Letters to the Editors
Letter to the editor of South China Morning Post - Response to letters on Integrated Waste Management Facilities
The Editor of SCMP
Dear Sir/Madam,
I wish to respond to the letters by Michael Pratt ("Incinerator scandal can be halted", August 9), Patrick Wilson ("Finance committee can save the day", August 11), and Jenny Quinton ("Incinerator plans may waste chance for what is best for Hong Kong", August 24).
Contrary to what Wilson suggested, the Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) will not involve any construction on the Shek Kwu Chau island itself and will not affect the coastal protection zone. It will be developed on an artificial island to be separated by a water channel from Shek Kwu Chau.
Pratt expressed concerns on the transfer of waste to IWMF through the busy shipping lanes. He may be unaware that containerised municipal solid waste (MSW) has already been transported by large specialised container vessels from the existing refuse transfer stations on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon to the landfills for some 20 years.
The same mode of clean, safe and efficient transport operation will be adopted for delivering containerised waste to IWMF and only three to four waste delivery trips will be made daily during operation.
On the plasma gasification plant in Teesside in the UK mentioned by Quinton, while the plant has a capacity of handling about 1000 tonnes of municipal solid waste each day, it is yet to be commissioned and would take several years of operation before the effectiveness and efficacy of such gasification plant can be properly evaluated.
The other plants being developed in China are much smaller. For example, the plant commissioned in Shanghai in 2013 is just a pilot plant for about 30 tonnes of hazardous waste, clinical waste and incinerator fly-ash each day.
The IWMF will adopt modern moving grating technology, which is the current proven mainstream technology in the world. Many new plants currently under construction around the world also adopt grate-based technology.
We will closely monitor and take into account the progress and development of gasification and any other technologies when planning future waste treatment facilities to meet longer term needs of Hong Kong.
Elvis WK Au
Assistant Director of Environmental Protection