Title The role of government and construction wastemanagement : a case study of Hong Kong

Author(s) Mou, Ka-yan; 繆嘉欣

Citation

Issue Date 2008

URL http://hdl.handle.net/10722/55108

Rights unrestricted

THE ROLES OF GOVERNMENT AND CONSTRUCTION WASTE MANAGEMENT:

A CASE STUDY OF HONG KONG

by

Ka-Yan MOU

DISSERTATION

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Sciences (Urban Planning),

The Centre of Urban Planning & Environmental Management The University of Hong Kong

June, 2008

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CONTENTS

Page ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………………… ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ………………………………………………………... LIST OF FIGURES ………………………………………………………………. LIST OF TABLES ………………………………………………………………... CHAPTERS

I. INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………… 1.1 Background …………………………………………………… 1.2 Goal and Objectives …………………………………………... 1.3 Methodology ………………………………………………….. 1.4 Structure of Dissertation …………………………………….…

II. THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN CONSTRUCTION WASTE

MANAGEMENT: A THEORETCIAL FRAMEWORK …………..

2.1 What is a Waste Problem? ……………………………………. 2.2 What is Construction Waste? ……………………………….… 2.3 What is the Problem with Construction Waste? …………….… 2.4 What is Waste Management? …………………………….…… 2.5 What is Construction Waste Management? …………………... 2.6 The Role of Government in Construction Waste Management . 2.7 The Roles of Different Stakeholders in Construction Waste

Management …………………………………………………...

III. CONSTRUCTION WASTE MANAGEMENT IN HONG KONG ….

3.1 Waste Crisis: Problems of Construction Waste ………………. 3.2 Shift of Management Approach on Construction Waste ……… 3.3 Institutional Framework ………………………………………. 3.4 Legislative Framework and Policies ………………….………. 3.5 Destinations and Treatment Facilities ………………….……... 3.6 Logistics of Waste Management Procedure and Stakeholders

Involved ……………………………………………….………. 3.7 Materials Being Recycled or Reused …………………….……

IV. CURRENT ROLES OF HKSAR GOVERNMENT AND

INVOLVEMENT OF PRIVATE SECTOR ……………………….…

4.1 Roles of HKSAR Government in Construction Waste Management …………………………………………………...

4.2 Roles of Private Sector in Construction Waste Management … 4.3 Roles of Stakeholders in the Private Sector and Actions Taken

to Reduce and Manage Construction Waste …………………...

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V. BARRIERS OF CONSTRUCTION WASTE MANAGEMENT IN HONG KONG ………………………………………………………..

VI. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS AND POSSIBLE ROLES OF

HKSAR GOVERNMENT …………………………………………....

VII. CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………. APPENDICES ………………………………………………………………….…

APPENDIX I ………………………………………………………………… APPENDIX II ……………………………………………………………….. APPENDIX III …………………………………………………………….…

BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………………

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ABSTRACT

Hong Kong is experiencing a serious waste problem since the capacity of its three

existing landfills is depleting fast and will be exhausted in the coming four to eight

years (EPD, 2008a). Construction waste alone made up more than one-third to almost

half of the waste disposed of at the three existing landfills from 1996 to 2006 (EPD

1996, 1997, 1998a, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 204, 2005, 2006, 2007a). The

increasing stockpiling of inert materials in the two fill banks is also a time bomb about

to explode. The disposal charge on construction waste implemented in 2006, however,

tends to work only divert waste from landfills to fill banks. Hong Kong is also relying

on imports for construction materials while most construction materials which could

be reused or recycled are simply dumped.

This dissertation aims to find the possible roles the HKSAR Government can do in

managing construction waste and make recommendations to the Government, for

solving the current waste crisis through the proper management of construction waste.

An evolution model was developed to capture the changing roles of the government

and the involvement of the private sector in construction waste management at three

stages of construction waste industry development, drawing from experiences in

Australia, Singapore, the United States and the United Kingdom. The three

development stages are: the old days of construction waste management while the

construction waste industry has not yet existed, the early stage of construction waste

industry development and the mature stage of construction waste industry

development. Once the waste management industry has matured, the private sector

could take a more active role in managing construction waste, replacing the

government in providing many of the supportive services and facilities. More

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government involvement is expected when construction waste management is

incorporated in the government’s agenda at the early stage of the industry

development. The government could retreat its roles from implementing the

supportive measures to focusing its roles in providing the core functions, including

setting up legislative, institutional and administrative frameworks, enforcement and

monitoring, setting targets and directions and creating incentives to the private market.

