Siu Ho Wan, North Lantau. 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.

The construction of a dedicated Sludge Treatment Facility at Tsang Tsui near Nim Wan, Tuen Mun is substantially completed, and progressive commissioning started in late 2013. It will adopt advanced incineration technology to treat sewage sludge generated from sewage treatment works and has a maximum treatment capacity of 2,000 tonnes per day. The facility is equipped with a waste-to-energy installation and any surplus electricity generated from sludge incineration will be exported to the public power grid.

244

Page 300Page 301