The Legislative Council's Finance Committee convenes again on Friday for the third time to discuss funding proposals for building the Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) and landfill extensions. The IWMF is a modern waste-to-energy facility. It can treat 3,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) per day - about one-third of today's total residual MSW being landfilled.

Our blueprint for the sustainable use of resources 2013-2022, published in May 2013, identifies these projects as infrastructure Hong Kong urgently needs. Despite continuous discussions with legislators at various committees, several questions keep being raised. Underlying these questions is the criticism that the government had paid insufficient attention to waste management. There is also the fear that if these projects are approved, the government will no longer work hard to reduce waste.

One demand is that these projects should be deferred, or even shelved, until the government has improved recycling in Hong Kong. This belief is wrong because Hong Kong does not have the luxury of being able to wait any longer.

Hong Kong treats over 9,000 tonnes of residual MSW per day and one by one our three landfills are going to reach capacity by 2019. This means we have to extend the landfills to give Hong Kong time to implement a waste reduction, recycling and treatment infrastructure.

As such, we are taking numerous steps to deal with a range of waste management issues. Our target is to reduce MSW to landfill by 40 percent by 2022. We must not be complacent.

One set of questions relate to the choice of technology for the IWMF. There are arguments that we should use 'newer', more environmentally-friendly technology. But we are already opting for advanced moving grate incineration. It is the most reliable option available with proven experience in handling large quantities of MSW. Reliability means it is tried and tested in terms of technology, emissions, management, maintenance, energy generation and operational costs. We are building the first IWMF in Hong Kong and must opt for reliable technology.

Some legislators also ask about the emissions from incineration. We do not believe this is a serious concern. Modern, well-managed incinerators meet the exceptionally high European emission standards. The advanced filtering technology is also capable of capturing 99 percent of particulates. The accumulated concentrations in the vicinity of the IWMF will comply with Hong Kong's new Air Quality Objectives (AQOs). These were tightened with effect from Jan 1.

I visited Macao with a group of district councillors to see its incinerator. The facility was centrally located. It is a short distance from high-density residential estates and populous amusement hubs. I also travelled to Europe with a cross-party delegation of legislators. One of the newest incinerators in Copenhagen is about one and a half kilometer from the royal palace and downtown area.

During this trip, the European authorities, professional bodies and community organizations we met were surprised to hear Hong Kong had no MSW treatment incinerator. The British non-governmental organization Without Incineration Network (UKWIN) acknowledged that while it was against excessive incineration facilities being built in the UK, they accepted that it was necessary to have appropriate MSW incineration capacity.

We agree with legislators that Hong Kong must work hard on waste reduction and recycling. A good example is food waste. It makes up almost 40 percent of our residual MSW being landfilled. There is growing support for our Food Wise Hong Kong (FWHK) Campaign from the food and hospitality sector. This is to manage their procurement and kitchens better, and to reduce food waste at the source. It was recently helped by the Environment and Conservation Fund (ECF). But there is also a strong trend for donating surplus food to the needy instead of dumping it. Moreover, by separating food waste from the waste stream, it can also be collected and used for energy generation. We are grateful to legislators for recently approving funding for Hong Kong's first large-scale food waste facility known as "Organic Waste Treatment Facility (OWTF)", We anticipate it will be operational by 2017.

Another major waste reduction method is mandatory MSW charging. We are testing how such a scheme could work in high density Hong Kong before finalizing our proposal. We will then need to draft legislation and put it to legislators for scrutiny.

There are also questions over Hong Kong's recycling rate of 38 percent. This is comparable with Britain and France at about 40 percent. Japan's rate is about 20 percent. It has a high incineration rate although it captures a good part of the energy needed for this. We are working with the recycling sector to enable them to collect more recyclables. A HK$1 billion recycling fund has been set aside awaiting its turn before the Finance Committee.

Hong Kong is well-known for its many development projects. These generate all kinds of construction waste. Charging for this type of waste has been in place since 2006, resulting in the adoption of less wasteful building methods. Over 90 percent of our construction waste is inert and suitable for reuse. It is already separated by way of differential charging. The remaining portion, amounting to some 3,600 tonnes per day, needs landfilling. We have started to work with the construction sector to reduce waste and examine increasing charges.

There is also misunderstanding that by providing more roadside recycling bins it would substantially increase recycling. Roadside bins help raise public awareness. But they are only a very small part of our recyclable collection network. In 2012, only 165 tonnes of plastics were recovered from them, whereas the total quantity of plastic recyclables collected was about 320,000 tonnes. The bulk of Hong Kong's plastic and other recyclables are recovered from recycling facilities in buildings, community collection points, and through private recyclers' collection networks.

We hope legislators will realize Hong Kong needs to get on with building the IWMF and extending our landfills. Apart from what is noted above, we have a long list of other initiatives to bring them. This includes funding for an electronic waste treatment plant and legislation to deal with such waste; a new law for glass beverage bottles; a new MSW charging system; and a funding scheme to revitalize restored landfills for community use. In addition, waste planning and infrastructure provision can take considerable time to implement. We will launch a study next year on the long-term strategic development of waste management facilities. This will be with a view to moving "towards zero MSW landfilling" in order to define what Hong Kong needs. This will be after putting in place the essential complement of infrastructure and waste reduction measures. We will not let up with our efforts.

The author is the secretary for the environment of the Hong Kong SAR Government.

(HK Edition 11/21/2014 page1)