A delegation of German waste management experts, headed by Astrid Klug, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, is visiting Hong Kong on 7 and 8 December 2006.
Astrid Klug is accompanied by German industry representatives, academics and administrators. The mission follows a visit by high-level members of Hong Kong's Environmental Protection Department, who signalled Hong Kong's keen interest in benefiting from Germany's advice on waste management. The talks in Hong Kong will focus primarily on sustainable waste management, including strategies for waste avoidance and recycling. The delegation will also meet Dr Sarah Liao, Environment Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and environmental experts from the fields of politics, administration and research in Hong Kong.
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region faces major challenges in the waste management sector: although around 40 percent of waste is already being recycled, the capacities of its three major waste disposal sites are likely to be exhausted within six to nine years. Waste avoidance, recycling and the development of alternatives to landfill are therefore key priorities for environmental policy in Hong Kong, which has a population of seven million. The Special Administrative Region is self-sufficient when it comes to waste management, and exporting the waste is not regarded as an option.
Hong Kong's aim is to reduce its volume of waste by one percent year on year to 2014 while increasing the recycling rate to 50 percent at the same time. A further goal is to dump no more than a quarter of the total volume of waste in landfill. Hong Kong plans to build incineration plants for any remaining residual waste.
Astrid Klug explains: "Germany is regarded as a key partner for the introduction of a more efficient waste disposal strategy, partly because we have phased out the use of landfill for untreated municipal waste and have outstanding technological expertise when it comes to handling residual waste. We have therefore offered to share our knowledge with Hong Kong to solve its waste management problems."