Hong Kong’s waste problem demands opening market to investment, circular-economy models: China Everbright Environment
- The city is too reliant on landfills, and the government expects them to be full by 2026, says a vice-president at the Hong Kong-listed company
- The government should further open the local environment-protection market to attract investment from Greater Bay Area companies, he says
Hong Kong should open its environment-protection market further and introduce circular waste-treatment models, according to China Everbright Environment Group, the world’s largest waste-to-energy project developer.
The city is too reliant on landfills, and the government expects the existing ones to be full by 2026 – just a year after the scheduled commissioning of the city’s first waste-to-energy incinerator, said Hu Yanguo, vice-president at the Hong Kong-listed company, which is part of state-owned China Everbright Group.
“Hong Kong has primarily relied on landfilling, resulting in it becoming the city’s third largest source of greenhouse-gas emissions,” he said. “While the first incinerator is under construction, the existing plan and progress will not be able to meet demand.”
To reach its zero-landfill aspiration, the government should further open the local environment-protection market and introduce more advanced technology and solid-waste treatment models to attract more companies in the Greater Bay Area to make green investments in Hong Kong, he said.
