ENG-2018 — Page 299

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The Environment

clean recycling. The EPD introduced the bill on municipal solid waste charging into LegCo in November.

In the 2018 Policy Address, the government pledged to provide additional recurrent resources to strengthen the preparation and complementary measures of municipal solid waste charging implementation, and to better support the public in practising waste reduction and recycling more actively. As a start, an additional $300 million to $400 million will be provided for the 2019- 20 financial year. The funding, to be granted annually, will increase to no less than between $800 million and $1 billion from the financial year when municipal solid waste charging is to be implemented, and would be commensurate with the estimated gross revenue to be generated from municipal solid waste charging in the initial period so as to achieve the purpose of allocating dedicated funding for dedicated use.

The Food Waste and Yard Waste Plan for Hong Kong 2014-22 maps out a comprehensive strategy, targets, policies and action plans to manage food waste and yard waste. The government has four strategies to reduce the disposal of food waste in landfills by 40 per cent by 2022: reduction at source, reuse and donation, recyclable collection, and waste-to-energy conversion.

The Programme on Source Separation of Waste covers over 80 per cent of the Hong Kong population. Residents can contribute recyclable items to waste separation facilities close to their homes and workplaces.

Quantity-based waste charging creates financial incentives that aim to drive behavioural changes in waste generation and thereby reduce overall waste disposal. The government is committed to introducing municipal solid waste charging as a key policy tool and expects to implement a charging scheme towards the end of 2019 at the earliest.

The government implements producer responsibility schemes to promote waste reduction at source and create a circular economy. In 2018, the scheme on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) was fully implemented, with WEEE PARK, a treatment and recycling facility developed to underpin the scheme, fully commissioned in March. The facility had processed over 11,700 tonnes of WEEE by the year end. As regards the scheme on glass beverage containers, the government had appointed glass management contractors to provide collection and treatment services and subsequently recorded a total collection of about 60 per cent more waste glass containers in 2018 compared with 2017. The government also decided during the year to take forward the scheme on plastic beverage containers.

Waste Recycling

The department supports the recycling trade and educates the public to reduce waste at source and carry out proper source separation of waste and clean recycling to avoid contamination of recyclables, so as to improve the quality of the recyclables collected and to streamline the subsequent treatment process.

The Community Recycling Network promotes waste reduction and recycling, and sets up collection points at the community level to receive recyclables of low commercial value.

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