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May 15th, 2013:

INCINERATOR

May 15th, 2013
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CTA SAYS:

Then of course there is the 5-7% toxic fly ash (that needs treatment) which means approx 28-30% by weight of what is thermally converted remains as ash that needs daily disposal, ad infinitum.

The ENB’s Elvis AU prefers to state that waste is reduced 90% BY VOLUME by incineration.

Of course the waste management policy relates to stage 2 and stage 3 phases which means THREE INCINERATORS – so where is the recycling ? Currently 48% of local paper etc recycling is claimed – 99% of this is EXPORTED daily to China earning money for Government. With incineration there is no incentive to recycle; indeed they need to be guaranteed feedstocks or they issue their most dioxin emissions on shut down and startup.

From: dereklui@epd.gov.hk [mailto:dereklui@epd.gov.hk]
Sent: 02 February, 2012 14:04
To: James Middleton
Cc: “I[KM]2″@epd.gov.hk; “E[KM]1″@epd.gov.hk; “SI[KM]1″@epd.gov.hk; “S[IP]1″@epd.gov.hk
Subject: Fw: 轉寄: FW: E(12/0072) IWMF

Dear Mr Middleton,

Thank you for your email dated 26.01.2012.

You mention that you find the estimated  22% of bottom ash is low since most UK plants have approximately 25-30% ash to MSW ratios.   On this, you may wish to note that there has been a general downwards trend of % bottom ash production to waste input over the last few years in UK. The following table summaries the recent information from some incineration plants in the UK.

Plant

Year

% of input

Chineham

2010

21.4

Cleveland

2009

21.5

Bolton

2009

22.0

Dudley

2010

23.0

SELCHP (London)

2007

22.9

Regarding your question on whether it is the intention to create a new ash lagoon / landfill on the proposed south Cheung Chau island reclamation to handle subsequent disposals after the existing WENT Landfill is filled up, we understand that the proposed south Cheung Chau island reclamation is one of the many options of reclamation which are under public consultation at present.  We consider that the extension of three existing landfills is the most viable way forward with respect to provisions for waste residue disposal in the short to medium term.   We would keep in view of the option of marine landfill sites for longer term development, noting that consideration of this option would require further assessments of the complex technical issues.

Regards,
Derek LUI
E(IP)12/IPG
EPD


From: enquiry@epd.gov.hk [mailto:enquiry@epd.gov.hk]
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 16:21
To: James Middleton
Subject: Re: E(12/0072) IWMF


Dear Mr Middleton,

Thank you for your email dated 09.01.2012.

Further to the auto-reply, I would like to inform you that our colleagues are processing your request and may need a few more days to come back to you.

Please let me know if you do not hear from us after about 5 working days.  Thank you.


Yours sincerely,
Emily IP
Enquiry/KMU
Environmental Protection Department

“James Middleton” <dynamco@netvigator.com>

09/01/2012 14:24

To

“EPD HKG” <enquiry@epd.gov.hk>

cc

Subject

E(12/0072) IWMF


IWMF Shek Kwu Chau

Dear Sir, http://www.epd.gov.hk/eia/register/report/eiareport/eia_2012011/EIA/EIA_PDF/S6b_Waste_SKC.pdf

We find your estimates low since most UK plants have approximately 25-30% ash to MSW ratios.

We note the initial flyash and bottom ash will be disposed of at WENT landfill.

Thereafter is it the intention to create a new ash lagoon / landfill on the proposed south Cheung Chau island reclamation to handle subsequent disposals since the capacity of WENT would be insufficient moving forwards ?

