The Government of the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong in China recently issued a note summarising progress on environmental topics over the last decade. On waste disposal, the note reported that:

Unwanted waste is disposed of at three very large landfills in the New Territories through a network of refuse transfer stations. To address the increasingly serious waste problem, the Administration launched a Waste Reduction Framework Plan in November 1998 which outlines broad direction to achieving various waste reduction targets within 10 years. Since waste management is high on the Government's agenda, we have set up a Waste Sub-committee under the Advisory Council on the Environment to advise the Government on possible waste reduction policies and programmes, as well as measures to handle different types of waste. We have been implementing various measures to further promote public awareness and community participation in the prevention and recovery of domestic waste.

These efforts have been generally effective . We are moving towards the Government's waste reduction targets. The recycling rate of municipal solid waste registered a 5% increase from 36% in 2002 to 41% in 2003, which is the largest yearly increase ever observed. We have also succeeded in continuing to arrest the growth in municipal solid waste disposed of at landfills for four consecutive years since 2000, which compares favourably with the 3.5% annual growth rate before 2000.

The domestic waste recovery rate has also increased from 13% in 2002 to 14% in 2003. In 2003, we introduced a Bill into the Legislative Council for implementation of a construction waste disposal charging scheme in line with the polluter pays principle and implemented a wet/dry waste sorting pilot programme. We will continue with a full range of waste reduction programmes and publicity efforts.