July 8th, 2013:

Lau Wong-fat vows to block second landfill extension, in Tuen Mun

Jul 8th, 2013

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Home > Lau Wong-fat vows to block second landfill extension, in Tuen Mun

Lau Wong-fat vows to block second landfill extension, in Tuen Mun

Monday, 08 July, 2013, 3:23pm

News›Hong Kong

ENVIRONMENT

Stuart Lau, Cheung Chi-fai and Emily Tsang

Environment officials struggling to find space for the city’s rubbish may have to shelve another landfill extension plan after pro-government lawmakers joined pan-democrats in opposing it.

New Territories leader and lawmaker Lau Wong-fat said yesterday he would do all he could to block the extension of the Tuen Mun tip, by far the bigger of two plans remaining since the government withdrew a proposal for the Tseung Kwan O dump.

Two lawmakers who are also executive councillors urged the government to consider withdrawing its HK$35 million request for a feasibility study of the Tuen Mun plan, while the Liberal Party said it was considering withdrawing its support.

“I will exhaust all means to block the funding request,” Lau said, calling on Secretary for the Environment Wong Kam-sing to withdraw it from the Finance Committee agenda on Friday.

He claimed he had secured support from lawmakers in the loose Business and Professionals Alliance.

Lau is a big landowner, with plots in Lung Kwu Tan village next to the Tuen Mun landfill.

Executive councillor and legislator Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung, who belongs to the seven-member Alliance, advised the government to postpone the item. “Let’s wait a few more days,” he said.

Fellow Exco member Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, of the New People’s Party, also said the government should consider withdrawing the plan.

But the Environment Bureau said last night it would be tabled as scheduled.

At least 32 of 70 lawmakers on the committee, including the pan-democrats and Federation of Trade Unions, have pledged to oppose the plan.

James Tien Pei-chun, of the Liberal Party, also said the party would “reassess” its support due to the widespread opposition.

If the plan is rejected, Wong will have lost two of the three extensions deemed necessary to keep the city running. The three landfills, now the only destination for waste, will fill up one by one from 2015.

Wong’s earlier shelving of the Tseung Kwan O plan ignited even stronger opposition from Tuen Mun residents, with only the HK$7 billion Ta Kwu Ling extension plan meeting less opposition.

Whether the proposals will be put to a vote will depend on when a filibuster threatened by “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung ends.

Lau blasted Wong for failing to properly consult the local community.

He said he was disappointed about a letter in which Wong said the administration had co-operated with the district council through a liaison group.

The liaison group was set up in 2007 to follow up district improvements after the local council gave its conditional support for a sludge incinerator to be built in Tuen Mun.

“This is not the case,” Lau said, speaking after a meeting with fellow district councillors. “This should not be mixed up with [the landfill issue].”

Yesterday’s meeting was snubbed by councillors from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, which has pledged support for the extension.

The district council has objected to the landfill extension on the grounds Tuen Mun has a disproportionate share of dirty facilities such as power plants and fuel depots.

Wong Wai-yim, of the Ta Kwu Ling rural committee, said while he opposed the landfill plan, he was equally concerned about the waste crisis facing the city.

team6.pdf Singapore study

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humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/institute/bigproblems/team6.pdf

Challenges for waste management policy in Singapore

SINGAPORE

Conclusion:

As a conclusion, the conversion of MSW to energy has significant environmental advantages and even has the potential to yield net social benefits to society, as seen in the

case of gasification. Among the three WTE technologies studied in this paper, gasification is the most cost competitive and has superior environmental performance. It

is recommended that the government looks beyond incineration and consider other alternative WTE technologies such as gasification and anaerobic digestion, in order to

establish a comprehensive WTE framework in Singapore. WTE can serve as an alternative source of energy, contributing to the diversification of energy sources and

improving Singapore’s energy security. Finally, it should be noted that WTE is not in competition with recycling, but rather its complement in an integrated waste management

plan [17]. Even where there is aggressive source reduction and recycling, there is a significant amount that ends up as unrecyclable waste. Recycling helps to sort out the

recyclables from the other waste, which could then be effectively converted into energy generating resources through the various WTE technologies.

Download PDF : team6

HKU study finds glass can replace river sand for building needs

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Jul 8th 20137:0 9am

There is of course another aggregate option the Govt chooses to ignore; that is the vitrified inert lava like slag caused by gasification of waste at ultra high temperatures instead of incineration which creates 30% ash by weight of MSW which then has to be landfilled in our expensive expanded landfills (that will be full in due course) – so we will have to build expensive man-made islands in the sea as the new ash lagoons. Bottle Island ?

HKU’s Professor Albert Kwan is confident replacing sand with glass will work. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published on South China Morning Post (http://www.scmp.com)

Home > HKU study finds glass can replace river sand for building needs

HKU study finds glass can replace river sand for building needs

Monday, 08 July, 2013, 12:00am

News›Hong Kong

ENVIRONMENT

Olga Wong olga.wong@scmp.com

University of Hong Kong study finds recycled materials might remove need to use river sand

Recycled glass could solve the problems of the building industry’s huge demand for river sand and minimise the ecological impact on the Pearl River Delta.