Kind regards
James Middleton
Chairman
www.cleartheair.org.hk


Operation Phase
6b.4.1.48 As discussed in Section 2, the IWMF would comprise (a) an advanced thermal
incineration plant of about 3,000 tpd capacity and (b) a demonstration-scale mechanical
treatment (MT) plant of about 200tpd or less for mixed MSW.  The wastes to be
generated from the thermal incineration plant and the MT plant are discussed below.
Incineration By-products
6b.4.1.49 The main waste type to be generated during the operation of the thermal incineration
plant would be bottom ash, fly ash and air pollution control (APC) residues.  For treating
3,000 tpd of mixed MSW, it is estimated that approximately 660 tpd (22%) of bottom ash and
120 tpd (4%) of fly ash and APC residues would be generated from the thermal incineration
plant.
6b.4.1.50 The bottom ash is considered to be inert provided that the combustion systems in the
incinerator are designed and operated correctly, and would be disposed of at landfill.  Fly
ash and APC residues from the flue gas stream can also be disposed of at landfill after
proper treatment. The pollution load in fly ash and APC residues would likely be higher
and more readily leachable than that in bottom ash. Cement solidification or chemical
stabilization would be adopted to pre-treat the fly ash and APC residue to ensure that
they would conform to the proposed Incineration Residue Pollution Control Limits and
leachability criteria shown in Table 6b.7 before disposal

6b.4.1.52 To confirm that the bottom ash, and the treated fly ash and APC residues of the IWMF
would not contain elevated levels of heavy metals and as a precautionary measure, it is
proposed that TCLP tests be carried out for each batch of bottom ash, treated fly ash and
APC residues to be disposed of at WENT Landfill at the initial stage of the IWMF
operation (i.e. for a period of 6 months). If the test results confirm that heavy metals or
pH are not of concern, the TCLP test can be deleted or reduced to half-yearly intervals.

6b.4.1.54 The estimated amount of refuse would be about 185 tpd. Most of the refuse will be
diverted to the incinerators of the IWMF for combustion. Only a small amount of
undersize, non-combustible inert refuse (about 23 tpd), which contains glass, sand, etc.,
will be disposed of at the WENT Landfill.

Table 6b.8 Summary of Waste Generation from Operation of the IWMF
Waste Product Quantity Disposal Route
Incineration by-products
Bottom Ash
660 tpd
Comply with proposed Incineration Residue
Pollution Control Limits prior to disposal to
WENT landfill
Fly ash and APC Residue
120 tpd
(240 tpd after
cementation)
MT by-products
Refuse from MT
Pre-treatment would be applied (e.g. cement
solidification) for compliance with proposed
Incineration Residue Pollution Control Limits
prior to disposal to WENT landfill.
162 tpd
Refuse (e.g. badly contaminated textiles, wood
and residual paper, plastics etc.) to be diverted
to the incinerators of the IWMF for combustion.
23 tpd
Undersized, non-combustible inert refuse (e.g.
glass, sand, residual metals etc.) to be disposed
at WENT landfill.

Table 6b.10 Materials used in the IWMF Operation with Land Contamination
Potential
Material
Expected Annual
Consumption / Production
Estimated Quantity to be
Stored On-site
Chemicals Consumption
Slaked lime 12,065 tonnes 496 tonnes
Ammonia water (25%) 4,015 tonnes 165 tonnes
Activated carbon 383 tonnes 31 tonnes
Kerosene 283 m
3
Caustic soda 206 tonnes 8,466 kg
Hydrochloric acid 83 tonnes 3,411 kg
Sulfurous acid 3,906 kg 161 kg
Production of Incineration By-products
Bottom Ash 240,900 tonnes 3,300 m
Fly ash & APC residues 43,800 tonnes 600 m

Visa waivers to boost Guangzhou air travel

May 15th, 2013
by Editor.
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Guangzhou’s aviation industry is likely to gain ground on Hong Kong as transit flyers can soon land in the Guangdong capital for three days without a visa.

Victor Cheung

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Guangzhou’s aviation industry is likely to gain ground on Hong Kong as transit flyers can soon land in the Guangdong capital for three days without a visa.

The State Council has reportedly approved a scheme to grant visitors who transit in Baiyun airport 72-hour visa waivers for travel within Guangdong.

