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Following is a question by the Hon Chan Hak-kan and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Wong Kam-sing, in the Legislative Council today (April 24):
Question:
According to government information, more than 70 000 tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment is generated in Hong Kong annually, and such quantity is rising continuously. It has been learnt that the novelties in the functions and designs of mobile phones, notebook computers and tablet computers, which make users frequently replace old products with new ones, have contributed to the increasing quantities of the waste of such products. Regarding the procurement and disposal of the three kinds of electronic products by government departments, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective total numbers of the above three kinds of electronic products procured and disposed of by various government departments, the expenditure incurred in procuring such electronic products, as well as the respective average numbers of years that such electronic products had been used at the time of disposal, in each of the past five years;
(b) whether various government departments have adopted the same criteria for deciding whether such electronic products should be replaced; if so, of such criteria, and whether such criteria are reviewed regularly; if not, the reasons for that, and the respective criteria adopted by various departments;
(c) how various government departments dispose of such electronic products (including the procedure for ensuring no leakage of the information stored in such products); and
(d) of the specific measures put in place by the authorities for reducing the replacement and increasing the recycling of such electronic products?
Reply:
President,
(a) and (b) The existing principle of the Government is to consider replacing the mobile phones, notebook computers and tablet computers only when they fail to perform their original functions or to meet the operational needs. Subject to their operational needs, various bureaux/departments may purchase mobile phones, notebook computers and tablet computers according to the Stores and Procurement Regulations of the Government. As for the electronic products disposed of by departments, we have no data on their total number, the expenditure on their procurement or the average numbers of years that such products had been used.
(c) The Government has established clear internal security guidelines requiring all bureaux/departments, to check and examine the devices to ensure all the data has been removed before disposing computer or mobile devices with data storage capability, including mobile phones, notebook computers and tablet computers. Typical removal methods include degaussing or multiple overwriting of storage area. If complete removal of stored data on the media is not feasible, the media unit must be physically destroyed to prevent the recovery of the stored data.
(d) The Government implements a waste management strategy with waste reduction as the top priority. Various departments reuse and reduce the disposal of electronic equipment as far as possible. Replacement of electronic equipment will be considered only when it fails to perform its functions or to meet the operational needs. Targeting obsolete electronic equipment to be replaced, we have launched a pilot programme at the Environmental Protection Department under which repairable and reusable electronic equipment would be donated to non-profit organisations capable of handling such equipment properly. After repair, the electronic equipment would be re-donated to the needy. We are consolidating our experience to facilitate our study of promoting the programme to various government departments.
Ends/Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Issued at HKT 13:00
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