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Following is a question by the Hon Paul Tse and a reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Wong Kam-sing, in the Legislative Council today (January 23):
Question:
Earlier on, there were extensive media reports on an incident of a cooking oil distributor being suspected of selling "gutter oil", and a list of food establishments using "gutter oil" was also widely circulated on the Internet, causing panic among members of the public and adversely affecting the business of the food establishments. Some people from the environmental industry have pointed out that, in order to effectively eradicate "gutter oil", the Government has to introduce a licensing system to stipulate that only licensed recyclers may lawfully recover and resell used cooking oil, and to require recyclers to keep records of their recovery and resale transactions, so as to ensure that the whereabouts of such used cooking oil can be traced. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the policies and measures employed to prevent the used cooking oil of local food establishments from being processed and resold as cooking oil after shipment to the Mainland or in Hong Kong, which would endanger the health of the people on the Mainland and in Hong Kong;
(b) whether it has studied the policies of the Mainland, the United States and various European Union countries on regulating the recovery and use of used cooking oil; if it has, of the details, and set out the modes of regulation in various countries in table form; given the extensive reports by the media on the Mainland in recent years and the recent occurrence of the incident of suspected selling of "gutter oil" in Hong Kong, whether it has studied the need to regulate the matter through legislation; if it has, of the outcome of the study; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c) whether it will study the regulation of the operation of used cooking oil recyclers through licensing to ensure that the whereabouts of all the used cooking oil recovered can be traced, so as to facilitate investigation and prevent lawbreakers from processing used cooking oil and reselling it as cooking oil, in order to safeguard public health?
Reply:
President,
Earlier on, reports relating to "gutter oil" were published in the media, leading to public concerns about food safety. Consolidating the information provided by the Food and Health Bureau (FHB) and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), the Centre for Food Safety has all along been monitoring the quality of cooking oil in Hong Kong through routine food surveillance to ensure that the products comply with the legal requirements and are fit for human consumption. In addition, existing legislation requires food traders to obtain the relevant licence before they can carry out the business of mixing or refining cooking oil. FEHD has so far found no evidence that the so-called "gutter oil" was involved in the incident after more than one month's investigation. Also, FEHD has not found any evidence indicating that used cooking oil collected from restaurants enters the food chain in Hong Kong after recycling. Notwithstanding this, FEHD has decided to take a series of measures to further ensure the safety of cooking oil, on top of the existing legislation, enforcement actions and the Food Surveillance Programme. It is therefore evident that the Government attaches great importance to food safety.
The questions raised by the Honourable Paul Tse were mainly about the collection and recycling of used cooking oil. I intend to provide an overall response from an environmental perspective today as follows:
First of all, we should understand that Hong Kong, the Mainland and international regulation on the import and export of waste is primarily premised on the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal (Basel Convention). This is an international convention aiming to protect public health and the environment against the adverse effects of hazardous waste. Parties to the convention, which mainly targets at hazardous waste such as chemical waste and lead acid batteries, are required to implement domestic control to prevent illegal waste traffic including the shipments of hazardous wastes from developed countries to developing countries.
China is a party to the Basel Convention and therefore the Convention is applicable to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The relevant import and export control has also been incorporated under Hong Kong's Waste Disposal Ordinance (WDO) as local legislation. WDO regulates the import and export of waste through a permit system. Apart from what we call "green waste" such as waste paper and waste metal that is imported and exported for recycling, any person who import and export waste requires a licence. Yet the used cooking oil generated from the catering industry is not hazardous waste; its import and export is not subject to the WDO and is consistent with the requirements under the Basel Convention. It follows that internationally there is no control on the import and export of used cooking oil.
From an environmental perspective, used cooking oil is suitable to be recycled and is generally regarded as a reusable commodity like other "green waste". Out of resource considerations, international jurisdictions encourage the proper treatment of used cooking oil. Accordingly, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) is approaching the recycling of used cooking oil from the following two perspectives:
(a) Enforce the existing environmental legislation. At present, the processes and production plants for recycling used cooking oil to produce biodiesel have to meet the requirements of the relevant pollution control legislation relating to air and waste water, including the requirement to apply for a specified process licence from the EPD under the Air Pollution Control Ordinance (Chapter 311) and to meet the discharge standards under the Water Pollution Control Ordinance (Chapter 358) for discharging wastewater. The EPD conducts site inspections of the recycling processes and the discharges to ensure compliance with the statutory requirements.
(b) Promote the recycling of used cooking oil. First, EPD encourages restaurants to pass their used cooking oil to reputable recyclers for recycling into bio-diesel or other materials. In addition, the Government proactively supports the environmental and recycling industries; there is a tenant in the EcoPark in Tuen Mun undertaking the recycling of used cooking oil, turning used cooking oil collected locally in Hong Kong into bio-diesel that meets international standards. On the other hand, the Government promotes the green procurement policy and among other things takes the lead in using bio-diesel. Relevant government departments, namely the Correctional Services Department, Hong Kong Police Force, Drainage Services Department, Marine Department and EPD launched a 16-month pilot scheme in January 2012 to use B5-Diesel, of about 3.5 million litres, in their vehicles, vessels, boilers and diesel engines. This is to pioneer the use of bio-diesel in Hong Kong enabling its wider adoption progressively. Indeed, apart from being recycled into bio-diesel in Hong Kong, we understand some of the used cooking oil generated from the local catering industry is exported to the neighbouring region or even Europe for recycling and for other purposes such as being refined into bio-diesel, reused as industrial fuel or manufactured as soap.
In summary, since used cooking oil is not hazardous waste, there is no need to regulate its collection due to an environmental reason. EPD will continue to work from the environmental protection angle and monitor the treatment process for and emissions from the recycling of used cooking oil and the manufacturing of bio-diesel. EPD will also enforce regulations on the import and export of waste in accordance with the relevant legislation in fulfillment of our responsibilities under the Basel Convention.
Ends/Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Issued at HKT 16:53
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