Hong Kong's handover for a quarter of a century, has the environment become better?
The environmental bureau's waste reduction performance is often criticized as "fat guy". The director of the environmental bureau, Huang Jinxing, has repeatedly said that he wants to "look forward", but looking back at the data after 1997, it is not difficult to find that there are signs of regression in waste reduction performance in recent years, and many indicators have even hit new heights. new low.
Even if a long-term waste reduction blueprint is drawn up, it has become an unfulfilled promissory note.
A number of environmental protection policies have also stalled.
The garbage charging plan proposed in 1998, after 23 years of deliberation, the bill will be passed in 2021, and it is expected to be officially implemented as soon as 2023, that is, a policy is proposed, discussed and prepared, and finally implemented, spanning a full six sessions government.
A number of policies are lagging behind. As a result, the three landfills that were opened in the 1990s are facing impending explosion and must be expanded gradually. However, it is expected that all landfill expansion projects will not be completed until 2026 at the earliest.
Referring to the 1997 report of the Environmental Protection Agency, the daily per capita disposal of municipal solid waste reached 1.34 kilograms.
At the time, the report explained that the economy, lifestyle and disposable habits contributed to the increase in waste production.
Since then, the per capita disposal volume has risen to 1.4 kilograms, and dropped to 1.27 kilograms in 2011, the lowest since the return.
In 2013, the Environment Bureau released the "Blueprint for Resource Recycling in Hong Kong (2013-2022)", which pointed out that Hong Kong was facing four major challenges at that time, including the large amount of waste, public doubts, the capacity limit for absorbing recycled materials, and incomplete infrastructure, and The waste reduction target for the next ten years is to reduce the amount of waste per person per day to 1 kg or less by 2017, and to 0.8 kg by 2022 at the latest, and the recycling rate will be increased to 55%.
The target has been continuously adjusted, but the amount of waste has not fallen but increased. In 2017, the daily per capita disposal amount increased to 1.45 kilograms, and in 2018, it increased to 1.53 kilograms and reached the peak after the return. The waste reduction goal has become a promissory note and cannot be fulfilled.
The old blueprint did not meet the target, and the new blueprint already expects to achieve "zero waste landfill" by 2035.
In the "Hong Kong Resource Recycling Blueprint 2035" published early last year, the medium-term goal is to gradually reduce the per capita disposal volume by 40% to 45% (ie about 0.8 to 0.9 kg) compared with 2020 after the implementation of municipal solid waste charging, and the recycling rate target is also maintained. About 55%, similar to the old blueprint, but the implementation timetable has been delayed further.
Taking a closer look at the overall recovery rate, it reached 33% in 1997, and then generally showed an upward trend, reaching 52% in 2010, the highest since the return.
However, the recycling rate declined immediately after reaching its peak, and fell to 28% in 2020, a new low after the return, still half the distance from the target of the waste reduction blueprint.
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Waste recycling rate hits record lows
Food waste, waste paper and waste plastic are the three "giants" of landfill waste.
The "Hong Kong Solid Waste Monitoring Report" has published food waste data since 2002. The daily disposal volume in that year was 3,155 metric tons. After that, it only fell below the 3,000 metric ton level in 2008, and it has soared to 3,662 metric tons in 2017.
Referring to the daily per capita disposal data, household food waste hovered between 0.3 and 0.33 kilograms from 2015 to 2020, and industrial and commercial food waste reached 0.18 kilograms in 2017. In 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, it has dropped to 0.1 kilograms.
The food waste recycling rate has also been hovering at a low level, only 0.04% in 2011. Although it has benefited from food waste factories and recycling facilities in recent years, it will only slowly rise to 4.4% in 2020.
The daily waste paper disposal volume has been hovering at the level of over 2,000 metric tons since the reunification, and fell to the lowest level of 1,823 metric tons in 2013. In the following years, the disposal volume has rebounded, reaching a peak of 2,704 metric tons in 2019.
