Shek Kwu Chau

Incinerator
By: Sheryl, Justin, Jacky and Ayesha

We took a trip to Soko Islands and Shek

Kwu Chau Incinerator Site

The Incinerator?
The Hong Kong Government has planned to build an Integrated Waste
Management Facilities on Shek Kwu Chau. It would be expected to be
completed by 2018 if the Legislative Council's finance committee had
approved the funding. The incinerator is hoped to be able to burn about
3,000 tonnes of waste per day. It has been given approval by Legco to
be built off the coast of Lantau Island as shown on the next slide.

We saw finless porpoises near the

site of incineration
They are one of the six porpoise
species. Genetic studies indicate
that they are the most basal living
member of the porpoise family,
although there is a degree of
taxonomic uncertainty about them.

Sight of the incinerator

The project is to construct and operate
a modern Integrated Waste
Management Facilities (IWMF) for
managing municipal solid waste
(MSW) under a design-build-operate
contract agreement. Along with the
incinerator they plan on having a
mechanical sorting and recycling plant
with design capacity of 200 tpd.

What is the rationale for the

incinerator
The rubbish in Hong Kong needs
somewhere to go, we cant keep filling up
our landfills (as shown here on the right)
Hong Kong needs an immediate solution to
handle its rubbish situation and the
incinerator seems to be the only method.
The incinerator can also partially provide
Hong Kong with energy.

Advantages - Environmental
Alternative solution, minimise the use of land/landfills.
reduces amount of solid waste (landfill sites can be
sustained for a longer time)
reduces amount of organic waste by 95%

Advantages - Social
Eliminates our waste
Generates electricity
Saves money and carbon footprint
on transport of waste to landfills

Disadvantage: Environmental
Air pollutants/smoke - CO2/CO - Acidification - plants and
animals die off food chains or bioaccumulative toxics
Carbonation
Boat traffic
Push certain animals to extinction
Dredging and reclamation = Kill finless porpoises + damage
one of the best areas for Hong Kong Fisheries

Disadvantages: Social
Heavy blow to tourism
Reduces potential for
creating jobs in waste
sorting, recycling etc.

Best Alternatives:
Reduce Waste - In the end its up to us to make a difference and if we
could take small steps we could eventually make a bigger change eg. ban
of the plastic bags proved to be effective. We need more ideas like this to
drive to success

More action at the district level

Deal with food waste
Increase recycling

Sources:
http://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/saving-the-finless-porpoise
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finless_porpoise
http://www.scmp.com/business/article/1566571/shek-kwu-chau-incinerator-best
-solution-hong-kong
http://www.scmp.com/business/article/1628505/shek-kwu-chau-incinerator-smells
-even-it-starts
http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr11-12/english/panels/ea/papers/ea0326cb1-1385-2-e.
pdf

Thank You!