The current practices of construction waste management and roles of the government

in Hong Kong are reviewed by interviewing stakeholders in the construction waste

management process and conducting desktop research. Hong Kong is currently in

stage two of the model: the early stage of the construction waste industry development.

The small-scale construction waste industry in Hong Kong only began to develop, and

the connections among stakeholders are still very loose. Besides taking up the core

roles of government for managing construction waste, limited effort has been taken by

the government to create incentives to the private market. The government is trying

avoiding implementing any mandatory measures to ensure stakeholders adopting

waste reduction measures and any supportive measures to facilitate the development

of a local construction waste industry and cultivate a construction waste market.

Construction waste management in Hong Kong is hindered by a number of factors.

They are strong lack of government will; a “no-error” mindset embedded in the

culture of governance; inefficient legislative procedure and administrative system,

insufficient incentives to stakeholders in the private sector to incorporate waste

management and reduction into their practices, no attention on waste reduction at the

planning and design stage, lack of a well-developed recycling industry and markets for

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recycled products and the conflicting objectives and confusion of jurisdictions across

government departments.

To solve the existing challenge on construction waste, the HKSAR Government

should exercise strong political will and take proactively manage and reduce

construction waste, revise the waste charging scheme to adjust the fees and create

stronger incentives for the private sector to reduce waste by providing co-benefits,

mandatory implementation and supportive measures, foster communications and

cooperation among stakeholders, support technological innovations and creativity in

the reduction, sorting, reuse and recycling of construction materials, create markets for

recycled products and incorporate the understanding that managing construction waste

is expensive into decision making for construction waste management.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to send my gratitude to Dr. Mee-Kam NG for being my supervisor.

Without her patience and careful mind in explaining to me on every important area in

writing this paper, this dissertation, this project would not be completed.

I also want to send special thanks to Mr. Albert K.T. Lai, Dr. Ellen Y.L. Chan, Miss

Janet N.Y. Ng, Mr. Winston K.F. Fong, Mr. Fred C.C. Chan, Mr. Patrick Kwan, Mr.

Eddie C.H. Tse, Dr. Shan-shan Chung and Mr. Peter B. U. Wong for participating in

the interviews for this paper. Their inputs further stimulated my interest to look more

into issues related to construction waste management and they nurture me with ideas

on the current practices in Hong Kong.

I would also love to thank Miss Mabel Mak, Mr. Edwin Tsang, Miss Daisy Ho, Mrs.

Amy Doo, Dr. Shelley Zhou, Dr. Jeanne Ng, Dr. Wing-tat Hung and Mr. Jeremy

Woodall for referring me the contacts of stakeholders for interviews.

Last but not least, special thanks need to be sent to my friends, Michelle Poon and

Robyn Wong for editing this dissertation. I would also like to thank my family, my

boyfriend, my friends and my dog for their considerations and supports.

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LIST OF FIGURES

Page Figure 2.61: Flow Chart Showing the Early Stage of Construction Waste Industry

Development ………………………………………………………………. Figure 2.62: Flow Chart Showing the Mature Stage of Construction Waste Industry

Development ………………………………………………………………. Figure 3.11 Percentage Share of Construction Waste in Landfills (1996 – 2006) ……... Figure 3.12 Construction Waste Disposed of at Landfills Daily by Weight (tpd) (1996 – 2006) ………………………………………………………………. Figure 3.13 Construction Waste Disposed of at Landfills and Public Fill Reception

Facilities Daily by Weight (tpd) (1996 – 2006) ………………………….... Figure 3.14 Total Annual Construction Waste Disposed of at Different Waste Facilities by Weight (million tones per year) (1996 – 2006) …………….... Figure 3.15 Waste Disposed of at Landfills and at Public Fill Reception Facilities Daily by Weight (tpd) (1996 – 2006) ……………………..……………….. Figure 3.31 Bureaus and Departments Responsible for Construction Waste Management in the Organization Chart of the Government of Hong Kong ……………………………………………………………….... Figure 3.51 Locations of Existing Facilities for Construction Waste (2008) ………...… Figure 3.61 Logistic of Waste Management Procedure for Construction Waste …….… Figure 4.11 Flow Chart Showing Construction Waste Industry in Hong Kong ………...

