The environmental protection organization Greenpeace discovered that at least 35 workshops in the New Territories were suspected to be involved in illegal operations, including the disposal of electronic waste, metal waste, and foreign waste. Many of them have formed large garbage hills, and some of the land is even official land.
Incidents of land destruction have occurred from time to time in recent years, but government departments later realized that they only followed up after a period of operation and received complaints. As a result, the land was contaminated and unrecovered waste was difficult to transport, which increased the pressure on Hong Kong’s landfills. The penalties are often not deterrent enough, and are objectively equivalent to condoning criminals.
The 35 workshops involved are located in Shek Wu Wai, San Tin, Siu Hom Village, Yuen Long and Ji Bo Ling. They cover a total area of more than 20 hectares. Eight of them were found to be piled up as garbage hills, and 27 were suspected of violating regulations. Dispose of toxic electronic waste.
According to the classification of land owners, there are 18 site parts and even the entire area belonging to the official land, covering a total of about six hectares.
Legal penalties have not prevented the spread of brownfields
The garbage hill is mainly imported aluminum waste and construction waste. Its scale is so large that it can be seen from a distance with the naked eye.
When the relevant government departments responded to reporters' enquiries, they admitted that they had noticed that the land was used illegally and had already enforced laws against some operators.
Regarding the Dinosaur Pit Recycling Site, the Environmental Protection Department stated that it was found to have violated the "Waste Disposal Ordinance" during the inspection and was collecting evidence and considering law enforcement. The Planning Department stated that it had filed a prosecution under the "Town Planning Ordinance" in February, and the Lands Department It is also said that the factory has confirmed that there are structures in violation of the contract and will take action.
There are 9 garbage mountains of different sizes on Jiboling Road in Xia Village. Greenpeace estimates that the amount of aluminum waste involved is as high as 51,000 to 93,000 tons.
(Photo by Zhang Haowei)
In addition, the Environmental Protection Department has issued air pollution reduction notices to six venues including Jiboling Road, Ha Village, Lau Fau Shan and Heng Chau. The Planning Department responded that the planning permission for the garbage hill in Jiboling has expired and been revoked, and will follow up. It will also follow up on suspected scrap metal storage sites involving "government, institution or community" land.
The government's investigation and enforcement of the named land is clearly a matter of course, but its determination and effectiveness of enforcement are always in doubt.
First of all, Dinosaur Pit is a black spot for illegally disposing of electronic waste. The Environmental Protection Department has repeatedly detected cases and arrested the person in charge from 2016 to 2017. However, the bad practices have not ceased over the past few years, reflecting that the department's crackdown has not been sustained.
In addition, in fact, many departments have already grasped the recent violations of the Dinosaur Pit workshop. Is it possible to eliminate them as soon as possible?
Is it because there is a lack of communication between the departments that the evidence is considered insufficient?
If there is increased exchange of information between departments, it may be possible to act early or at least speed up the search for evidence.
In addition to the urgent need for improvement in supervision and law enforcement between departments, there has always been a problem with the light penalties for destroying land.
Although the current "Waste Disposal Ordinance", "Town Planning Ordinance" and "Land (Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance" and other ordinances have a fine of up to 1 million yuan, and there is also a daily penalty system for overdue, the court's actual practice in recent years Most penalties are light.
The Environmental Protection Department stated that from the implementation of the "four computers and one brain" control in 2018 to June this year, a total of 18 successful prosecutions involved the illegal disposal of electrical or chemical waste at recycling sites, but a total of only 67,600 fines were imposed.
When fines account for only a few hundred million yuan worth of scrap metal, they will naturally not be able to effectively deter operators.
The judiciary should give more consideration to the impact of related crimes when imposing penalties, and appropriately increase the amount of fines that can be imposed within the legal limits.
There are at least 500 refrigerators in the brownfield near Siu Hom Village, Yuen Long. However, refrigerators are controlled electrical appliances and anyone who stores or handles them must be licensed first.
(Provided by Greenpeace)
Cracking down on e-waste imports at the source
In the final analysis, the garbage mountain is derived from the value of electronic waste, and Hong Kong is a sorting station and transfer station for the waste trade.
Even though the government has legislated to control the disposal of "four computers and one brain" and repeatedly said that the import of e-waste is strictly prohibited, the group's investigation still reveals that the authorities are not effective in their checks.
Moreover, not all of the e-waste involved can be recycled and re-exported. The worthless metals and other wastes will only be sent to landfills or disposed of on-site. The bitter consequences of polluting the land will ultimately be borne by the people of Hong Kong.
In this regard, the Environment Bureau and the Environmental Protection Agency must crack down on foreign waste imports from the source to prevent more land in the New Territories from being damaged.
Finally, the government cannot allow official land to be occupied illegally and must ensure that all land fits its original planned use. Therefore, inspections must be strengthened to stop all illegal operations and prevent brownfields from continuing to expand and damaging the surrounding environment.
Non-governmental environmental protection groups can use limited resources and technology to detect illegal operations on brownfields. On the other hand, the government has sufficient manpower, map files and statutory powers, and it should be more capable of cracking down on the abuse of land by lawbreakers. Officials in charge must do their responsibilities. It is the right thing to bring chaos in the New Territories anyway.
The bureaucracy of the government condones the expansion of 290 hectares of brownfields.
The government cannot underestimate the development potential of brownfield research. The brownfield report reveals over 200 hectares of the official land and ecological land. The government must recover quickly
