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SECTION
3 NATURAL RESOURCES CAPITAL STOCK
| 3.5 |
Solid
Waste |
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| 3.5.3 |
Routes
of Disposition of Waste Materials |
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| Recovery
for Reuse and Recycling |
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| 3.5.3.1 |
Not
all waste arisings require final disposal.
A variety of reuse and recycling options
are available to reduce the amount of waste
directed to landfills and other disposal
options. An estimated 1.56 million tonnes
of MSW was recovered from the waste stream
and exported overseas for recycling in 1998
(EPD 1999b) but only 0.38 million tonnes
was recycled within Hong Kong.
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| 3.5.3.2 |
In the commercial sector a significant proportion
(53% in 1994) of commercial and industrial
waste is recovered. Recovery of domestic waste
is much lower; only 8%, or approximately 175,000
tonnes per annum, was recovered from the domestic
sector in 1994. The considerably lower rate
of recovery in the domestic sector is due,
in part, to the lack of incentives and facilities
for the public to segregate waste (including
limited separation/recycling infrastructure)
as well as a generally low level of awareness
regarding the need for waste reduction, recovery
and recycling. However, Government has been
active in recent years in addressing the issue
of reduction of C&D material - the setting
up of a Waste Reduction Team in EPD has been
complemented with a waste reduction committee
to identify alternative means of reducing
and re-using the significant quantities of
C&D material produced each year. |
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| 3.5.3.3 |
At
present, much of the volume recovered in Hong
Kong is collected through voluntary efforts,
since no formal systems or infrastructure
for recycling have yet been implemented by
Government. Voluntary community programmes
to source separate paper, plastic bottles
and aluminium cans in domestic solid waste
have been introduced in over 200 public and
private housing estates. In addition, a considerable
proportion of recyclable material is gathered
by facility cleaners who perform manual sorting
of wastes to collect primarily aluminium cans
and waste paper to earn extra income. |
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| Landfills
and Public Filling Areas |
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| 3.5.3.4 |
Materials which are not recovered for reuse
or recycling purposes are generally collected
by the existing waste management system. Disposal
on land in strategic landfills is the major
disposal method for municipal solid waste.
Hong Kong has three principal strategic landfill
sites located at West, South East and North
East New Territories (WENT, SENT and NENT).
Most domestic waste is collected from dwellings
and held in Refuse Collection Points (RCPs)
of which there are over 1,000 in public control.
From the RCPs, waste is collected in rounds
and delivered to one of 6 existing refuse
transfer stations (at Hong Kong Island West
and East, West Kowloon, Kowloon Bay, Sha Tin,
North Lantau) or to the Outlying Islands Refuse
Transfer System, where waste is containerised
and dispatched by ship or road to the landfill
sites. Some MSW is delivered directly to landfill.
Commercial and industrial waste is collected
by both private and public contractors and
either delivered to the refuse transfer stations
or directly to landfill. The total quantities
of waste disposed to landfill between 1986
and 1998 and the quantity of waste requiring
final disposal per year are shown in Table
3.5a. Further details on the annual quantities
landfilled and details of waste intakes at
Hong Kong's three strategic landfills are
provided in Annex C. |
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| 3.5.3.5 |
Although
a portion of construction and demolition (C&D)
material(1) is disposed in landfills, inert
C&D material (called public fill) is preferentially
disposed in designated public filling areas
which are often part of reclamations. In 1998,
the landfilled volume of C&D waste was
7,030 tonnes per day or tpd (which comprised
42% of the total volume of waste landfilled,
ie 16,550 tpd), while 25,680 tpd of public
fill was disposed to public filling areas.
The percentage of C&D material disposed
to public fills was thus 78.5% in 1998 but
this percentage varies considerably from year
to year and was as low as 35% in 1994 (Annex
C). The recent drop in C&D waste going
to landfill has been due to proactive Government
action in identifying suitable public filling
areas. However, public filling areas are currently
projected to last only a further 18 months.
Unless new sites are identified, all arisings
of C&D material will then have to be diverted
to landfill. |
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(1)
'C&D material' contains a mixture of inert
and non-inert material. The inert portion
is known as 'public fill' and the non-inert
portion is called 'C&D waste'.
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