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LIST OF TABLES

Page Table 2.21 Materials in Construction Waste that could be Recycled ………………..… Table 2.31 Barriers to Reduction and Recovery of Construction Waste …………….... Table 2.41 Changes in the Overall Mindset in Waste Management ……….………….. Table 2.42 Concepts in Waste Management …………………………………………... Table 2.51 Measures for Construction Waste Management by Waste Avoidance, Reuse and Recycling …………………………………………………….… Table 2.61: Evolution of the Roles of Government and the Roles of the Private Sector by Thee Development Stages of Construction Waste Industry ….… Table 2.71: Roles of Stakeholders Involved in Construction Waste Management ….…. Table 3.31 Duties Related to Construction Waste Management for Government Bureaus and Departments in Hong Kong ………………………………..… Table 3.41 Environmental Legislations Related to Construction Waste Management in Effect as at 31 May 2008 ………………………………..... Table 3.42 Legislations in Effective by Areas of Control …………………………..…. Table 3.43 Disposal Charges for Using Different Government Waste Disposal Facilities and Types of Construction Waste Accepted …………………….. Table 3.44 Summary of Development Bureau Technical Circulars on Construction Waste Management ……...…..…………………………….... Table 3.45 Practice Notes Related to Construction Waste Management …………….... Table 3.51 Existing Public Fill Reception Facilities for Construction Waste as of 2008 …………………………………………………………..…………. Table 3.52 Construction Waste Management Facilities in Operation in Hong Kong (2008) ……………………………………………………………….. Table 3.71 Construction Waste Generated in Hong Kong by Source …………………. Table 4.11 Roles of HKSAR Government in Construction Waste Management ……... Table 4.12: Roles of Government and Roles of Private Sector in Construction Waste Industry in Hong Kong ………………………………………..……. Table 4.13 Reasons for the HKSAR Government Not Taking Particular Actions and Supportive Measures ………………………………………………….. Table 4.31: Roles of Stakeholders Involved and Waste Reduction Measures Taken in Construction Waste Management in Hong Kong ………………..

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I. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Waste has become one of the major concern in many developed and some developing

cities across the world. Waste has even been seen as a crisis in these cities because

landfill spaces have been exhausted at a much faster rate; while siting new waste

facilities is a long and painstaking process when tightened administrative procedure

and the not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) syndrome are in play. The rise of the

materialism and a consumptive culture has driven up the generation of waste per

capita. With rising awareness for environmental protection, there has been a higher

demand for state-of-art waste management facilities as well as integrated solutions to

the waste problem. Waste has even become a dispute in the political arena for reasons

like the siting of waste facilities and the adoption of different waste management

approaches. Development of the waste industry has significant influences on the

interests of different social groups (Hostovsky, 2004).

In response to the waste crisis, governments have been calling for waste prevention

and reduction. Construction waste has been seen as a primary target for reduction. It is

a single waste stream taking up about one-fourth to one-third of all waste being

generated or waste being disposed of at landfills in many countries (Bates, 2006).

Compared to municipal waste, sources of construction waste can easily be identified

and the composition of construction waste is relatively well-defined. Countries that set

zero waste targets and zero landfill see diminishing construction waste as a primary

mission for the non-combustible nature of most construction materials (Teo, 2007).

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Like many overseas countries, Hong Kong is also experiencing urgency in its waste

problem. Mr. Edward Yau, the Secretary for the Environment, Hong Kong Special

Administrative Region, said in early 2008 that the capacity of the three existing

landfills in Hong Kong is quickly depleting and will be exhausted in the coming four

to eight years (EPD, 2008a). Construction waste alone took up 37 % in 2005 (EPD,

2005). With the increasing stockpiling of inert materials in the two fill banks, the

government would have to act quickly before the problem explodes. In response to

these problems, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)

Government passed the waste charging legislation on construction waste in 2006.

In this dissertation, the role that the HKSAR government has played in construction

waste will be discussed. The Government plays a significant and unique role in

managing construction waste and the involvement of the government is believed to be

crucial. Policy recommendations on actions that the Government should take for

managing construction waste are suggested at the end of this dissertation.

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1.2 Goal and Objectives

The goal of this dissertation is to find out the possible roles that the HKSAR

Government can play, in managing construction waste and what the HKSAR

Government can do to solve the current waste crisis through the proper management

of its construction waste.

The findings of this dissertation contribute to the understanding of the current roles of

the HKSAR Government for construction waste and the barriers of managing

construction waste in Hong Kong. By drawing overseas experiences in regards to

stages of the development of construction waste industry, we can have a better

understanding of possible government roles. By doing so, actions can be taken to help

achieve better performance in managing construction waste. In the last two decades,

overseas countries have proactively managed their construction waste and

performances have been achieved. This dissertation is, therefore, significant in

exploring solutions for the current waste crisis with the focus on construction waste

through proper government participation.

Due to the early developmental stage of the construction waste industry in Hong Kong,

construction waste management in Hong Kong is not well documented. Review of

current management practices on construction waste in Hong Kong intends to provide

an easy-to-understand introduction of construction waste management for new

practitioners in the construction waste industry in Hong Kong.

