Chp 128, Incinerators – Forty years champion for the environment

Incinerators

Incinerators get a bad name in Hong Kong. The three old generation incinerators (Lai Chi Kok, Kennedy Town and Kwai Chung), built in late 1960s and 70s, were exemplary works of visual encroachment and something slightly better than open burning. In the “Waste Disposal Plan for Hong Kong” published by the then Planning, Environment and Lands Branch in 1989, the Government announced its decision to build three “strategic landfills” to handle the waste problem and close down all incinerators. The burners were decommissioned in the 1990s but the structures were not dismantled until recently.

Given the lukewarm support to the recycling industry (see Chp. 36. Waste Management Policy), it was hardly surprising when the Administration resurrected the plan to build a super incinerator in “A Policy Framework for the Management of Municipal Solid Waste (2005-2014)” as the three landfills would be full within ten years.

The Policy Framework does have some merits, like the plan of implementing waste charging based on the amount of garbage thrown away. However, the targets set in the Policy Framework are extremely conservative. What it means is that we need to burn up to 5 700 tons of rubbish everyday in the year 2015.

In CA’s 2007 policy submission, we push the idea of creating a circular economy in Hong Kong. The emphasis should be on integrating the citizen-wide practice of reduce, re-use and recycle, with the emerging job-creating industries of waste management and recycling. The Eco-Park in Tuen Mun is only a feeble attempt in developing the waste management industry, and efforts must be stepped up.

CA thinks that as bulk reduction facilities will eventually have to be constructed, more controversial facilities such as the commonly understood “incinerators” can be integrated into the waste management infrastructure, but first it should be made part of a progressive and sustainable waste strategy. No local community will want to be a dumping ground for waste facilities; on the other hand, modern sustainable waste management infrastructure that creates jobs and contribute to the society and economy should be welcomed by the community.