ENG-2020 — Page 288

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The Environment

EcoPark

More than 90 per cent of recyclable municipal solid waste is exported for recycling every year, with plastics, paper and metals contributing about 95 per cent of the recovered waste. The 20-hectare EcoPark in Tuen Mun promotes development of the recycling industry by providing long-term land at affordable rents so as to encourage investment in advanced technologies and value-added recycling processes. Twelve lots are leased to private recyclers to recycle cooking oil, scrap metal, wood, WEEE, plastics, construction materials, glass, rubber tyres, food, batteries and paper.

Recycling Fund

A $1 billion Recycling Fund, launched in 2015 to promote recovery and recycling, provides subsidies for the recycling industry to upgrade its operational capabilities and efficiency. By 31 December, a total of 1,500 projects had been approved, involving total funding of about $570 million.

Waste Treatment and Disposal

Refuse Transfer Stations

Municipal solid waste is collected and delivered to refuse transfer stations by refuse collection. vehicles, packed into containers and then taken to landfills in bulk by sea or land. A network of seven refuse transfer stations handled about 3.15 million tonnes of such waste in 2019, delivering about 78 per cent of municipal solid waste to landfills.

Landfills

Three large strategic landfills are operated to high environmental standards in the New Territories to serve as the final repositories for the city's considerable amount of residual solid waste. With the South East New Territories Landfill accepting only construction waste since 2016, all municipal solid waste is disposed of at the other two landfills.

All three landfills need to be extended to maintain an uninterrupted waste disposal service to the public. Once extended, they will meet Hong Kong's needs up to the 2030s.

Hong Kong has 13 restored landfills. The government promotes the development of recreational facilities and innovative uses at the restored landfills, some of which have been developed for public use.

Planned Infrastructure

Hong Kong needs state-of-the-art, cost-effective facilities to deal with the large volume of non- recyclable waste and reduce the amount that requires landfill disposal. The first Integrated Waste Management Facility, being built on an artificial island near Shek Kwu Chau, will adopt advanced incineration as its core technology to cut waste volumes by 90 per cent and turn waste into energy so as to cut greenhouse gas emission. Once operational in 2025, it will be able to treat 3,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste daily.

The city also plans to build a network of five or six organic resource recovery centres that will use biological technology to turn food waste separated at source into useful resources such as

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