To achieve the goal of this dissertation, four objectives have been set out for this

dissertation. They are:

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1. to develop an evolution model to capture the changing roles of government and

the involvement of the private sector in construction waste management at

different stages of construction waste industry development drawing from the

experiences of overseas countries;

2. to review the current practices of construction waste management in Hong Kong,

in addition to finding existing barriers;

3. to find out the current roles of the HKSAR Government and the involvement of

the private sector in managing construction waste in Hong Kong and compare

these findings to the model developed from overseas experiences; and

4. to make policy recommendations to the HKSAR Government on its possible role

in managing construction waste in Hong Kong and upcoming actions the

Government should take in solving the current problems with construction waste.

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1.3 Methodology

This dissertation adopts a qualitative approach in studying the possible roles of the

government in construction waste management. To understand these roles, an

evolution model will be developed to capture the changing government roles and the

involvement of the private sector in construction waste management by three stages of

construction waste industry development. Drawn from overseas experiences, the three

development stages of construction waste industry are: the old days of construction

waste management while the construction waste industry has not yet existed, the early

stage of construction waste industry development and the mature stage of construction

waste industry development. The overseas review will focus on the experiences of

Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore. In these developed

countries, waste has become their primary concern. Construction waste has grabbed

the attention of their governments and proactive actions have been taken to manage

their construction waste since the last two decades, with some good performances

already achieved.

The overseas review will be drawn from desktop materials including literatures,

government’s publications, journal articles and magazines. Two magazines on waste

management, the Waste Age, a famous magazine on waste in the United States, and

the Waste Management World, a famous magazine on waste in the United Kingdom,

will also be reviewed for the latest information on management approaches,

technologies and news of the waste industry across the world.

To explore current waste management practices on construction waste in Hong Kong

and the participation of the Government, in addition to finding barriers in construction

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waste management in Hong Kong, government’ publications, articles on government

agencies’ websites, journal articles, scholarly papers and literatures have been

reviewed. In-depth interviews will also be conducted with stakeholders involved in the

management of construction waste. The interviews are intended to increase our

understanding of current practices in construction waste management in Hong Kong

and the barriers that hinder their achievements in managing and reducing construction

waste from the perspectives and experiences of these different parties involved. Their

combined views and opinions will be used in devising possible roles for the HKSAR

Government and formulating corresponding policy recommendations for construction

waste management.

By reviewing the supply chain of the construction industry, a number of stakeholders

have been identified. These include the HKSAR Government, project designers,

materials suppliers and machine suppliers. Waste handling equipment suppliers,

labour training institutions, construction contractors, construction labours, haulers,

scavengers, recycling companies, private waste facility providers, property companies

and end users. Due to the limitations of this study in term of insufficient time to build

up networks with these stakeholders, not all identified stakeholders could be

interviewed. The interview targets of this dissertation are focused on government

departments, developers, construction companies/ contractors and academics. These

interview targets are sufficient in providing an overall understanding of the current

construction waste management practices because developers make decisions at the

planning stage of a construction project. Construction companies/ contractors oversee

the operation on-site during the construction stage and they coordinate with all other

stakeholders for services. Government departments implement policies on

construction waste which affects all stakeholders in the supply chain and they operate

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the waste facilities. Finally, academics own knowledge on policies and issues related

to different aspects of construction waste management. On the other hand, most of the

other stakeholders involved in the construction waste industry are very small in scale

and are difficult to make contact with since the waste industry in Hong Kong is not yet

well developed. Only developers and construction companies/ contractors can be

easily identified and contacted.

Interview invitations were sent to the construction industry associations (i.e. The Hong

Kong Construction Association), developers, related government agencies (i.e.

Environmental Protection Department, Civil Engineering and Development

Department and the Support Group on Solid Waste Management for the Council for

Sustainable Development’s first engagement process), academics (i.e. Professor Chi-

sun Poon of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, an expert in green building,

construction waste management and recycling of construction waste and Dr. Shan-

shan Chung of the Baptist University of Hong Kong, an expert in environmental

policies and waste policies), construction companies and consultancies, waste

management companies, non-governmental organizations and green groups. Nine

stakeholders responded and accepted to participate in the interviews for this

dissertation. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with Mr. Albert K.T. Lai, the

convener of the support group on solid waste management for the Council for

Sustainable Development’s first engagement process, Dr. Ellen Y.L. Chan, assistant

director (environmental infrastructure), and Miss Janet N.Y. Ng, environmental

protection officer (waste facilities), for the Environmental Protection Department, Mr.