The policy will be implemented next month, Guangzhou-based Information Times said. It predicts the move will boost the short-term tourism industry following similar policies in Beijing and Shanghai.

The move may also post a challenge to Hong Kong’s position as the dominant regional aviation hub, according to Law Cheung-kwok, director of aviation policy and research at Chinese University.

“Passengers, especially those in business who use to transit in Hong Kong, might switch to using Guangzhou, for either cost or convenience. As direct trade between the mainland and the world intensifies, more and more people may want to go to the mainland rather than work offshore in Hong Kong.”

He said while international flights to and from Guangzhou are limited now, the airport is expanding, with a third runway expected to be in service in 2015 and a second terminal up and running by 2016. The airport carried 48 million passengers last year, up 7 percent from 2011.

Hong Kong’s airport carried 56.5 million passengers last year, up 4.7 percent, with more than a third being transit flyers.

“In contrast, Hong Kong’s third runway is still under public debate, and even if it could start building today, it will take about 10 years to complete,” Law said.

The SAR holds 80 percent of the market share in handling Pearl River Delta’s international air traffic, but according to the Hong Kong 2030 master plan, the figure will drop to 65 percent in the face of strong competition from cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

The Hong Kong Airport Authority said while it awaits the formal announcement of Guangzhou’s measure, it does not believe there will be a substantial impact to the city’s air traffic (CTA: and Pigs can fly).

Don’t kid yourself that electric taxis are green

May 15th, 2013
by Editor.
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Thursday, 16 May, 2013, 12:00am

Business

MONITOR

Tom Holland

The new vehicles on HK roads are as red as ever if the energy used and gas emissions produced in making them are taken into consideration

Yesterday, the first of a new fleet of electric taxis rolled out onto Hong Kong’s crowded streets.

Encouraged by the prospect of generous subsidies from the government’s HK$300 million “green transport fund”, the Hong Kong Taxi & Public Light Bus Association is leasing 45 battery-powered “e6” vehicles from Shenzhen-based manufacturer BYD.

https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/237x147/public/2013/05/16/60fa5d44c6b025fc70698118dc593396.jpg?itok=W8Mf1wJD[1]

In time, BYD hopes to replace at least a quarter of Hong Kong’s 18,138 liquid-petroleum-gas-fuelled taxis with electric models.

According to the Reuters news service, BYD founder Wang Chuanfu said yesterday that if the city’s entire taxi and bus fleets were replaced with electric vehicles, “it will reduce Hong Kong’s emissions by 50 per cent”.

You have to wonder what he’s been smoking.

BYD boasts its e6 cars have zero emissions.

This is nonsense.

For one thing, it takes a lot of energy to manufacture battery-powered cars. BYD’s e6 weighs 60 per cent more than a Toyota Crown, the model which makes up the vast majority of Hong Kong’s existing taxi fleet. That means it takes a lot more energy to build.

And more energy means greater emissions.

According to a research paper published in last October’s edition of the Journal of Industrial Ecology, manufacturing a battery-powered vehicle like the e6 pumps out twice as much greenhouse gas as building a conventional car.

And even when electric cars reach the road, they are not emission-free. Their batteries have to be recharged, which means plugging them into the mains power supply.

That of course means electric cars are only as green to run as the electricity that charges their batteries.

So if Hong Kong were to generate all its electricity with wind turbines or solar panels, then BYD could legitimately claim its taxis were green.

But Hong Kong’s power mix is much dirtier. The government likes to claim the city generates 23 per cent of its electricity from natural gas, 23 per cent from nuclear power and 54 per cent from coal.

But if you scour through the Hong Kong Energy Statistics 2012 Annual Report published two weeks ago by the Census and Statistics Department, you get a different picture.

As the first chart shows, last year Hong Kong generated only 16 per cent of its electricity from relatively clean natural gas. The lion’s share – 61 per cent – came from coal.