However, the recycling situation of waste paper has always been good, with the recycling rate reaching 64% in 2011. However, with the implementation of the "Green Fence Action" and the "foreign garbage" embargo policy commonly known as "24 flavors" in the Mainland, the recycling rate that has been relied on for many years has been exported. The industry has been hit hard, and Hong Kong’s waste paper exports have dropped significantly. In addition, local pulp mills will not start production until 2025 at the earliest. In 2020, the recycling rate of waste paper will drop to 32%, which also hit a new low after the reunification.
As for the waste rubber disposal volume, the daily disposal volume dropped to 1,426 metric tons in 2001, but it has exceeded 2,000 metric tons since 2014, and reached a peak of 2,343 metric tons in 2018.
The recycling rate reached a high of 69% in 2010. However, in recent years, many economies have tightened import controls on solid waste and recycled materials. Local recycling has not been satisfactory. In 2017, it fell to single digits for the first time, with a recycling rate of only 7%. .
As for waste reduction measures, it took 25 years from the first proposal to implement the waste levy scheme.
Looking through the information, the Hong Kong government proposed the Waste Reduction Outline Plan as early as November 1998, and suggested that more market-based measures, such as "user fees", should be used to encourage the adoption of effective management and good environmental protection practices.
By December 2005, the then Environment, Transport and Works Bureau proposed the "Municipal Solid Waste Management Policy Outline (2005-2014)", which stated that waste charging was a direct tool to change behavior patterns. Households separate recyclable waste.
The paper also proposes legislation to introduce waste charges in 2007 to create direct economic incentives to avoid and reduce waste.
Legislative Council terminates scrutiny of bills over waste levy
After years of discussions, trials and public consultation, the Environment Bureau finally submitted the Waste Disposal (Municipal Solid Waste Charges) (Amendment) Bill 2018 to the Legislative Council in November 2018.
However, in June 2020, the Bills Committee of the Legislative Council approved by 7 votes in favour and 4 votes against to terminate the scrutiny of the Bill.
The following year, the government resubmitted the bill to the Legislative Council for deliberation, and it passed the third reading in August.
However, after the passage of the ordinance, the government has also set a preparation period of 18 months, which is expected to be implemented as soon as 2023, spanning the successive governments after the handover.
The waste charge has not been implemented, and the disposal volume of municipal solid waste landfills in Hong Kong has been increasing year by year.
The authorities plan to build integrated waste management facilities, namely new incinerators, to reduce the burden on landfills.
Referring to the waste management policy outline launched by the authorities in 2005, it was proposed at that time that integrated waste management facilities should be commissioned in the mid-2010s under the premise of implementing the polluter pays principle.
However, the contract for the first integrated waste management facility, I ∙PARK 1 next to Shek Kwu Chau, was only awarded in November 2017, and it is expected to be completed in 2025, which is many years later than originally expected in the mid-2010s.
The second integrated waste management facility planned by the authorities will be located at Soot Lake in the middle of Tsang Tsui, Tuen Mun, and is expected to open in the early 2030s.
I·PARK1 is expected to enter service in 2025 with a processing capacity of 3,000 metric tons of MSW per day.
(Photo by EPA)
A number of policies are lagging behind, and the three landfills are facing explosion in the 25 years since the return.
The authorities proposed to expand the landfill to solve the saturation problem. The extension of the Southeast New Territories Landfill, which only receives construction waste, was opened last year.
However, the Northeast New Territories Landfill and the West New Territories Landfill are only in the construction and tender stages respectively, and the expansion of the three landfills is expected to be completed by 2026 at the earliest.
Tsang Tsui incinerator materials in Tuen Mun will be opened in the early 2030s. The EPD says it will catch up with the backward and build more. Interview with Wong Kam-sing | Incinerators are necessary. The details of the addition of incinerators will be announced in due course. The plastic bag levy will be doubled from 12.31 to 1 yuan. The authorities will start the legislative process. Two exemptions will abolish the plastic bag tax.
