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Following is the speech delivered by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Wong Kam-sing, at the ground-breaking ceremony of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Treatment and Recycling Facility today (January 21):
Dr Schweitzer (CEO of ALBA), VIPs, ladies and gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to be here today to officiate at this ground-breaking ceremony of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Treatment and Recycling Facility. Once completed in mid-2017, the Facility will have a design capacity for treating 30 000 tonnes a year of eight classes of e-waste that will be subject to the control of a new producer responsibility scheme (PRS). It will be the largest facility ever built at the EcoPark, and will bring about some 150 jobs on site and 130 jobs off site for the relevant collection and treatment services.
The construction of the WEEE Treatment and Recycling Facility also underlines the Government's commitment to the implementation of the mandatory PRS as a key policy tool to drive behavioural change to reduce waste at source, as we set out in our blueprint for sustainable use of resources published in 2013.
Every year, about 70 000 tonnes of e-waste are generated in Hong Kong, most of which are exported overseas rather than treated here at home. Through the new mandatory PRS now under preparation, we will introduce enhanced licensing control to promote the recycling and proper disposal of e-waste generated from eight classes of regulated electrical equipment, namely televisions, refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, computers, monitors, printers and scanners, which account for about 85 per cent of WEEE generated locally.
The WEEE treatment capacity currently available in Hong Kong is well below what is needed for a territory-wide mandatory PRS. Given that proper treatment of e-waste is capital intensive and in view of the economic and market situation, we have decided that the Government should develop the WEEE Treatment and Recycling Facility. This was supported by the LegCo (Legislative Council) and funding for the project was approved in February 2015.
The funding approval allowed us to conclude the open-tender exercise and to sign the Design-Build-Operate contract in May last year with ALBA-IWS. Key partners of this joint venture include ALBA, a large recycling company in Germany, and IWS, a recyclable collector rooted in Hong Kong. We are confident that with their extensive experience in the environmental industry, they will be able to proactively source regulated e-waste within the community for proper treatment at the facility, thus making the mandatory PRS a success.
The WEEE Treatment and Recycling Facility will have the capacity to handle 30 000 tonnes of regulated e-waste annually, which can be increased if needed to meet the demand for treatment services under the mandatory PRS. Using advanced technologies, the WEEE Treatment and Recycling Facility will be able to transform e-waste into useable resources. While electrical and electronic appliances often contain a tiny amount of hazardous waste or materials such as mercury and greenhouse gases, such materials will be removed, contained and disposed of using state-of-the-art equipment. An advanced shredding system, followed by sorting using eddy currents, air separators and optical systems etc, will produce high quality secondary raw materials which can be reused in the manufacturing of other products. I am also pleased to note that the facility itself will be built as a green building to be certified under BEAM Plus.
Apart from the commencement of construction of the treatment facility, I am also pleased to share with you the progress in our preparation for the full implementation of the mandatory PRS.
First, on the legislative side, with the strong support of the LegCo Bills Committee chaired by Dr the Honourable Lo Wai-kwok, the Committee's scrutiny on the regulatory framework for the PRS has been completed and we hope that the enabling legislation can be passed shortly. We will further work with various stakeholder groups, including suppliers, sellers and recyclers, to finalise the operational details with a view to implementing the scheme in good time to dovetail with the commissioning of the WEEE Treatment and Recycling Facility.
Second, in the past years, St James Settlement has been operating the WEEE Go Green programme, just next door, with funding support from the Environment and Conservation Fund. I would like to thank them for their contributions through the recycling programme. Meanwhile, we are gearing up the collection services to provide convenient avenues for members of the public to recycle WEEE. In this regard, a dedicated hotline has been set up to provide a one-stop enquiry service through which members of the public may arrange collection services and enquire about our e-waste recycling programmes.
Third, our Community Green Stations will provide logistics support for the collection of e-waste at the community level. ALBA-IWS will also gradually step up their collection operations including the setting up of 13 regional collection centres by phases starting from the fourth quarter this year. Once the mandatory PRS commences operation, consumers who have purchased an item of the regulated electrical equipment will be entitled to a free service arranged by retailers for removal of an equivalent product from their premises.
Fourth, on publicity and public education, we have been promoting the proper recycling of WEEE through a number of voluntary programmes, such as the Chinese New Year WEEE Recycling Collection Service, which this year marks its 10th anniversary. Looking ahead, we will step up our publicity efforts so that more Hong Kong people will practise proper WEEE recycling.
In closing, let me congratulate ALBA and IWS on this successful launch, which marks an important and key milestone in the development of e-waste recycling in Hong Kong. Thank you.
Ends/Thursday, January 21, 2016
Issued at HKT 17:19
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