Working from vehicle emission figures compiled by WWF-Deutschland, we can estimate that a battery-powered car recharged from Hong Kong’s electricity supply would be responsible for about 140 grams of carbon-dioxide emissions for every kilometre driven.

As the second chart shows, that is roughly the same as a petrol-driven car would pump out, and about 8 per cent more than a car with a diesel-hybrid engine.

When the additional emissions involved in manufacturing battery-powered vehicles are factored in, the case for electric cars looks even more shaky.

According to the Journal of Industrial Ecology paper, across their whole life-cycle, battery-powered cars recharged with electricity generated from natural gas emit the same amount of greenhouse gases as diesel-powered cars.

If the electricity is generated largely from coal, as in Hong Kong, battery-powered cars are responsible for significantly more emissions than conventionally powered vehicles like Hong Kong’s existing LPG-fuelled taxis.

That doesn’t mean electric vehicles are entirely pointless. They do shift emissions from the streets to power station smokestacks, which may have health benefits.

Just don’t kid yourself that these taxis are green. In environmental terms, they are bright red.

tom.holland@scmp.com [2]

Topics:

Electric Vehicles

BYD

Taxi

Electricity Generation

Greenhouse Gas

Energy


Links:
[1] https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/2013/05/16/60fa5d44c6b025fc70698118dc593396.jpg
[2] mailto:tom.holland@scmp.com

Hong Kong struggles to combat waste video

May 15th, 2013
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http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/32287403

Hong Kong struggles to combat waste video

EPA Must Revisit Sewage Incineration Rule, DC Circ. Hears

May 15th, 2013
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http://www.law360.com/articles/438594/epa-must-revisit-sewage-incineration-rule-dc-circ-hears

EPA Must Revisit Sewage Incineration Rule, DC Circ. Hears

Share us on: TwitterFacebookLinkedIn By Erica Teichert

Law360, Washington (May 03, 2013, 6:11 PM ET) — The Sierra Club and a municipal wastewater treatment coalition urged the D.C. Circuit on Friday to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider its sewage sludge incineration performance standards and emission limits, claiming the agency’s current system is flawed.


But the two groups asked a three-judge panel for different outcomes. While the Sierra Club claimed the current emissions and performance standards are set too low and won’t require the incinerators to make any changes or technological advancements, the National Association of Clean Water Agencies argued that the EPA has no business regulating incinerator emissions in the first place.

“Vacature is the correct remedy, both because of the statutory problem and EPA cannot justify a new floor,” Jeffrey A. Knight of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, counsel for the NACWA, said during Friday’s oral arguments.

According to Knight, the EPA has promulgated various conflicting theories of how it can regulate public wastewater treatment plants and their sewage sludge incineration units under the Clean Air Act, which nix the emissions standards at issue.

The rule, published in March 2011, set new limits for nine pollutants under the Clean Air Act: cadmium, carbon monoxide, hydrogen chloride, lead, mercury, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans, and sulfur dioxide.

But those requirements take away municipalities’ discretion to create their own wastewater treatment programs, Knight said.

“Congress intends for local municipalities to have flexibility in determining sewage treatment,” he told the panel.

But EPA counsel Michele L. Walter disagreed, claiming the the EPA’s solid waste and sewage sludge definitions merely showed that the agency didn’t want to regulate all solid waste emitted from residences, as it would create an absurd regulatory outcome.

“This is not a novel interpretation by EPA,” she said. “What EPA has done has not taken away the local control.”

While the NACWA persisted, alleging sewage sludge is an entirely separate substance than solid waste, Circuit Judge Merrick B. Garland said the association was making too big a deal of the issue, as one substance derives from another.

“This is not like alchemy. They’re not turning lead into gold,” he said.

Although the NACWA requested that the panel vacate the EPA rule, the Sierra Club balked, as that could result in losing all emissions standards for the facilities.

“Their standards, as weak as they are, will protect public health,” said James S. Pew, counsel for the Sierra Club.

