Hong Kong exported more construction waste to mainland China than it sent to city’s own facilities in 2017
About 13.5 million tonnes of inert construction and demolition waste, or public fill, shipped across border to Taishan, Guangdong province, last year
Hong Kong exported more construction waste to mainland China last year than it sent to the city’s own overflowing facilities, according to government statistics.
About 13.5 million tonnes of inert construction and demolition waste, or public fill, was shipped across the border to Taishan, Guangdong province in 2017, a near 40 per cent increase from the 9.8 million tonnes in 2013 and the first time in the past five years the amount exceeded that sent to the city’s own facilities.
Some 13.3 million tonnes went to local public fill reception facilities in Tseung Kwan O, Tuen Mun, Chai Wan and Mui Wo.
“As local reuse cannot absorb all of the public fill generated in Hong Kong in recent years, the government has been delivering surplus public fill to Taishan for disposal since 2007,” environment minister Wong Kam-sing said in a reply to a question by lawmaker Gary Chan Hak-kan.
Hong Kong delivered 73.6 million tonnes of surplus public fill to Taishan up to 2014, helping create some 570 hectares of new land.