Winston K.F. Fong, senior engineer in the Fill Management Division for the

Engineering and Development Department, who has been carrying out pilot trails on

construction waste recycling, Mr. Fred C.C. Chan, the director, and Mr. Patrick Kwan,

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senior project manager, for the Shun Tak Development Limited, Mr. Eddie C.H. Tse,

assistant project manager – environment and sustainability of Gammon Construction

Limited and a member of the Hong Kong Construction Association, Dr. Shan-shan

Chung, assistant professor at the Croucher Institute for Environmental Sciences and

the Department of Biology for the Hong Kong Baptist University, and Mr. Peter B. U.

Wong, President & COO for WES Tech (HK) Limited, a waste management

technology company. The recorded and summarized interviews are attached in

(Appendix I).

A site visit was also conducted in May 2008 to observe two fill reception facilities

operated by the government, the fill bank and the recycling facility located in TKO

Area 138, Tseng Kwan O. The site visit report can be found in (Appendix II). The

findings from the interviews and the site visit will be incorporated into the discussions

from chapter six to chapter nine.

After understanding the possible roles of government in construction waste

management at different stages of construction waste industry development and the

current roles of the HKSAR Government in managing construction waste. In addition

to the current practices and barriers in managing construction waste in Hong Kong,

the final part of this dissertation will make suggestions on the possible roles that the

HKSAR Government can play in managing construction waste as well as specific

actions the government can take in solving the construction waste problem. The policy

recommendations in the final part of this dissertation will be based on both the review

of overseas experiences from desktop research on government’s publications, journal

articles, magazines, articles on governments’ websites, related companies’ websites

and other literatures and the review of some local experiences from both desktop

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research on literatures as well as the findings from the interviews with local

stakeholders for their knowledge, experiences and perspectives.

To limit the scope of this dissertation to the overall management of construction waste

with primary focus on waste reduction, the construction waste studied for the

dissertation will not cover the discussion of chemical and hazardous waste which

could be contained in construction waste.

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1.4 Structure of Dissertation

This dissertation is composed of three parts. The first part provides a theoretical

framework to this dissertation, consisting chapter two. The questions of what are the

problems with construction waste, what is construction waste management and how

the approach has evolved over time, why there is a role for the government to play in

waste management and what are the possible roles that government should play in

order to achieve good performance in managing construction will be discussed.

Overseas experiences will be reviewed to develop an evolution model to capture the

changing roles of government and the involvement of the private sector in

construction waste management at different stages of construction waste industry

development.

The second part focuses on the discussion of current practices on construction waste

management in Hong Kong, consisting three chapters from chapter three to chapter

five. This includes a discussion of why construction waste is a problem as well as on

the current management of construction waste in Hong Kong, including the changing

management approach on construction waste, the logistics of construction waste

management procedure, the current treatment facilities and destinations, the current

institutional arrangement and parties involved, the legislative framework and policies,

the current roles of the HKSAR Government in construction waste management and

what government actions have been taken and the barriers of construction waste

management in Hong Kong.

Finally, the third part of this dissertation, consisting chapter six, gives a discussion on

the possible roles of the HKSAR Government in managing construction waste and

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provides policy recommendations to suggest actions the Government can take in order

to solve the construction waste problems. The policy recommendations will be drawn

upon the opinions and experiences from stakeholders involved in the management of

construction waste in Hong Kong.

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II. THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN CONSTRUCTION WASTE

MANAGEMENT: A THERORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1 What is a Waste Problem?

To answer the question of why waste is a problem, it is important to the human-

environment relationship. According to the academic field of environmental

economics, the environment provides our human society with raw materials, which

transfers into consumer goods and services for consumption; while as a by-product of

the production and consumption processes, the raw materials and energy return to the

environment as waste products. The environmental is also a waste sink which has the

assimilative capacity to absorb waste. However, waste destroys environmental quality

when it is produced at a rate exceeding the assimilative capacity provided by the

environment. The environment could no longer provide us with the life-supporting

services and raw materials we need to survive (Manopimoke, 2008).

In the early history of human civilization, waste was not treated purposely as waste

was not a problem to humans. They relied solely on the assimilative capacity of the

environment to naturally breakdown the waste. In our old society or in some rural

areas, waste is still simply dumped in backyards, on streets, on open land or in the sea.

It would then be ignited and burned occasionally when methane gas accumulates

(Ibid.).