Instead, Pew recommended that the standards be remanded so the EPA can take a closer look at sewage sludge incinerator technology and set more appropriate emissions floors for the industry.

“One thing you have here is how little the standards affect sewage sludge incinerators,” Pew said. “EPA has said the standards won’t require sewage sludge incinerators to reduce their emissions at all.”

The EPA denied both groups’ petitions for reconsideration in April 2012.

Judges Merrick B. Garland, Janice Rogers Brown and David B. Sentelle sat on the panel for the D.C. Circuit.

The Sierra Club is represented by James S. Pew and Jonathan A. Wiener of Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund. The NACWA is represented by Jeffrey A. Knight and Peter H. Wyckoff of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.

The case is National Association of Clean Water Agencies et al. v. Environmental Protection Agency, case number 11-1131, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

–Additional reporting by Juan Carlos Rodriguez. Editing by Andrew Park.

Pioneering Italian Town Leads Europe in Waste Recycling

May 15th, 2013
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Download PDF : pioneering-italian-town-leads-eu

http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/05/pioneering-italian-town-leads-europe-in-waste-recycling/

Climate research nearly unanimous on human causes, survey finds

May 15th, 2013
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http://news.google.co.uk/news/url?ct2=uk%2F1_0_s_7_1_a&sa=t&usg=AFQjCNEOMngzi8dqfAcgpMUJ6lmlsFpe_Q&cid=43982062720585&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guardian.co.uk%2Fenvironment%2F2013%2Fmay%2F16%2Fclimate-research-nearly-unanimous-humans-causes&ei=E5iXUaifDfCQiQe5qgE&rt=SECTION&vm=STANDARD&bvm=section&did=-7719180075941868499&sid=en_uk%3Asnc&ssid=snc

Climate research nearly unanimous on human causes, survey finds

Of more than 4,000 academic papers published over 20 years, 97.1% agreed that climate change is anthropogenic

• Dana Nuccitelli: how we reached the findings

‘Our findings prove that there is a strong scientific agreement about the cause of climate change, despite public perceptions to the contrary’. Photograph: John McConnico/AP

A survey of thousands of peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals has found 97.1% agreed that climate change is caused by human activity.

Authors of the survey, published on Thursday in the journal Environmental Research Letters, said the finding of near unanimity provided a powerful rebuttal to climate contrarians who insist the science of climate change remains unsettled.

The survey considered the work of some 29,000 scientists published in 11,994 academic papers. Of the 4,000-plus papers that took a position on the causes of climate change only 0.7% or 83 of those thousands of academic articles, disputed the scientific consensus that climate change is the result of human activity, with the view of the remaining 2.2% unclear.

The study described the dissent as a “vanishingly small proportion” of published research.

“Our findings prove that there is a strong scientific agreement about the cause of climate change, despite public perceptions to the contrary,” said John Cook of the University of Queensland, who led the survey.

Public opinion continues to lag behind the science. Though a majority of Americans accept the climate is changing, just 42% believed human activity was the main driver, in a poll conducted by the Pew Research Centre last October.

“There is a gaping chasm between the actual consensus and the public perception,” Cook said in a statement.

Guardian partners Climate Desk interview John Cook on his new paper

The study blamed strenuous lobbying efforts by industry to undermine the science behind climate change for the gap in perception. The resulting confusion has blocked efforts to act on climate change.

The survey was the most ambitious effort to date to demonstrate the broad agreement on the causes of climate change, covering 20 years of academic publications from 1991-2011.

In 2004, Naomi Oreskes, an historian at the University of California, San Diego,surveyed published literature, releasing her results in the journal Science. She too came up with a similar finding that 97% of climate scientists agreed on the causes of climate change.

She wrote of the new survey in an email: “It is a nice, independent confirmation, using a somewhat different methodology than I used, that comes to the same result. It also refutes the claim, sometimes made by contrarians, that the consensus has broken down, much less ‘shattered’.”

