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Following is a question by the Hon Emily Lau and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Edward Yau, in the Legislative Council today (March 18):
Question:
In a programme broadcast in November last year by the Columbia Broadcast System of the United States (US), it was reported that each year toxic electronic wastes were smuggled in containers by thousands of vessels from US to Hong Kong to be stored and transported subsequently to the town of Guiyu in Shantou City, where local residents used primitive methods to extract metals contained in such wastes. Regarding the authorities' reply to my question on December 10, last year concerning the above situation, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council:
(a) as the authorities advised that the storage sites for the electronic wastes mentioned in the said programme were clustered mainly in the remote areas in northern New Territories, whether they know if the electronic wastes stored in those sites have been transported to the town of Guiyu for unlawful processing, and whether they have traced the whereabouts of the electronic wastes in question, apart from deploying staff to conduct inspections of those sites; if they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(b) as the authorities advised that the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) had completed 197 prosecution cases in the past three years from 2006 to October 2008, of the types of electronic wastes, countries to which such wastes were exported, trial results and penalties imposed on the convicted person(s) in respect of each case;
(c) as the authorities replied that EPD was then instituting prosecution against the offender related to the containers mentioned in the said programme, of the latest progress and details of this case; and
(d) of the number of containers returned to the countries of export in the past three years because they carried electronic wastes which had been imported illegally, and the countries of export involved?
Reply:
President,
In recent years, the issue of transboundary movements of electronic wastes has raised various concerns in the international community. As a major transshipment port in the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong also faces the problem of illegal inflow and transshipment of hazardous electronic wastes. To meet this challenge, the Hong Kong SAR Government (including mainly the Environmental Protection Department, the Customs and Excise Department and the Hong Kong Police Force) has strengthened relevant import and export controls jointly with overseas control authorities to combat illegal transboundary movements of hazardous electronic wastes.
Our reply to the above question is as follows:
(a) To keep track of illegal activities and support enforcement actions, the Environmental Protection Department collects intelligence on the storage and movements of waste through various channels and conducts inspections at suspicious sites within Hong Kong on a regular basis. From the year 2006 to 2008, the Environmental Protection Department conducted over 900 inspections at suspicious storage sites, and launched 13 raids jointly with other law enforcement agencies on those sites involving illegal activities. On control over illegal export of hazardous electronic wastes, the Environmental Protection Department completed in the same period of time 37 prosecutions with 11 defendants sentenced to immediate imprisonment from 2 to 5 months. The information collected from such cases indicates that most of these wastes are smuggled into the Southern China, but the exact destination cannot be ascertained.
(b) Amongst the 197 prosecutions completed from January 2006 to October 2008 as mentioned in our reply of December 10, 2008, 138 convictions were achieved, the details of which are listed below:
Countries No. of Types of Total Fines
of Export Convictions Hazardous and other
Wastes Penalties
Japan 31 Batteries and $ 860,400
cathode ray tubes
US 26 Batteries and $ 710,000
cathode ray tubes
Canada 14 Batteries and $ 353,000
cathode ray tubes
Republic of 10 Batteries and $ 330,000
Korea cathode ray and a community
tubes service order for
180 hours was made
Ghana 7 Batteries $ 75,000
United Arab 6 Batteries and $ 160,000
Emirates cathode ray tubes
Other places 44 Batteries and $ 949,000
(Note 1) cathode ray tubes
(c) Regarding the containers illegally imported from the United States as mentioned in the CBS broadcast, the company concerned was prosecuted by the Environmental Protection Department under the Waste Disposal Ordinance and was convicted and fined $10,000 by the court in January 2009.
(d) From the year 2006 to 2008, 291 imported shipments containing controlled electronic wastes were returned to the countries of export. The table below shows the number of shipments and the countries of export:
Countries Number of Returned Illegally Imported
of Export Shipments (Note 2)
(Number of Containers)
US 110 (140)
Japan 34 (39)
Canada 20 (30)
Vietnam 13 (45)
Australia 11 (15)
United Arab Emirates 11 (13)
Other places 92 (139)
(Note 3)
Note 1: 24 places including Guatemala, Malaysia, Singapore and Italy etc. were involved; each with less than 6 related convictions.
Note 2: Some shipments involved more than one container.
Note 3: 40 places including Guatemala, Algeria, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore etc. were involved; each with less than 8 related shipments.
Ends/Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Issued at HKT 16:10
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