Sweden shows incineration can play key role in waste management plan
Ulf Ohrling and Kristian Odebjer say Hong Kong should set bolder targets, to be a regional leader
As Hong Kong approaches critical decisions on the future of its waste management, there is an opportunity to add some perspective from a country that would count as one of the most progressive in this particular area: Sweden.
Sweden has, in a relatively short period of time, achieved a remarkable increase in recycling rates, which has been accompanied by a corresponding reduction in waste ending up in landfills. At the same time, waste incineration has been embraced as an environmentally friendly source of energy.
The statistics speak for themselves: equal shares of municipal solid waste end up being recycled and incinerated (49 per cent of each), with less than 1 per cent of the total going to landfills. Substantial progress has been accomplished in just over a decade (as late as 2001, more than 20 per cent of municipal solid waste still went to landfills).
Key to this development have been taxation on landfills, household waste charges, and clear goals set by the government - "50 per cent recycling by 2010", for example. At the same time, there has been a concerted effort to explain the many benefits to society of a reduced waste burden and waste as a source of energy.
In fact, so successful has this been that Sweden has literally run out of garbage to feed its waste-to-energy incineration programme; in recent years it has had to import thousands of tonnes of trash from its neighbours. At the same time, evolving technology means emissions from incineration are less of an issue.
While Sweden, with a population of 9.5 million, differs from Hong Kong in many ways (space is less of a constraint, for one), the key points from Sweden's success story are replicable here. Studying the Hong Kong government's blueprint for the sustainable use of resources, important components of which are about to be launched, we believe the city is on the right track - for example, with its vision of a 40 per cent reduction in waste by 2022 as well as the target outcome of 55 per cent of waste being recycled and 23 per cent incinerated in 2022, leaving only 22 per cent for landfills (compared with 52 per cent of waste going to landfills today).
If Hong Kong is successful in reaching both its waste reduction target and the increased recycling and incineration rates, it can expect a drop in the need for landfills, thus making the slated expansion of landfill capacity a pure stop-gap measure.
