Garbage Problems In Hong Kong And Possible Solutions To It
Municipal solid waste includes all the waste from domestic buildings, non-domestic building or public facilities. However, it excludes construction and chemical wastes. Household waste is the highest of the three types of discarded waste. Hong Kong people indeed need to reduce waste at the source but their living habits cannot be changed overnight, and it is difficult to improve their environmental awareness in the short term. This essay will explain the current landfill problem and propose two solutions to the problem of overfilling landfills, for instance, the Government can build incinerators and implement “waste charge”.
Hong Kong is facing the challenge of landfill saturation in recent years. Hong Kong is a city with a very high population density in the world. According to the Environmental Protection Department, dispose of approximately 13,400 metric tons of waste per day to landfills. Starting in 2017, Hong Kong will produce 10,000 metric tons of garbage every day. Hong Kong's land area supply is very limited, especially the expansion of landfills is more difficult, and the life of landfills is only one to four years. At present, the South East New Territories Landfill only receives construction waste. The North East New Territories Landfill is also saturated in 2017. The last New Territories West Landfill will be saturated in 2019. Over the past three decades, Hong Kong's total municipal solid waste increased by nearly 80%. Per capita daily MSW increased from 0.97 kg to 1.36 kg in 2014. This reflects an increase in the daily processing capacity of municipal solid waste by nearly 40%. Facing above the problem, the Government can consider to build an incinerator and carry out the “waste charge” to deal with the municipal solid waste that can bring out some benefits.
First and foremost, the construction of incinerators reduces waste. According to the Environmental Protection Department, at the present time, Hong Kong produces 14,859 tons of municipal solid waste per day which has exhausted 13 landfills in Hong Kong. The southeast New Territories landfill will only receive construction waste from 2016, and the northeast New Territories landfill will be saturate by 2017. At that time, municipal waste will only be delivered to the remaining landfill in the west New Territories, accelerating the saturation of the remaining landfill. Through incineration which can reduce the amount of waste by 90% and landfill space can be saved. Therefore, it is important that solve the municipal solid waste. On the other hand, when a long-awaited quantitative charging scheme aimed at changing people's behavior and reducing waste takes effect in 2020, Hong Kong families will have to pay about 33 to 51 Hong Kong dollars a month to dispose of garbage. The “waste charge” has two proposed charging modes, by designated bags and by weight. Wong said that charges for municipal solid waste – rubbish generated from homes, offices, factories, and restaurants, a third of which comes from kitchens – For the sake of fairness, this measure will be implemented for all sectors and in line with the “polluter pays” principle.
The “waste charge” increases public awareness of the cost of waste disposal. The “waste charge” can effectively raise public awareness of waste disposal expenditure. The management of municipal solid waste is not fully understood by the public in the present body. Owners, tenants and has residents will only pay attention to the waste collection fee contained in the building management fee. However, this fee does not cover the total expenditure on the treatment of municipal solid waste. This direct expenditure from government revenue prevents the public from knowing the true cost of waste disposal and has no intention of reducing waste. Through the implementation of garbage “waste charge”, no matter designed by garbage bag or by weight, the public can have more personal attention to the source of the fee reduction and pay the actual cost, more abandoned people pay more, in a disguised way to encourage a part of the public to reduce the production of garbage, do a good job of garbage classification, the implementation of the source of waste reduction.
Comparing the use of “waste charge” method and “incinerator” method, the “waste charge” the former is better than the latter. Although the incinerator can incinerate garbage and decrease the volume of garbage, it will generate more exhaust gas such as carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide. It may easy to increase the impact on human health. If we use the “waste charge” method, not only people can reduce refuse disposal but also that can reduce the impact on human health. To sum up, one can say that facing above the problem, the Government can build an incinerator and carry out the “waste charge” to cope with the municipal solid waste that can bring out some benefits and decrease the municipal solid waste in the landfill.
