Submitted by admin on Feb 14th 2013, 12:00am
Business
LAI SEE
Howard Winn
The environmental group Clear The Air is maintaining the pressure on the government to abandon plans to build an incinerator on Shek Kwu Chau. The group’s chairman, James Middleton, has sent a letter to the Legislative Council’s environmental affairs panel urging it not to approve funding for what he terms “outdated dinosaur technology”.
Plans for a traditional mass-burn incinerator were shelved last year to allow the new administration to rethink its strategy for waste management.
Clear The Air’s letter makes the case for plasma gasification technology, which converts waste to syngas that can be used to generate electricity or converted into other fuels such as jet fuel. British Airways’ Green Skies Project is one of 10 such projects being commissioned to convert municipal solid waste into jet fuel.
“It is time for the Hong Kong government to realise that technology has advanced since the decision to use MBT [mass-burn technology] was taken in the absence of legislating mandatory recycling measures, bite the bullet handed to them by the previous non-performing Tsang administration and ENB minister and move on with the gasification technology; this will also make redundant the current medical waste/carcass incinerator at Stonecutters for alternative development as an additional benefit.”
The letter also highlights the dangers associated with incineration that have been noted in other countries.
“There is already enough clinical evidence of deaths and cancers caused to populations downwind of incinerators with more reports in the pipeline,” the letter says. The government has said privately that it will look at the various technologies available for disposing of Hong Kong’s waste.
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Topics:
Waste Management
Clear the Air
Incinerator
Shek Kwu Chau
Kiran Bedi
India
Territorial Disputes
Maps
Antiques
Beer
Source URL (retrieved on Feb 14th 2013, 6:06am): http://www.scmp.com/business/article/1149698/greens-burn-over-dinosaur-technology
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[1] mailto:howard.winn@scmp.c