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Following is a question by the Hon Kwong Chi-kin and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, at the Legislative Council meeting today (March 1) :
Question:
Regarding the storage, recovery and recycling of abandoned electronic products, and tightening the relevant import and export laws, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number of pieces of land in Hong Kong which are used as storage sites for abandoned electronic products, together with the location of each site and the quantity stored therein;
(b) of the environmental pollutions caused by these sites and the measures adopted by the Government to mitigate such pollutions;
(c) of the progress of the Government's work in promoting the recovery and recycling of abandoned electronic products generated in Hong Kong;
(d) of the number of persons prosecuted last year for illegally importing/exporting abandoned electronic products that contain harmful substances or have been contaminated; the number of persons convicted and the penalties imposed on them by the court; and
(e) as some green groups have criticised that the current legislation governing the import and export of abandoned electronic products is too lax, whether the Government will consider tightening the relevant legislation in the light of the provisions of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal; if it will, of the details of the plan and the legislative timetable; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
The illegal export of abandoned electronic products from developed countries to developing countries by traders has become a global problem in recent years. In view of this development, we have tightened up our monitoring and control over the past few years. In response to the questions raised by the Council, our reply, using the same numbering, is provided as follows:
(a) According to the inspection results of the Environmental Protection Department (EPD), currently there are about 90 storage sites in Hong Kong. They are all located in remote areas of the New Territories. Their locations and the estimated quantities of abandoned electronic products stored therein are shown in the Annex (as the locations and operation of these sites change frequently, the EPD can only provide some rough figures).
(b) The pollution caused by the operation of storage sites is subject to the control of relevant environmental ordinances. The EPD is very concerned about their operation. In the past two years, the EPD carried out 993 inspections to these sites and made 13 prosecutions against illegal operators. All of them were convicted. The offences mainly involved failure to register as chemical waste producers and to store chemical waste in accordance with legal requirements.
The above sites are mostly used for storage of abandoned electronic products. Only a few of them involve in simple dismantling processes; but no chemical treatment is found so far. The environmental impact by these sites is therefore considered limited. In this regard, the EPD had collected soil samples from both the inside and outside areas of 13 storage sites for analysis in 2005. The results indicated that the operation of these sites did not cause pollution to the nearby environment. Recent inspections further revealed obvious signs of reduced or slower activities at some of them. The EPD will however continue monitoring their operation closely and take prosecution against any offences spotted.
(c) Since January 2003, the EPD has engaged the Caritas (Hong Kong) and St. James Settlement in organising a territory-wide trial recovery programme of used computers and electrical appliances. The aim of this trial programme is to identify an environmentally sound outlet for used computers and electrical appliances, and to study the financial and logistic requirements in implementing a recovery programme. The programme has been well received by the public and the quantities of appliances collected are increasing over the years. So far, more than 123,000 units of computers and electrical appliances have been recovered. Refurbished computers and electrical appliances in the programme are donated to the needies through charitable or volunteer organisations and those beyond repair are sold to recyclers.
In last December, the EPD collaborated with various District Councils and housing estates to run the "Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Recycling Day". During the event, about 11,500 units of computers and electrical appliances were collected for recycling or reuse. In addition, the EPD and the Chamber of Hong Kong Computer Industry (CHKCI) have jointly organised a 6-month computer recovery and recycling trial programme since January 2006. This programme is operating on a commercial basis for collecting data on the cost of recovery of computers; and it will serve as a reference for implementing the Producer Responsibility Scheme (PRS) in future. The CHKCI has already set up 9 collection points in computer malls and shops with a view to recovering and recycling 12,000 units of computers and monitors.
For the time being, the EPD is examining the feasibility of introducing the PRS as an effective means to reduce waste and promote recovery. Under the PRS, producers, importers, retailers and consumers will share out the responsibility for the management of end-of-life products. The EPD will draw reference from overseas experience, assess its cost effectiveness as well as impacts on the trade and other stakeholders and consult the public on feasible options at a later stage.
In addition, the EPD promulgated the "Policy Framework for the Management of Municipal Solid Waste (2005-2014)" in December last year. Under the framework, we propose to submit the Product Eco-responsibility Bill to the Legislative Council for introducing the PRS as mentioned above. Specific PRS measures for individual products, including electrical and electronic equipment, will subsequently be implemented through subsidiary legislation under the new Product Eco-responsibility Ordinance.
(d) In 2005, there were 37 prosecutions under the Waste Disposal Ordinance on illegal import and export of abandoned electronic products that contain harmful substances, out of which 27 were successfully convicted with fines ranging from $2,500 to $45,000. In one of the cases in 2005, the offender was sentenced to jail for 2 months suspended for 1 year together with a fine.
(e) The Basel Convention has been implemented in Hong Kong through the Waste Disposal Ordinance (WDO) since 1996. The WDO sets out that except for the import and export of recyclable and uncontaminated waste for recycling purposes, the import or export of hazardous waste or other unlisted waste for whatever purposes requires a valid permit. The 7th Schedule of the WDO lists out those common types of hazardous electronic waste, such as cathode-ray tubes, waste batteries, scraps containing toxic heavy metals etc. In view of the fact that the Basel Convention also encourages recycling, the permit control of WDO excludes the import and export of recyclable and uncontaminated waste for recycling purposes. As such, the existing control is very comprehensive and complies with the requirements of the Basel Convention.
In May 2005, we submitted to the Legislative Council the Waste Disposal (Amendment) Bill 2005 (the Amendment Bill). The Amendment Bill incorporated the Basel Ban into the WDO and amended its 7th Schedule to include some new waste entries. The Basel Ban prohibits the export of hazardous waste from developed countries to developing countries. In this connection, the EPD has implemented the Ban administratively since 1998. Both local and overseas traders are aware of this control arrangement. Through incorporating the ban provision into WDO, it will help sending out a strong signal to the international community that we are determined in implementing the Ban. Furthermore, the insertion of 14 new waste entries in the 7th Schedule of the WDO can better reflect and cover all types of hazardous waste subject to control of the international Basel Convention. During the deliberation at the Legislative Council Bills Committee, the international law expert of the Department of Justice pointed out that the existing WDO and the Amendment Bill comply fully with the requirements and spirit of the Basel Convention. At present, deliberation of the Amendment Bill is nearly completed.
Ends/Wednesday, March 1, 2006
Issued at HKT 12:46
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