Construction waste disposal charges to be adjusted on April 7
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The Government implemented the Construction Waste Disposal Charging Scheme in 2006 in order to put the polluter pays principle to work, as well as to provide economic incentives for the adoption of construction methods that could promote reduction, reuse and recycling of construction waste in the industry. After completion of a review of the relevant charges, the Government last year concluded the legislative process to increase the construction waste disposal charges. The charges will be adjusted as follows:
● The landfill charge will be increased from $125 per tonne to $200 per tonne and the public fill charge will be increased from $27 per tonne to $71 per tonne, so as to achieve full-cost recovery; and
● The sorting charge will be increased from $100 per tonne to $175 per tonne, so as to maintain the current differential of $25 between this charge and the landfill charge in order to promote the use of sorting facilities.
An EPD spokesman said that the Government will review the above charges regularly so as to ensure that the charges can effectively encourage waste reduction. In addition, the Government will conduct further review having regard to the latest development for municipal solid waste charging.
The Government is also exploring different measures to monitor illegal land filling and fly-tipping of waste. Amongst other things, it was proposed in the 2017 Policy Address that the Government will mandate the use of a Global Positioning System on construction waste collection vehicles by legislation to help combat illegal depositing of construction waste. The EPD is now formulating the relevant regulatory framework and is making necessary preparations for the legislative work.
Ends/Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Issued at HKT 14:00
Issued at HKT 14:00
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