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Following is a question by the Hon Choy So-yuk and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Edward Yau, in the Legislative Council today (July 11):
Question:
It has been reported that in recent years, in order to promote environmental protection and encourage waste recycling, the Government has been leasing vacant government land ("environmental protection land"), on short-term leases and at extremely low rental, to waste collectors for handling wastes. However, because of the lack of monitoring by the Administration, many lessees of such environmental protection land breached the lease agreements. Not only have they altered, without authorization, the types of wastes handled, but they have also sub-leased such land to other waste collectors at high rates for profiteering. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the current number of pieces of such environmental protection land in Hong Kong which have been leased to waste collectors and the average rental per square foot of such land, and in respect of each piece of such land, the location, area, types of recycled materials handled by the lessee concerned, the rental and the lease period;
(b) of the average number of inspections conducted in each month last year by the Administration to monitor the lessees' compliance with the conditions laid down in the lease agreements of the above environmental protection land; and the number and nature of the breaches found during such inspections, particularly the sub-leasing of the environmental protection land by the lessees to other waste collectors; and how the Administration dealt with such breaches and whether it had penalized the lessees concerned; and
(c) whether it will step up its monitoring of the lessees of the above environmental protection land; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The Government caters for the needs of the recycling industry by identifying and offering suitable short-term tenancy (STT) sites to the industry, with the objective of promoting its development by providing suitable land resources at affordable rents. At present, there are 36 pieces of such kind of land across the territory, covering a total area of about 800,000 square feet. The area of each site varies from approximately 2,000 square feet to 110,000 square feet. The term of tenancy ranges from six months to seven years. The types of recyclables include metals, waste paper, plastics, glass, wood, tyres and textiles.
All the above sites are granted by way of open tender. In vetting the tenders, the Government will assess the rents with reference to the market rentals of STT sites leased out for the same purpose and will award the sites to the highest bidders. The rents for different sites vary significantly, with monthly rents ranging from HK$0.5 per square feet to nearly HK$9 per square feet, depending mainly on the location, the term of tenancy, types of recyclables, ancillary facilities (e.g., the availability of berths) and actual usable area (e.g., the shape of the site and the existence of slope or undemolishable ground structure).
Please see the Annex for detailed information on the leased sites.
(b) Once an STT site is leased out for recycling operations, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) will conduct site inspections to see if the operations and waste recycling activities are in compliance with the STT conditions. On average the EPD inspects each site four to six times a year. Upon receiving a complaint or discovering during an inspection any breach of tenancy conditions on the part of the lessee, the case will be referred, in light of the actual circumstances, to the related District Lands Office for taking appropriate action in accordance with the relevant provisions set out in the tenancy agreement.
In 2006, there were two cases of breaching the conditions on waste recycling operations. One case involved a site laid idle without any recycling activities at the beginning of the tenancy term. The recycler rectified the irregularity after being warned. The other case involved a recycler who handled an inappropriate type of waste and the related District Lands Office terminated the STT as a result.
All STT sites for recycling operations are let by open tender and the rents are determined with reference to the market rentals of STT sites leased for the same purpose. Since the rents reflect the market rentals of these sites, there is not any favourable condition or incentive for profiteering through sub-leasing. As for a recent press report on a suspected case of sub-leasing a site on Sung Wong Toi Road, Kowloon City, the Kowloon East District Lands Office and the EPD have confirmed after investigation that there is no sub-leasing involved.
(c) As usual, the EPD will continue to monitor the operations and waste recycling activities on all STT sites for recycling purpose to ensure that they are in compliance with the tenancy conditions. The general public and the recycling industry should report any suspicious case to the EPD for follow up action.
Ends/Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Issued at HKT 16:16
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