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Press Release
Construction waste disposal charges start today
The Permanent Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works (Environment), Mr K K Kwok, said today (January 20) that he was encouraged by the smooth operation of the Construction Waste Disposal Charging Scheme which began collecting levies today.
"Thanks to efforts made by tripartite working group with representatives from waste haulers, construction trade and government departments to work out the implementation detail, the scheme has so far been running smoothly," Mr Kwok said after inspecting the operation at the weightbridge of the Southeast New Territories Landfill (SENT) this morning.
As at 5pm today, the fill banks and sorting facilities had received 1,675 lorry loads of waste which were wholly or predominantly construction waste. The waste will be sorted and re-used at a later stage instead of ending up in the landfills as was the case before the introduction of the scheme. In contrast, the landfills had received only 210 lorry loads of waste with some construction waste content.
"The results so far indicate that the objective of the scheme to promote re-use and reduction of construction waste is being realised," he said, "I am grateful for the active participation and co-operation of the parties involved."
A spokesman for the EPD said the Government would continue to monitor the operation of the scheme and would spare no effort in tackling fly-tipping activities.
Ends/Friday, January 20, 2006
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