The Construction Industry Council commissioned a HK$3 million study at the University of Hong Kong to seek an environmentally-friendly alternative to river sand, a key component of concrete and mortar.

It found that recycled glass crushed into fine particles could be the answer – a discovery that could mean big business for the glass recycling industry.

“The rapid developments in Hong Kong and in the region have created a huge demand for river sand,” Professor Albert Kwan Kwok-hung of the university’s Department of Civil Engineering said. “With a higher value, illegal dredging on upper streams has increased.

“Sometimes suppliers have quietly replaced river sand with sea sand – with its high level of salt, this could erode a building.”

Following a mainland television exposé showing how sea sand was being used to make substandard building materials, 14 major building projects in Shenzhen were put on hold in March while local government officials tested concrete samples.

In April, the South China Morning Post commissioned tests on a concrete sample taken from one of the building projects – the Jiayu Garden housing development. Relatively high levels of salt and chloride were found.

Japan and many European countries had already stopped dredging or banned the export of river sand, Kwan said. The mainland had also tightened the amount it exported.

In Hong Kong, most contractors now used crushed rock from quarries to replace river sand in concrete after the price of river sand tripled in recent years from about HK$50 per tonne to HK$150 per tonne, Kwan said.

But the city still used one million tonnes of river sand a year in new buildings, enough to fill more than 1,130 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Kwan warned the sea sand scandal had not gone away and the use of fake river sand could mean trouble in years to come. “It’s difficult to distinguish river sand from sea sand.

“The chloride contained in the sand will infiltrate into the reinforcement bars when it encounters water, say in bathrooms or kitchens, and will weaken the building over the years.”

The study, commissioned two years ago and now entering the final stage, will test the use of crushed glass in concrete on selected construction sites.

“We will ask workers to use new mortar mixed with recycled glass to do the plastering. Workers’ feedback is important as plastering is a labour-intensive work,” Kwan said.

He said they had to overcome some challenges – crushed glass with its angular edges was not good for bonding, and the cost was more than HK$1,000 per tonne due to a low recycling rate of 5 per cent and little public awareness in sorting waste.

“It takes a lot of work before the factory operator can crush the bottles. Most of them have not been cleaned, and the transportation cost is high,” he said.

But he was confident it would work, and the final result was expected next year.

Friends of the Earth general-affairs director Edwin Lau Che-feng urged the government to ban large-scale disposal of glass bottles at landfills, by restaurants, for example, to encourage glass recycling. “Another way is to charge for disposal,” he said. “Only then will people have the incentive to recycle bottles.”

At present, charges at landfills apply only to construction waste.

Source URL (retrieved on Jul 8th 2013, 9:32pm): http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1277483/hku-study-finds-glass-can-replace-river-sand-building-needs

Nice N Clean HKG

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Some shots here from Nam Tan, south Cheung Chau, 07 July 2013

Indicative moisture content of Hong Kong food waste

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download PDF : Indicative moisture content of Hong Kong food waste

Download : msw2011(1)

MOD $ INCREASES

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26 March 2012

http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/news_events/legco/files/EA_Panel_20120326a_eng.pdf

ENB seeks Members’ support for our proposals to –

5177DR: Integrated Waste Management Facilities (IWMF) Phase 1

5163DR: Northeast New Territories (NENT) landfill extension

5164DR: Southeast New Territories (SENT) landfill extension

5165DR: West New Territories (WENT) landfill extension

(i) IWMF upgrade 5177DR to Category A at an estimated cost of $14,960.1 million in money-of-the-day (MOD) prices

(or $11,383.0 million in September 2011 prices);

(ii) NENT Upgrade 5163DR to Category A at an estimated cost of $6,631.7 million in MOD prices (or $3,969.8 million

in September 2011 prices);

(iii) SENT upgrade 5164DR to Category A at an estimated cost of $1,759.4 million in MOD prices (or $1,254.3 million

in September 2011 prices); and

(iv) WENT upgrade part of 5165DR to Category A at an estimated cost of $33.4 million in MOD prices (or $26.1 million

in September 2011 prices).
TOTAL 23,384.6 MILLION ) (NOTE SEE 4.3.2.2 BELOW = $9 billion)

27 MAY 2013 (14 MONTHS LATER)

http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr12-13/english/panels/ea/papers/ea0527cb1-1079-1-e.pdf

(i) 5163DR: Northeast New Territories (NENT) landfill extension

(ii) 5164DR: Southeast New Territories (SENT) landfill extension

(iii) 5165DR: West New Territories (WENT) landfill extension

This paper seeks Members’ support for our proposal to –

(a) upgrade 5163DR to Category A at an estimated cost of $7,026.9 million in money-of-the-day (MOD) prices; (INCREASE 395.2M) +5.96%

