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Several initiatives are underway to counteract a troubling projected increase in waste arisings and to plan for necessary future waste disposal capacity. The WRFP provides an overall policy structure for these initiatives and a key tenet of the Plan is to reduce the amount of waste generated and to encourage re-use and recovery of the waste stream. In order to achieve the objectives of this strategy, new infrastructure will be needed for the collection of recyclable waste, for source separation and material recovery, and for increased treatment capacity through waste-to-energy incineration.
Given that the greatest threat to remaining landfill capacity is the projected growth in domestic solid waste (HKSARG 1998), the community as a whole must accept responsibility for identifying realistic solutions to the long term shortfall of disposal capacity. This will require acknowledging that waste treatment facilities in Hong Kong are a necessity and providing for such facilities as an explicit component of future land use planning schemes. The targets set by the WRFP are ambitious but attainable given appropriate support from Government, the Legislature, the private sector and the community. The consequences of failing to stem the tide of increasing arisings will result in wasteful producer and consumer behaviour becoming more ingrained with time. In parallel, the urgency of identifying additional and/or alternative disposal capacity may result in foreclosure of some options which would otherwise be environmentally preferable or cost-effective, given a longer planning horizon.
Illegal dumping bypasses the authorised waste management system and results in soil and surface/ground water contamination, as well as degradation of the quality of the landscape, recreational amenities, and the potential for development. This issue should be embraced as part of the overall waste strategy since appropriate disposal practices for illegally dumped waste will increase the volume of waste arisings requiring disposal. Once illegally dumped materials are routed through authorised disposal pathways, areas which have been degraded by such activities should be prioritised for remediation. Restoration of degraded lands will increase the supply of land development, improve the environmental quality, and potentially the habitat, in the area, and remove a source of contamination for downstream marine or freshwater systems.
Solid waste issues have been addressed by a strategic policy document, the WRFP, which addresses the issue of sustainability. In addition to the need for political will, the challenge in this arena is thus not to define the future sustainability strategy, but to mobilise all waste generators, including the public, to implement the waste reduction, reuse and recycling recommendations of the strategy. These efforts, in combination with initiatives to discourage illegal dumping and remediate contaminated land will provide a solid basis for sustainable management of solid waste issues.
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