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Chamber Programmes

Bury or Burn?

First the good news: Hong Kong's recycling rate last year increased by 5 percent over 2002's figures. The bad news: because we think we can recycle more refuse, we produced 8 percent more rubbish last year than in 2002, says Prof Poon Chi-Sun (left) of Polytechnic University. As a result, the estimated 7 to 10 years remaining until our landfills are overflowing may be on the optimistic side.

A possible solution to this is thermal waste treatment. Waste incinerators are now far more efficient than in the past, and will reduce the quantity of municipal solid waste being dumped into our landfills daily by as much as 95 percent, he says. Regardless of the means of waste disposal, Prof Poon says the government must invest more in efforts to reduce the overall amount of rubbish that Hong Kong produces.

"The government is doing very well using tax to collect and dispose of refuse, and run the landfills in which it is buried," he told members at the Chamber's October 18 roundtable luncheon. "But it needs to come up with a policy to reduce the amount of waste we produce to better handle our resources."

James Tam (right), Director & General Manager of Swire SITA Waste Services, also speaking at the luncheon, agrees that more needs to be done to curb the amount of refuse produced. However, he pointed out that waste disposal policies require long-term planning, but are usually driven by short-term political agendas.

"Incinerators are very expensive to build and to run, and you also have the problem of 'not in my back yard' syndrome," he says.

But even if we were to plan building a burner now, it would still be too late as our landfills would be full by the time it were operational. Even then, it would be impossible to meet all our waste disposal needs with a burner.

"That is why we need a long-term, sustainable policy that will address how we can reduce the amount of waste we produce and how we dispose of it," he said.

Prof Poon's Speech   Mr Tam's Speech    Mr Tam's Slides >>

A Conversation with Andrew Brandler

Hong Kong is a very unique market when it comes to electricity generation, says Andrew Brandler, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of CLP Holdings Limited. The very high urban density rate and limited sites for power plants, which run entirely on imported fuels, present a challenge in maintaining one of the world's most reliable power supplies.

Electricity production in Hong Kong did not start to take off until the late 1950s, as the territory entered its booming manufacturing era. A stable power supply has been a vital ingredient in Hong Kong's success, which is the result of huge, long-term capital investments in power generation, he says.

"There is a misconception that electricity prices in Hong Kong are high," Mr Brandler told members at a "Conversation with a General Committee Member" series on October 5. "If you compare our tariffs with other international cities with similar standards of reliability, we stack up very well. In Hong Kong, 1.7 percent of household expenditure is spent on electricity, which also makes tariffs affordable in relation to income levels." 

On the issue of air pollution, Mr Brandler says Hong Kong has made huge strides in reducing the amount of pollutants discharged into the air.

"While Hong Kong source emissions have come down dramatically in recent years, the actual air quality has not improved because the level of particulates in the air has not reduced much," he says. "So in other words, the majority of the problem is coming from north of the boundary. The steps we have taken in Hong Kong to reduce emissions are being offset by increased emissions coming down from north of the boundary."

Both the Hong Kong and Guangdong governments signed an agreement to reduce the level of emissions by 2010, which Mr Brandler says authorities in both jurisdictions are serious about meeting.

Despite a recent Greenpeace protest saying CO2 emissions from Castle Peak Power Station were very high, Hong Kong has low per capita greenhouse gas emissions and is not a major contributor to global warming, he says. 

Regarding power shortages in the Mainland, particularly Guangdong, part of the reason is the rapid growth in demand fuelled by mis-pricing electricity. With energy being offered below its true economic price, coupled with strong underlying economic growth, the consequences are that growth in demand soared with investment in generation capacity failing to keep pace.  Between 1999 and 2003, demand for electricity in the Mainland increased by an average of 10 percent annually, while capacity grew by 7 percent.

"Beijing has taken steps to reduce the shortage by slowing the expansion of energy-intensive industries, like aluminum smelting plants, which makes no sense for China to be doing. It will take a while for China to sort out its energy difficulties," he predicts. 

Full list of Chamber programmes in October >>