No comprehensive measures to sort and separate waste in Hong Kong

The Environment Bureau is wrong to claim that Hong Kong's waste will be reduced by 40 per cent if it gets the HK$18 billion it wants to build a mega incinerator.

Competent waste management consists of sorting and separating recyclable and non-recyclable waste at source, then transporting the recyclables to recycling facilities and non-recyclables to waste-disposal facilities. The bureau has made no effort to ensure sorting or separating of waste; nor does it cooperate with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, which is responsible for collecting and disposing of waste.

Garbage from households is now collected in black plastic bags and delivered to the 2,500 refuse collection points managed by the department, then trucked to landfills.

The department certainly does not sort the waste at the collection points. In fact, it has refused to appear in the Legislative Council to answer questions about its waste management role.

The department also manages the 28,500 three-colour recycling bins located all over Hong Kong. These are a sham: Only 700 tonnes of recyclables are collected every year, less than 0.02 per cent of the waste produced in Hong Kong.

How can the Environment Bureau formulate an effective waste-management policy when it still does not have such basic data as how much waste is being recycled, having admitted that previous figures were wrong? Instead, it is spending taxpayers' money on TV adverts to push its mega incinerator.