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The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) launched a joint departmental enforcement operation with the Fire Services Department, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, the Planning Department and the Lands Department at the end of January to inspect 19 outdoor waste recycling sites in North District and Yuen Long, the New Territories. Follow-up investigation actions are being taken against site operators with suspected breaches of relevant laws, and prosecution will be instituted against offence cases.
The joint operation, entitled "Operation Bang Raid", mainly inspected selected outdoor waste recycling sites in locations including Hung Lung Hang and Ta Kwu Ling in North District and Shap Pat Heung and Kam Tin in Yuen Long to check whether these sites had complied with relevant legislative requirements in respect of pollution control, environmental hygiene, fire safety, planning and land use.
An EPD spokesman said, "In general, waste recycling sites handle various kinds of recyclables. Improper management of these sites will bring about problems of dust, waste, wastewater and more, not only causing nuisance to nearby residents but even polluting the environment and violating environmental laws. Furthermore, relevant legislation and land lease conditions also govern the fire safety, environmental hygiene, planning and land use of these sites."
The sites inspected under this joint operation are mainly recycling sites for electronic and plastic waste. After the joint operation, which ended last Thursday (February 5), it was initially found that there were a total of 20 suspected violation cases, including three cases of not complying with storage requirements for chemical waste (e.g. waste LCDs) and one of suspected excessive storage of dangerous goods, four cases of unauthorised development in relation to land-use planning, and 12 cases of suspected illegal structures. Follow-up actions, including giving warnings, collecting evidence for instituting prosecutions and lease enforcement actions, were taken by relevant departments.
During the joint operation, enforcement officers also gave advice or distributed leaflets to site operators and workers to remind them of their legal responsibilities and advised them to improve the operation of waste recycling sites in order to minimise impacts to the environment and nearby residents. The EPD officers also collected water and soil samples in the vicinity to check whether the operation of these sites had caused impacts on the environment.
The spokesman said that the EPD will conduct joint operations with relevant departments to take vigorous enforcement actions against any offence at waste recycling sites, remind the industry and site operators to strictly comply with the law and land lease conditions, and maintain good operational practices.
Ends/Monday, February 9, 2015
Issued at HKT 19:17
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