Greenpeace’s investigation last year revealed that giant garbage mountains were found in many brownfield sites in Yuen Long, with a height of up to 8 meters, and some of them involved official land.
From June to August last year, the Environmental Protection Department also intercepted 3 cases of illegal import of contaminated aluminum scrap from Chile, the United States and Canada at Kwai Chung Container Terminal. Tel Trading Co., Ltd. and Chuangxing Century Co., Ltd. were successively convicted of violating the Waste Disposal Ordinance and fined a total of 45,000 yuan.
From June to August last year, with the assistance of the Customs and Excise Department, law enforcement officers of the Environmental Protection Department intercepted and inspected 36 shipping containers at the Kwai Chung Container Terminal claiming to contain aluminum scraps and scraps, metal scraps and recyclables of cast aluminum alloys. 840 metric tons of contaminated aluminum scraps were mixed with a large amount of waste wires, waste sponges, waste paper, waste wood blocks, waste plastics and other wastes. Notify local law enforcement to follow up.
The three importers involved in the case, "Chengjie International Industrial Co., Ltd.", "Oster Trading Co., Ltd." and "Chuangxing Century Co., Ltd." were prosecuted for violating the Waste Disposal Ordinance. Day), January 4 and November 30 last year were convicted and fined a total of $45,500.
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The EPD stated that the import volume of metal recyclables showed an upward trend last year. Therefore, the EPD cooperated with the Customs to conduct random inspections of suspicious containers to combat illegal import activities of contaminated metal recyclables. They are transported to landfills for disposal. Improper disposal will pollute the environment and endanger public health.
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Greenpeace, who revealed that many brownfield sites in Yuen Long had been piled up into a "garbage mountain", pointed to the import value of aluminum scrap according to the trade statistics of the Census and Statistics Department. The value of the goods involved in the case could be as high as $9.9 million. The average fine is only 15,000 yuan, accounting for less than 0.5% of the value of the goods. The criticism and deterrence are not high, which makes Hong Kong "pay the bill" for toxic metal waste.
The group also pointed out that the cause of the problem is the government's lack of overall brownfield planning. It is like condoning illegal operations, which has turned a large number of brownfields into garbage mountains. It urges the government to implement a comprehensive brownfield policy and immediately make good use of and plan brownfields.
