Clear The Air News Blog Rotating Header Image

October 15th, 2015:

Cycle of waste: City’s recycling industry needs must be addressed by Hong Kong government

Oct 15th, 2015
by Editor.
No comments yet

Given our colour-coded dustbins have been in place for years, one would have thought that separation of waste for recycling would be a way of life now rather than a goal still to be achieved. But the sad reality is that there are still far too many households and individuals who pay little regard to the importance of recycling. The problem is compounded by the insufficient support given to the recycling industry.

Thankfully, that could be about to change. In a belated step, the government has launched a HK$1 billion fund to enhance the sustainability of the industry.

There are two funding programmes – a matching grant for upgrading and expanding recycling operations and one for non-profit and trade support organisations. The former offers grants equal to 50 per cent of approved expenditure for a two-year period for up to three projects with cumulative funding of HK$5 million; the latter gives 100 per cent grants capped at HK$15 million. The aim is to raise the quantity of recyclables, promote markets for products made of recycled materials and, ultimately, ease the burden on landfills.

But the industry appears to be sceptical about how effective the scheme will be. Some traders are wary about investing in new machinery when their profit margins are shrinking amid soaring rents and falling plastic and oil prices. Their concerns are valid. Officials should listen to their views and try harder to meet their needs.

Recycling of plastic bottles in the city has reportedly been suspended recently because there is no money to be made in the business. There are also suggestions that as soon as households have sorted their garbage into recycling bins, cleaners mix them together and send them to landfills. If that is the case, it would make a mockery of the upstream efforts in recycling.

Our regional neighbours, like Japan and Taiwan, have made much progress on waste reduction and recycling. It is a shame that we have spent so much effort in expanding our landfills, but are still tip-toeing around the introduction of a waste charge.

The government is seeking to raise the recycling rate to 55 per cent by 2022. Laudable as it is, the goal cannot be achieved unless there are good business prospects for the recycling industry. The funding scheme is a long overdue step to give the industry a helping hand. But it is important that the needs of the industry are addressed.

Hong Kong’s air quality will suffer if bureaucrat once again heads environment department

Oct 15th, 2015
by Editor.
No comments yet

Alexis Lau and Bill Barron

We refer to the report, “Appoint a professional to head Hong Kong’s environment department rather than a bureaucrat, say advisers” (September 19).

We strongly support calls for the new head of the Environmental Protection Department to be someone with professional expertise when the incumbent retires.

Environmental management requires trade-offs and compromises. Nonetheless, scientific evidence tends to be complex and involve uncertainties, while in the short term, political and economic costs may appear simple and compelling. Under such circumstances, as Melonie Chau Yuet-cheung of Friends of the Earth noted, “scientific evidence often takes a back seat”. This is more likely when the person making the final decisions lacks the required scientific background.

For example, the department is considering cutting back its chemical “speciation” network for PM2.5, arguably the pollutant contributing the greatest environmental health risks in Hong Kong. There are many sources of PM2.5, including marine shipping, power plants, vehicles, off-road diesel engines, commercial cooking and outflow from the mainland. We must compare chemical characteristics from different sites to determine the contributions of different sources to the measured PM2.5 concentrations. Cutting back this network will severely limit our ability to determine where the pollutants came from or design effective control strategies against them.

The science is well understood by professionals. One of the first steps the mainland took when it started to take air quality seriously in 2013 was to enhance its PM2.5 speciation capability. In Hong Kong, thanks to more forward-looking professionals in the department, it has been gathering such information for over a decade. This data was critical for the science behind the Clean Air Plan in 2013 and the subsequent HK$11.3 billion vehicle control programmes. It is incomprehensible that when governments elsewhere are trying to better understand the sources of PM2.5, the department is considering cutting that back.

In recent years, we have noticed changes in the department’s top-level decision-making. The hard-earned scientific and professional culture that used to make it a professional department, respected by colleagues and academics globally, has become noticeably weaker.

We urge the government to return to a professional-led department and reverse this move away from science-based assessment and decision-making. This is essential if the department is to keep its reputation as a respected organisation that we trust to get the science right when developing policy recommendations and programmes.

Alexis Lau, professor, and Bill Barron, adjunct associate professor, division of environment, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology