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Written by: Commentary Editing Room
2020-09-29 07:00
Last update date: 2020-09-29 07:00
In 2018, the Environmental Protection Department approved nearly two hectares of land in the Tuen Mun Ecological Park for the company to build a waste paper recycling plant. It was originally scheduled to start production in 2023 at the earliest, but there is still no sign of construction on the land for two years.
In recent months, it is rumored that the winning company has returned the bid, and the department intends to re-tender to build a pulp mill at the end of the year.
The government seems to be arrogant and lazy after approving the bids, which has led to many omissions and it is difficult to convince the public of its determination to reduce waste.
The Mainland is Hong Kong’s main waste paper export area. Over the past few years, waste paper imports have been gradually tightened. In addition, Hong Kong has lacked its own paper recycling plant since 2006. When the Mainland does not issue import approvals, waste paper will accumulate locally. Waste paper in 2017 The siege is still vivid.
In view of this, the government announced in early 2018 that it would allocate land for the construction of a recycling paper mill, inviting interested parties to enter the bid to enhance the local capacity for processing waste paper.
The representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency and Rocsky International Limited took a group photo at the signing ceremony.
(Photo of Environmental Protection Agency)
Paper mill may not be the best choice
However, whether it is appropriate to build a factory is already a question.
The cost of building a factory is high (400 to 500 million yuan), and it needs to take into account the water source, sewage and power requirements, and evaluate the competitiveness of the finished product. The plant area is only two hectares, and it is difficult to meet the department’s requirement of 60,000 metric tons of waste paper per year. Volume, let alone the 300,000 metric tons proposed by the winning bidder.
During the tender period, some people in the industry have already suggested that it is more feasible to build a pulp mill, or to spend money to improve the quality of recycled paper and reduce waste at the terminal to strengthen export competitiveness.
As a result, the government received only two tenders, reflecting the industry’s indifference to the plan.
Now that the bidding process has been completed, the outside world expects that the winning company will implement its commitment to build a factory, and is confident in completing the entire paper recycling process in Hong Kong, and complete the "impossible task."
Unexpectedly, the land is still "basking in the sun" and many doubts remain.
First of all, there are rumours that the winning bidder complained that the cost of building the plant far exceeded the company's expectations, including hundreds of millions of yuan in additional cable costs.
Second, the winning company has not been registered in the company registry.
The Environmental Protection Agency is ineffective
However, CLP has received a request from the Environmental Protection Park to increase power supply at the end of 2018, and CLP’s funding means that power supply is not a problem, and the company’s bidding should have a grasp of the cost of local plant construction. Why did it wake up afterwards?
Over there, the Environmental Protection Agency has repeatedly neglected in the process of reviewing the tender documents and monitoring the bid-winning company.
Even if the department believes that the successful bidder can fulfill the requirements of the bid, it should be able to understand the matter early on that the company has not been registered.
If even the company registration is not completed, it is difficult for outsiders to be confident that the company can properly carry out the project.
Furthermore, when the company has not started construction of the plant one year after winning the bid, the department should also take the initiative to investigate and follow up. It is a waste of time to wait for two years to change.
The new paper mill is close to Longmen Road and is the largest plant in the park.
(Photo from EcoPark website)
In addition, it is rumored that the Environmental Protection Agency has changed to build a pulp mill and is preparing for tender.
This may be based on the opinions of the industry. After all, the plant area and construction costs, water and electricity requirements, and operating expenses required by the pulp mill are lower than those of the entire recycled paper mill, and pulp is a raw material that can be imported into the mainland, and there is a certain market in the mainland.
However, this may indicate that the Department's decision to build the factory was not well thought out.
In this regard, the department only reviews the policy of environmental protection and waste reduction in a comprehensive manner, and do not waste time.
Must seize the green economy business opportunity
On the issue of resource recovery, apart from disappointing paper mills, food waste recycling plants have not collected enough food waste for many years. After recycling, waste plastics are still sent to landfills. The reason behind this is that Hong Kong has not implemented waste levy. There is no incentive for citizens to recycle, and the environmental protection industry can hardly bear the logistics cost of collecting recycled items.
At present, the government has introduced waste paper and waste oil recycling subsidies, which can only be said to be "better than nothing," and it is difficult to significantly reduce the amount of waste.
The new crown pneumonia epidemic has unexpectedly given the earth breathing space. Many people and companies believe that even if the economy is to be rebuilt, they must treat the environment well, shorten the resource supply chain to reduce dependence on distant sources of supply, and implement a circular economy can kill two birds with one stone.
Hong Kong has long relied on imported goods from other places and is fully aware of the risk of supply chain disruption.
Therefore, the government must follow the trend of the world and improve the supply chain of resources from production to recycling. In addition to reducing waste, it can create employment opportunities and become a new engine to promote the local economy.
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