(b) upgrade 5164DR to Category A at an estimated cost of $1,886.4 million in MOD prices; (INCREASE 127M) +7.22%

http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr12-13/english/panels/ea/papers/ea0527cb1-1079-2-e.pdf

13. Details of the funding proposals for the three landfill extension projects are set out in LC Paper No. CB(1)1369/11-12(01) which is hyperlinked in the

Appendix. According to the Government, IWMF would require some seven years for reclamation, construction and commission, while landfill extension

would need a few years for site preparation works. In this connection, the IWMF Phase I project and the landfill extension projects should be pursued as a

package to ensure that Hong Kong could maintain environmental hygiene and handle waste properly and timely. Deliberations by the Panel on the funding

proposals for landfill extension are summarized in the ensuing paragraphs.

15. The Panel held another special meeting on 20 April 2012 to continue discussion on the funding proposals. Noting that many measures pertaining to

the Policy Framework had yet to be implemented, members were opposed to the reliance on landfills for waste disposal in view of the associated environmental

nuisances, as well as the long lead time and cost incurred from restoration of landfills. They stressed the need for a holistic package of waste management

measures (including waste reduction, separation and recycling) with waste incineration as a last resort and better communication between the two terms of

Government on environmental policies, in particular on the need for incineration. They also urged the Administration to identify other suitable

outlying islands for IWMF and promote the local recycling industry. In view of the foregoing, members did not support the submission of the funding proposals

to the Public Works Subcommittee for consideration.

26 March 2012

http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/news_events/legco/files/EA_Panel_20120326a_eng.pdf

4.1.1.2.3 The technology review in 2009 also looked into other thermal technologies such as plasma gasification, and concluded these other

alternatives were not suitable for the first IWMF in Hong Kong because of their various drawbacks, such as their limited track record for large scale

MSW treatment and the limited number of suppliers. In relation to plasma gasification, which some are advocating for the project, our

research shows that as at present, the technology is primarily used for small scale treatment of industrial wastes and hazardous wastes, but it is

not suitable for treating MSW, which contain wastes of varying size and qualities. The application of plasma gasification to MSW is uncommon

and is only limited to relatively small scale application or pilot trials. (CTA: THIS MOST DEFINITELY IS NO LONGER THE CASE)

4.3.2 Financial Implications

4.3.2.1 We estimate that the cost of the proposed consultancy study is about $35.1 million in MOD prices. The proposed consultancy study

will not give rise to any recurrent consequence. We estimate that the proposed works under this part-upgrading of 5165DR (WENT) will create about 12

jobs (2 for labourers and another 10 for professional/technical staff) providing a total employment of 290 man-months.

4.3.2.2 For the remaining part of the project to be full-upgraded in the future, which would involve the award of a design-build-operate contract,

we estimate that the cost is over $9,000 million in September 2012 prices. More updated cost estimate will be provided when we conduct the full-upgrading

exercise in the next stage.

foodwasteconversion 48% of HK MSW in 2011 was putrescibles 42.3% food waste / 1.4% yard waste and the remainder nappies and cotton

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SINGAPORE Anaerobic Digestate (AD)

Food waste conversion options in Singapore: Environmental impacts based on an LCA perspective

Hsien H. Khoo a,⁎, Teik Z. Lim b, Reginald B.H. Tan b

a Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences, 1 Pesek Road, Jurong Island, Singapore 627833, Singapore

b National University of Singapore, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, 4 Engineering Drive 4, Singapore 117576, Singapore

http://www.foodwasterepublic.com/01foodwasteconversion.pdf

Conclusions:

Significant reduction of global warming impacts can be realized by implementing the food waste AD recycling process. This was achieved by both reduced energy requirements for the process itself and CO2 savings from the compost produced from the digestate material.

– Aerobic composting showed environmentally favorable results compared with the mass incineration of food waste. However, aerobic composting is less preferred compared to AD due mainly to CO2 and NH3 emissions, as well as, low amount of bio-compost produced.

– It was suggested, however, that further investigations is needed to test the value of N and P nutrients of the compost products from both methods. Additional studies are also required to examine aerobic composting on local foodwaste samples to test its potential to obtain higher output.

– Energy generation from the food waste AD recycling process was projected to be an impressive 78% for Recycling Phase I and 82% for Recycling Phase II, assuming that both recycling phases are operating at full capacity.

– The AD’s Recycling Phase II operating at full capacity alone will allow Singapore Green Plan’s 2012 aim to increase the recycling of food waste to 30% to be achieved; combined Phase I and II increases the recycling rate to about 47%; further increase in recycling rate is possible with a proposed aerobic composting plant.

– Small-scale composting can be recommended as a way to divert food waste away from incinerators, however, a more sustainable solution will be to expand the operating capacity of the AD recycling facility

Download PDF : 01foodwasteconversion

Incinerator_Myths_vs_Facts%20Feb2012

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HKU study finds glass can replace river sand for building needs

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