Officials supporting waste recovery

I refer to the letter by Doris Lee headlined 'Government must help recycling firms' (South China Morning Post, August 8).

The government is committed to promoting waste recovery, which is an integral part of our overall waste management strategy.

In this connection, we have been allocating sites through short-term tenancy (STT) exclusively for use by waste processing and recovery operations.

So far, 33 pieces of STT land, with a total area of more than 630,000 square feet have been let to the recycling trade. A site in Tai Po and another one at Cha Kwo Ling have already been made available in the past three months, and several new sites will soon be available for the recycling industry in the later part of the year. Information on the new STT sites has been made available to the trade by the Environmental Protection Department.

Separately, we are developing a recovery park in Tuen Mun, which will provide long-term land for the recycling industry. We will continue to explore further measures to facilitate the operation of the recycling industry and to raise the community's awareness in waste recovery.

JOYCE HO

for Secretary for the Environment,

Transport and Works