Glass management contracts awarded for Hong Kong Island and New Territories regions
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A spokesman for the EPD said, "We are now actively preparing for the implementation of the producer responsibility scheme (PRS) on glass beverage containers in 2018. One of the key tasks is to appoint qualified contractors to provide effective and convenient regional glass container collection and treatment services covering the territory."
Earlier this year, the Government planned to hire through open tender qualified glass management contractors to undertake waste glass container collection and treatment services for the catchment regions of Hong Kong Island (including Islands District), Kowloon and the New Territories respectively. Under the contract, a contractor is required to establish within its responsible catchment region a network of collection points to facilitate glass container collection from commercial and industrial premises such as pubs and catering services, and to provide glass container collection services to residential buildings and estates in the catchment region.
The contractor will mainly collect properly rinsed glass beverage containers, but will also accept other waste glass containers, including those for food and sauces, that have been properly rinsed. The contractor is also required under the contract to arrange gainful reuse and recycling of the waste glass containers, including recovery for proper treatment turning them into reusable materials (e.g. as construction materials) and for re-bottling.
The contract also requires the contractor to operate a participation incentive scheme to encourage the public to return properly rinsed waste glass containers to the contractor for recycling.
The spokesman said, "The contracts for Hong Kong Island and the New Territories regions will commence on November 10, 2017, and each contract will be for a 5-year term. The contractor will have a preparatory period of about six months to establish its collection network and set up its glass container treatment facility. When the preparatory period expires, the contractor should provide the regional glass container collection and treatment services as required under the contract."
Regarding the contract for the Kowloon region, having considered the tender assessment results and the tender acceptance rules of the tender documents, the Government considers it is not in the public interest to award the contract at this time and has hence decided to cancel the tender. The Government will re-tender the contract next week with the aim of completing the tendering exercise and awarding the contract by the second quarter of 2018. Pending the award of the contract for the Kowloon region, the EPD will make suitable arrangements to maintain the recycling services of the existing voluntary programmes of recycling of glass containers operating in the region, including the collection services for residential estates, to enable the public to continue participating in the recycling of glass containers.
Ends/Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Issued at HKT 15:08
Issued at HKT 15:08
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