The government says it is working at full speed to get Hong Kong's first mega waste incinerator up and running next year, as it plans to stop using landfills for waste disposal by 2035.

On Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Department led a press tour to a man-made island near Lantau where the incinerator, called I-PARK1, is being built.

Assistant Director for Environmental Protection, Michael Lui, said the plant will be able to recover heat energy from the incineration process to generate electricity for 100,000 homes.

"In early next year, we plan to carry out a testing commissioning with a view so that we can operate the plant by the end of next year," he said.

"So we can at least achieve the very important step that we implement the first mega incinerator in Hong Kong to handle at least 3,000 tonnes of waste [each day]," he said.

Another incinerator, capable of processing about 6,000 tonnes of waste per day, will be built near Tuen Mun.

The government said construction could be completed two years ahead of schedule.

Lui said both incinerators will use new technology to ensure that emissions meet international standards and do not harm people's health or the surrounding environment.

In response to the government's plans, an environmental group said burning garbage should be the last resort, and isn't an alternative to reducing waste and increasing recycling.

Edwin Lau, founder and executive director of The Green Earth, said opening two massive incinerators risks sending the wrong message to the public.

Lau said Hong Kong currently disposes of around 11,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste on average per day, and if the goal to gradually reduce the per capita disposal rate by around 45 percent is achieved, the amount would drop to about 6,100 tonnes a day – below the capacity of the two incinerators of 9,000 tonnes.

"Only if the government thinks that their strategy action set out in the Waste Blueprint for Hong Kong 2035 is useless, otherwise the waste generation amount and the waste that requires disposal will be greatly reduced by 45 percent. This is not by the end of the blueprint timeline 2035, if reduced by 45 percent, it is saying very clearly it is a mid-term target," he said.

"That means by 2026 or 2027, this is a mid-term, then the government can already get the city to achieve this target. So I don't know why the government still needs to propose even the 6,000 tonnes, the second incinerator, which is really overcapacity."
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Last updated: 2024-06-19 HKT 22:12