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Quick thinkers sought to weigh waste ideas

HK Standard

The public was urged yesterday to take a realistic view of incinerators and landfills and see them as essential for handling waste.

Kelly Ip

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

The public was urged yesterday to take a realistic view of incinerators and landfills and see them as essential for handling waste.

Environment chief Wong Kam-sing said landfills at Tuen Mun, Tseung Kwan O and Ta Kwu Ling will be full in two to six years, so preparations for expansion or replacement are needed.

“We will have to discuss possible options some time this year, including the timetable, capacity and technology used in landfill expansion and incinerators,” Wong said.

Noting that it would take up to eight years for a new incinerator to be up and running, he added: “Discussing the options today does not mean we will do it now, but it’s not responsible to ignore such discussion and action.

“At the end of the day we will have to include incinerators in our development blueprint and discuss their role for waste treatment.” And the blueprint would include matters such as waste classification at landfills.

Christine Loh Kung-wai, the undersecretary for the environment, said on Sunday Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has never ruled out incinerators as a waste-treatment option.

But Green Sense president Roy Tam Hoi-pong said expansion of landfills and incinerators should be a last resort.

“Before considering these options the government should be more determined to reduce waste at source such as implementing solid-waste charging even if it is difficult to enforce.”

That could lessen the need for landfill space and incinerators, Tam said, though either option – a charge system or opening more facilities – is sure to spark opposition from residents.

Patrick Fung Kin-wai, campaign manager of Clean Air Network, said whether his group will back incinerators depends on the kind of technology used.

“We believe that the more advanced the incinerators the less pollution,” he said.

Friends of the Earth environmental affairs manager Chu Hon- keung said it may not be possible to implement solid-waste charging in 2016 as hoped as legislative elections are set in 2016 and the chief executive election in 2017.

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