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Following is a question by the Hon Leung Yiu-chung and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, at the Legislative Council meeting today (April 18) :
Question:
The Government will present a bill to this Council today, in order to implement a mandatory energy efficiency labelling scheme, and the products to be included in the initial phase will cover compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). However, CFLs contain toxic heavy metals such as mercury which, if improperly treated when disposed of, may cause harm to the environment. Although the Environmental Protection Department has provided facilities in the Chemical Waste Treatment Centre for recycling mercury in street lamps, fluorescent tubes and CFLs, these facilities are only available to government departments, public bodies and commercial organisations. Such lighting fittings disposed of by members of the public may not receive proper treatment. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number of organisations currently using the above recycling facilities in the Chemical Waste Treatment Centre;
(b) whether it has set a target on the number of organisations using the above facilities; if it has, of the details;
(c) of the commercial organisations with which it is liaising on using the above recycling facilities, and how it will further promote the facilities; and
(d) whether it will establish a territory-wide recycling scheme in order to treat the above lighting fittings disposed of by members of the public, thereby alleviating the harmful effects on the environment; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) There are facilities in the Chemical Waste Treatment Centre (CWTC) for treating waste fluorescent tubes and light bulbs and recovering their mercury content. At present, the major service users are government departments, including all departments which produce a large number of waste fluorescent tubes and light bulbs, such as the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, the Highways Department, the Housing Department and the Drainage Services Department. The Customs and Excise Department also send such forfeited items to the facilities for disposal.
In addition to the above government departments, 19 other organisations used the facilities in 2006. Throughout the year, the facilities treated a total of about 435,000 waste fluorescent tubes and light bulbs with mercury content, among them 98,000 came from the above organisations. At present, the facilities have the capacity to treat about 850,000 waste fluorescent tubes and light bulbs with mercury content per annum.
(b) Although the facilities mainly provide services to government departments at present, they are in fact also open to organisations and public members for voluntary use, provided that they will not operate beyond their capacity. Organisations and public members using the facilities have to arrange for collection and storage of waste fluorescent tubes and light bulbs on their own, deliver them in bulk to the CWTC and pay a disposal fee of HK$1,027 per tonne.
(c) The facilities provide services to any organisation and public member who are major producers of waste fluorescent tubes and light bulbs, such as public transport companies, tertiary education institutes, the airport, hotels, shopping malls, public and private residential developments. Organisations and public members using the facilities have to collect and store the waste by themselves, comply with the relevant legislation and pay the disposal fee. With the implementation of the mandatory energy efficiency labelling scheme and the increase in public awareness of and support for energy saving, we believe that compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) will be more widely used. The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) will step up publicity with a view to attracting more people to use the facilities voluntarily.
(d) To tie in with the mandatory energy efficiency labelling scheme, the EPD will make efforts to encourage organisations and public members which are major producers of waste fluorescent tubes and light bulbs with mercury content to use the facilities voluntarily and will review the progress of this voluntary programme. After the passage and implementation of the Product Eco-responsibility Bill, we will examine if the producer responsibility scheme needs to be further enforced for different types of products, such as CFLs.
Ends/Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Issued at HKT 12:11
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