With urbanization, industrialization and intensification of development, waste is being

generated at a rate the environment can no longer assimilate. The waste produced may

contain toxic substances destroying the life supporting system of the environment

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(Waste Online, 2008). Waste, which destroys environmental quality, has increasingly

been seen as a problem. Governments began to participate in managing waste for the

first time in history in order to regulate the poor urban hygiene condition caused by

unregulated waste disposal. Ordinances on health, hygiene and cleanliness were

introduced to protect people’s health. Since then, public dumps were opened for the

disposal of waste centrally. Up until then, waste had only been seen as a hygiene

problem and solutions were focused on end-of-pipe treatment and disposal (Hostovsky,

2004; Jim, 1991; Land Generation Network, 2008; Waste Online, 2008).

The demand for amenity and the preservation of environmental quality has also been

raised, later on, contributed by the rise of environmental movement, the pursuit of

sustainable development and the search for better living standards. More sophisticated

and state-of-the-art treatment methods have been sought to solve the problem (Ibid.).

In many developed cities, incinerators were banned in the mid and late 20th century

due to emission problems caused by combusting waste, since the waste technology at

that time was still pre-mature. Landfills were commonly adopted as an alternative

(Hostovsky, 2004; Waste Online, 2008).

More recently, however, landfills could no longer provide a long-term and sustainable

solution to manage waste and have even become a headache to many cities. More

waste generated per capita has shortened the lifespan of many landfills significantly.

Finding new landfills has always been a tough task since landfills require large pieces

of land, which have to fit well with the geological and engineering criteria. The land

use conflict brought by the Not-In-My-Backyard syndrome and the more demanding

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administrative procedure imposed by the environmental impact assessment make the

siting of new waste facilities a time-consuming task (Hostovsky, 2004).

in many countries The waste problem has also become a priority in the political

agenda because they are running out of suitable space to treat locally generated waste.

While shipping waste across the borders is a notorious and prohibited by many

international treaties such as the Basel Convention (Hostovsky, 2004; Mak, 2008).

The effort and money dedicated to treating our waste problem has dramatically

increased. Many parties involved in the waste generation process from the design and

the production stages to the consumption and disposal stages are motivated to rethink

and make changes to their practices to reduce waste.

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2.2 What is Construction Waste?

The Definition of Construction Waste

Waste is often legally defined to include specific items by law or under an Ordinance.

Waste is further classified usually in three different categories: by forms, sources or

by its associated impacts to humans or to the environment. The waste definition and

classification system affects the corresponding handling, treatment and disposal

specifications and requirements as well as the trading of materials across the border

(Department of Environment and Conservation (NSW), 1999; Hostovsky, 2004;

Spinka, 2004).

Construction waste is one of the categories of waste defined by source. It is similar but

slightly different across administrative entities. The Environmental Guidelines:

Assessment, Classification & Management of Liquid & Non-Liquid Waste (1999,

p.16) issued by the Department of Environment and Conservation (NSW) in Australia

provides a comprehensive and representative definition of construction waste that it is

generally defined as “bring materials resulting from the demolition, erection,

construction, refurbishment or alteration of buildings or from the construction, repair

or alteration of infrastructure-type development such as roads, bridges, dams, tunnels,

railways and airports, and which is not mixed with any other type of waste, and does

not contain asbestos waste”.

As being practiced by many countries, including the United Kingdom, the United

States, Australia, Denmark, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong, construction waste is

further classified into two streams of materials: inert materials and non-inert materials.

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Waste generated from construction sites is usually composed of inert materials

including bricks (concrete, commons, engineering and facing), cement, ceramic tiles,

clay drains, concrete, block, plaster, roof tiles, rubble/ hardcore, sand and stone and

excavated material (i.e. materials totally free of contaminants, including topsoil, dirt,

sandstone, broken concrete, asphalt, bricks and tiles), non-inert materials including

brick banding, glass, metals (ferrous and non-ferrous), paper/ cardboard, plasterboard,

plastic, polystyrene, PVC piping, roofing felt, tarmac/asphalt, timber, green waste,

pavers and waffle pods, and hazardous materials including asbestos and contaminated

soil (Einstein Network, 2002a; DEC, 1999; WSN Environmental Solutions, 2008; Merrill,

2000). Pictures of construction waste are provided in Appendix III for reference. In

many countries, hazardous materials present in the waste, can no longer be classified

as construction waste and is then defined as hazardous waste and requires special

treatment and disposal.

What can be Recycled in Construction Waste?

Almost all construction waste can be reused or recycled making it the single waste

stream with the highest potential for resource recovery. Singapore, for example, had a

94% construction waste recovery in 2005 with its target of no landfill (Teo, 2007).

