bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

CHEUNG CHI-FAI

Tony Cheung

The environment chief is making last-ditch efforts to win support for expansion of the city's refuse tips with a range of "sweeteners" - including sweeter-smelling rubbish trucks.
Secretary for the Environment Wong Kam-sing is expected to speak today about his plans for persuading legislators to drop their opposition to landfill expansion, which the government says is desperately needed to cope with Hong Kong's growing waste crisis.
A source familiar with the situation said one proposal was to subsidise the operators of hundreds of rubbish-collection trucks to modify their vehicles to reduce leakage and then to ban unmodified trucks from landfills.
This is aimed at reducing the smell that is among Tseung Kwan O residents' objections to expansion of the tip near their homes.
It would be in addition to banning food waste from the tip and cutting the frequency of waste deliveries by truck in half.
The government is also considering compensation plans put forward by local politicians to ease opposition to expansion of the other two landfills, at Tuen Mun and Ta Kwu Ling.
But the source said some of these - including rail links - would require long-term planning.
Without expansion, all three landfills are expected to be full by 2019, with the Tseung Kwan O tip reaching capacity in 2015.
Environmental officials, who plan to have an incinerator operating by 2023, have said that without tip expansion, a waste crisis looms between 2019 and then.
The Environment Bureau plans to push through its proposals at a meeting of the Public Works Subcommittee on Wednesday before filing a funding request to the Finance Committee.
Officials have been lobbying legislators in all parties but the situation looked fluid yesterday.
"There are still a lot of uncertainties," the source said.
One key government ally, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, has yet to make up its mind.
"Let's see what Wong Kam-sing comes up with first," DAB lawmaker Gary Chan Hak-kan said yesterday.
The Democratic Party has said it won't support the plan because of the government's poor efforts in waste recycling, and the Civic Party also opposes it.
"It is not about making a deal in which the government promises us a swimming pool and we are ready to betray our voters," Civic Party legislator Kwok Ka-ki said, referring to "sweeteners".
The Liberal Party's James Tien Pei-chun said he would oppose the Tseung Kwan O expansion as it was his election pledge.
Kwok Wai-keung of the Federation of Trade Unions said the FTU would also oppose expansion of the because it was too close to residents.
 


Push to save landfill plan from scrapheap

Wong Kam-sing. Photo: Sam Tsang

News

Hong Kong

Among the 'sweeteners' in last-ditch bid to win lawmakers' support for expansion is a scheme to make rubbish trucks a little less smelly
