Hong Kong spent billions sending construction waste to mainland China instead of reusing it in local projects
City generated 171 million tonnes of building waste, but just a third of that was used in local projects over the past decade
Hong Kong spent HK$7.6 billion (US$968 million) over the past decade disposing of construction waste it could have reused for reclamation and building projects, the Post has discovered.
Instead of recycling the material locally, a substantial amount of the waste has been shipped to mainland China and is being used for reclaiming thousands of hectares of land in neighbouring Guangdong province.
Now, scholars and environmentalists are warning of a “severe case of overflowing”, and urging the city to change its ways, as demand across the border for Hong Kong’s waste dwindles, while development locally continues to increase and the government is looking at large-scale reclamation to ramp up land supply for housing.
The city generated some 171 million tonnes of what is known as public fill, which includes recyclable materials such as sand, soil, bricks and concrete, between 2007 and 2016.
But Hong Kong reused just 35 per cent of the materials in that time.
Another 60 per cent was shipped to the mainland starting in 2007, to be used by developers as they look to reclaim 1,040 hectares of land in Taishan City, Guangdong.
The remaining waste was stored in Hong Kong’s two public fill banks in Tseung Kwan O and Tuen Mun, which have a total storage capacity of 19.2 million tonnes.