The Natural Strategies Group (2008) and Construction Connect (2008), a non-profit

organization and an online construction materials trading platform in Australia,

respectively, also claimed that 80% of building waste can be reused or recycled. The

City of Sydney (2008) also achieved an outstanding 97.9% recovery rate for its road

and building materials in 2004-05. The National Federation of Demolition Contractors

in the United Kingdom claimed that its 161 corporate members are recycling or

reusing more than 90% of all waste from demolition sites in the United Kingdom

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(Robinson, 2007). However, differences in recycling capacity across countries depend

on the availability of local resources including the materials processing technologies

and recycling facilities, as well as the maturity of the waste and recycling industry

(Ingalls, 2007).

Most inert materials are reused as public fill which can be used in earth-filling projects,

for example, as the base of a road or building, as land stabilizing materials for newly

reclaimed sites or recycled into daily cover materials for landfills (Mel, 2006). Some

of these inert materials, such as concrete, bricks, tiles and aggregates can be reused

on-site or recycled into new construction materials. Recyclables, such as plastic,

timber, metals, paper, polystyrene, glass and organic waste can be separated and

recycled into new materials for other consumer products. Table 2.21 summarizes the

construction materials which could be recycled, including the recycling technology

options and the final recycled products used in Australia, Singapore, the United states

and the United Kingdom (Construction Connect, 2008; EcoRecycle Victoria, 1999;

Einstein Network, 2006; Environment Protection Authority of South Australia and

KESAB Environmental Solutions and Government of South Australia, 2008; Mel,

2006; Robinson, 2007; Teo, 2007; Turley, 2007).

18

Table 2.21 Materials in Construction Waste that could be Recycled

C&D Materials Recycling Technology Options Recycled Products Asphalt Cold recycling, heat generation,

Minnesota process, parallel drum process, elongated drum, microwave asphalt recycling system, finfalt, surface regeneration

Recycling asphalt, asphalt aggregate

Rubble, Sand and Stone, Brick and Tile

Burn to ash, crush into aggregate Slime burnt ash, filling material for road base and land reclamation, hardcore, backfilling

Concrete and Cement Crush into aggregate Recycling aggregate, cement replacement, protection of levee, backfilling, filter, daily cover materials for landfills, filling material for road base and land reclamation

Ferrous Metal, e.g. steel Melt, reuse directly, electric arc furnaces

Recycled steel scrap

Non-Ferrous Metal, e.g. aluminum

Melt Recycled metal

Glass Separate from glass bottle, reuse directly, grind to powder, polishing, crush into aggregate, burn to ash

Recycled window unit, glass fibre, filling material, tile, paving block, asphalt, recycled aggregate, cement replacement, man-made soil, aggregate for concrete

Masonry Crush into aggregate, heat to 900 degree Celsius

Thermal insulating concrete, traditional clay brick, sodium silicate brick

Plaster Crush into powder, recovered and remanufactured

Soil conditioner, recovered and manufactured as new plasterboard

Paper and Cardboard Purification Recycled paper

Plastic Convert to powder by cryogenic milling, clipping, crush into aggregate, burn to ash

Panel, recycled plastic, lumber, recycled aggregate, landfill drainage, asphalt, man-made soil

Timber and wood pallet Reuse directly, cut into aggregate, blast furnace deoxidization, gasification or pyrolysis, chipping, moulding by pressurizing timber chip under steam and water

Whole timber, furniture and kitchen utensils, lightweight recycled aggregate, source of energy, chemical production, wood-based panel, plastic, lumber, geofibre, insulation board, horticultural mulch, garden compost

Green Waste composting Soil conditioner, horticultural mulch, garden compost

Sources: Construction Connect, 2008; EcoRecycle Victoria, 1999; Einstein Network, 2006;

Environment Protection Authority of South Australia and KESAB Environmental Solutions and Government of South Australia, 2008; Mel, 2006; Robinson, 2007; Teo, 2007; Turley, 2007

19

Construction Waste as a Target Area for Waste Reduction and Recovery

Construction waste has been called the “hidden giant” for the fact that it takes up

significant portions of the total waste produced, making it the single largest waste

stream, yet it has received little media attention (Bates, 2006). According to UK

project “Construction Resource Efficiency (CoRE)”, construction and demolition

waste accounts for approximately 33% of controlled waste in the UK (Robinson,

2007). It composes 40% of all waste that goes into landfills in Australia (Construction

Connect, 2008; Natural Strategies Group, 2008). Construction materials are also heavy

and high in volume. Only recently has the idea of reducing and recovering

construction materials been seen as an essential part of a global waste strategy (Bates,

2006).

