dynamco Aug 13th 2013 8:00am
Charlie Chan is naïve: “Netherlands is at the forefront of safe & eco-friendly methods of waste disposal” How can burning trash that could be recycled be deemed Eco friendly when peer reviewed reports show increases in child deaths, birth abnormalities & cancer increases with proximity to incinerators?
Recently the ENB paraded a panel of pro incinerator individuals whose businesses or funding relied on same. An executive on the panel from Netherlands based W2E Afval Energie Bedriff was inflamed when it was revealed his organization was the 484th most polluting enterprise in the whole of the EU.
43% of our daily MSW is food waste at 80-90% water content with less than 4 MJ/kg calorific value, the wettest in the world whereas Europe food waste is 30% water. Combustion needs >7 MJ/kg so needs to add feedstocks w/ higher calorific value thus defeating recycling. Stonecutters plant (2.7 million m3 per day capacity by 2016) could handle all of HKG’s 3,300 m3 daily food waste if pulped before adding to the sewage system.
To build the intended 3 incinerators a confirmed longterm quantity of daily feedstock is required hence the ENB reticence to share the fuel for the bonfire. Dioxin emissions from burn temperature drop are highest on burner startup & shutdown hence the need to ‘keep on burning’. Of course once we have waste charging & source separation laws & a viable local recycling setup we might have to import MSW to keep the burners burning & manmade islands as ash lagoons.
Published on South China Morning Post (http://www.scmp.com)
Home > Letters to the Editor, August 13, 2013
Letters to the Editor, August 13, 2013
Tuesday, 13 August, 2013, 12:00am
Comment› Letters
Come clean on waste disposal strategy
I agree with Frank Lee (“Viable waste management plan snubbed [4]”, August 5) that the government’s waste disposal plans leave much to be desired both in transparency and positive action.
Green Island Cement’s offer to incorporate waste disposal into the production cycle at its plant in Tuen Mun is infinitely better than expanding landfills, and is obviously ecologically preferable to the ill-considered Shek Kwu Chau reclamation.
I was also alerted by your report highlighting Cheung Kong Infrastructure’s acquisition of a stake in the largest producer of electricity by waste burning in the Netherlands (“CKI eager to enter new industries as profit grows [5]”, July 26).
The Netherlands is at the forefront of safe and eco-friendly methods of waste disposal.
This begs the most obvious question – why is Li Ka-shing’s Power Assets (formerly Hongkong Electric) not burning waste (or planning to) at its Lamma power station?
Naturally the same question could be asked about CLP Power’s operations.
On the one hand the Environmental Protection Department appears to be weak-kneed in the face of hostile opposition, while on the other hand it seems to be stubbornly empire-building and bureaucratically avoiding systems outside its own direct day-to-day control.
I think it is overdue for the department to come clean on the matter of waste disposal.
Charlie Chan, Mid-Levels
Source URL (retrieved on Aug 13th 2013, 7:16am): http://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/1296268/letters-editor-august-13-2013
Links:
[1] http://www.scmp.com/business/money/markets-investing/article/1294823/hong-kong-taxi-licences-hit-record-high-almost-us1m
[2] http://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/1266267/letters-editor-june-22-2013
[3] http://SCMP.com
[4] http://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/1294371/letters-editor-august-5-2013
[5] http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1290764/cki-eager-enter-new-industries-profit-grows