Sites for incinerator being studied
A consultancy study is considering possible sites for an incinerator, the environment chief said yesterday.
The study is part of government plans to build integrated waste-management facilities, including an incinerator able to process 3,000 tonnes of waste a day that is expected to start operating around 2015.
Environment secretary Edward Yau Tang-wah said: 'The current three landfills will reach full capacity within 10 years and we have an urgent need to build facilities to manage solid waste.'
Greater economic activity would lead to more waste and the current recycling rate was 45 per cent.
'The site search will be the key part in the study,' Mr Yau said.
He admitted that no one would want an incinerator in their neighbourhood.
In August, the Advisory Council on the Environment said the government should consider compensating districts for accepting such facilities that served the wider society. The suggestion was made in light of opposition to a proposed sludge incinerator in Tuen Mun by district councillors and residents.
Greenpeace campaign manager Edward Chan Yue-fai said cancer-causing dioxins emitted during incineration posed health risks to those who lived and worked near incinerators.
'Building incinerators should be the last choice after the government has put the utmost effort on recycling and reduction of waste at the source.'