The Cook survey was broader in its scope, deploying volunteers from the SkepticalScience.com website to review scientific abstracts. The volunteers also asked authors to rate their own views on the causes of climate change, in another departure from Oreskes’s methods.

The authors said the findings could help close the gap between scientific opinion and the public on the causes of climate change, or anthropogenic global warming, and so create favourable conditions for political action on climate.

“The public perception of a scientific consensus on AGW [anthropogenic, ie man-made, global warming] is a necessary element in public support for climate policy,” the study said.

However, Prof Robert Brulle, a sociologist at Drexel University who studies the forces underlying attitudes towards climate change, disputed the idea that educating the public about the broad scientific agreement on the causes of climate change would have an effect on public opinion – or on the political conditions for climate action.

He said he was doubtful that convincing the public of a scientific consensus on climate change would help advance the prospects for political action. Having elite leaders call for climate action would be far more powerful, he said.

“I don’t think people really want to come around to grips with the fact that climate change is a highly ideological issue and it is not amenable to the information deficit model,” he said.

“The information deficit model, this idea that if you just pile on more information people will get convinced, is just completely inadequate, he said. “It strengthens the people who actually read and pay attention but it is certainly not going to change or shift the opinions of others.”

Jon Krosnick, professor in humanities and social sciences at Stanford university and an expert on public opinion on climate change, said: “I assume that sceptics would say that there is bias in the editorial process so that the papers ultimately published are not an accurate reflection of the opinions of scientists.”

Deflated Rubber Duck’s not in the soup – it needs to freshen up, say organisers

May 15th, 2013
by Editor.
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Wednesday, 15 May, 2013, 10:09am

News› Hong Kong

Comments:

May 16th 2013
11:30pm

Actually insiders say it caught H7FDUCK1 causing it to empty its bladder aka ‘lame duck fowl incontinence’
The pathogen is air and water borne and a legacy of the former administration who did fowl all whilst adopting the ostrich pose in between 60k a night hotel stays and private jet trips , staying on property tycoon Sunseekers in Macau and catching a lift back on a tobacco tycoon ‘s boat two weeks after there was no tobacco tax increase in the 2012 budget
HKU scientists are trying to locate the frequent flyer former head of the ENB who took 59 overseas trips in his 60 month term and who may have picked up the pathogen overseas during his visit to a Scottish whisky distillery and a Scandinavian incinerator which has to import waste from overseas to keep it operational
He is now in hiding and earning 300k a month as the local mayor’s office manager as a reward for doing nothing during his last term which was supposed to protect the Environment in the Lame Duck administration

Staff reporter

Deflated 16.5-metre-high inflatable sculpture prompts internet rumours

Is it all over for the giant inflatable Rubber Duck that has attracted thousands of admirers to Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour?

Conceptual artist Florentijn Hofman’s creation, which made its debut in the harbour the week before last, lies deflated in the water.

The 16.5-metre-high inflatable sculpture was due to remain at the Ocean Terminal for a month but was last night pictured lying on its side.

The Rubber Duck needs to freshen up. Stay tuned for its return. twitter.com/hkharbourcity/… [1]

— Harbour City (@hkharbourcity) May 14, 2013 [2]

The news got web users in a flutter, with Hong Kong Wrong blog [3] joking that the bird had succumbed to lung cancer from pollution.

But those lamenting the bird’s demise were reassured by Harbour City, which organised the exhibition, that the Rubber Duck was merely having a nap.

Alongside a cartoon carrying the words “Sleepy Time”, it tweeted: “The Rubber Duck needs to freshen up. Stay tuned for its return.”

Two police marine vessels acted as guardian for the giant yellow toy as it made its way into the harbour on May 2. As the duck emerged from behind a cruise ship docking at Ocean Terminal, an excited crowd roared: “It’s here!”

It first appeared in France in 2007 and has since travelled to arts festivals around the world, including making an appearance at the opening of the Sydney Festival at beginning of this year.

Topics:

Rubber duck