Induced by changes in the recent years, construction waste has become a target area

for waste reduction and recovery by governments (Turley, 2007). The concept of

green building has also attracted more attention in the construction industry.

Construction waste is relatively easy to separate at source as it is composed of

materials which are well defined with relatively high economic returns when recycled.

Compared to municipal waste, there are good end-uses for most types of construction

materials. Construction waste processing technologies, equipments and systems are

well-established (Ingalls, 2007). More importantly, shall a country target for zero

landfill, reducing construction waste is necessary since it is mostly non-combustible

(Teo, 2007).

20

2.3 What is the Problem with Construction Waste?

Construction waste takes up a significant portion, ranging from one-third to one-fourth,

of the total waste produced in many countries. Most of it buried in landfills due to its

non-combustible nature. Moreover, the problem of stockpiling inert materials

recovered from construction waste has become more common and serious. Insufficient

earth-filling projects used to absorb the high quantity of inert materials have led to it

being stockpiled. It is also difficult and economically inefficient to sort inert materials

to meet project specifications for the use of filling materials (Einstein Network, 2002).

Despite knowing the problem, many countries still lag behind in reducing and

recovering construction waste due to the limitations of local resources to manage

waste, waste management knowledge and recycling capacity as well as the lack of

awareness by stakeholders and government’s will to reduce waste. Large quantities of

construction waste which can be recycled and has high value, is being dumped or used

in low-value applications (Einstein Network, 2002; Waste Management World, 2007).

To understand the barriers that make reduction and recovery of construction waste

difficult, some common barriers faced by other countries are reviewed for this paper.

These are summarized in Table 2.31 (Bergman, 2008; Einstein Network, 2002; Ingalls,

2000; Taylor, 2008; Teo, 2007).

21

Table 2.31 Barriers to Reduction and Recovery of Construction Waste • The prevailing mindset of individuals at all stages of the construction process and a lack

of awareness in waste minimization; • Lack of training to construction workers, designers, estimators, developers, contractors,

buyers and other stakeholders of the construction process; • Lack of incentives for companies to recycle in terms of both company reputation

building and financial incentives; • Lack of markets for recycled materials; • A local boom in construction that makes the time and labour costs spent on waste

management and minimization a cost ineffective option; • Low prices for virgin materials that reduce the incentives to make good use of the

recycled materials; • Insufficient coordination and communication among players in the construction and

waste the industries; • Deficiency in local resources to install waste processing technologies, equipments and

systems; • Underdevelopment of the waste and recycling industry; • Inefficient segregation of non-inert construction waste (the system is not installed yet);

and • Availability of cheaper options to manage and treat waste, for example the low tipping

fees that makes dumping the waste at landfills a more economically make-sense option.

Sources: Bergman, 2008; Einstein Network, 2002; Ingalls, 2000; Taylor, 2008; Teo, 2007

22

2.4 What is Waste Management?

The first appearance for the need of waste management was for health and hygienic

reasons. Waste management was primarily about waste disposal, in other words, how

to transport waste away from where people lived. For many decades waste

management was seen predominately as an engineering topic. Efforts have been made

to explore waste treatment and disposal methods such as biological processing, state-

of-art landfills and waste-to-energy incinerators, in order to reduce the adverse

impacts to humans and the environment (Hostovsky, 2004; Temmemagi, 1999).

Until recently, waste management has simply been seen as a disposal problem to an

integrated issue. It requires a change in the state of mind to include waste reduction,

minimization and recovery throughout all stages of a product life from design,

production, packaging and distribution to consumption and disposal. The management

approach has been diverged from a traditional end-of-the-pipe focus to a holistic

mindset (Ibid.).

In the past few decades, a number of new concepts have emerged that has led to a

change of the overall mindset in waste management. Table 2.41 summarizes the

changes in waste management. These concepts include the life-cycle approach, cradle-

to-cradle mindset, pollution prevention, waste management hierarchy, polluter-pay

principle and producer responsibility. These concepts will be introduced in Table 2.42.

23

Table 2.41 Changes in the Overall Mindset in Waste Management • A life-cycle perspective which takes into account waste management at all stages of a

product or a service’s life cycle from design, development, production, packaging and distribution to consumption and disposal;

• Waste management is more than just finding “end-of-pipe” solutions to handle and

discard waste. Source reduction at the upstream through detailed planning on waste management, incorporating clean and waste reduction criteria into the design of a product, the system and the corresponding production procedures and technological innovations to reduce and recover waste;

• Waste management is no longer an engineering or a disposal question, but it requires

integrated state of mind as well as the cooperation and participation of stakeholders involved in the process;

• The polluter-pays principle and producer responsibility internalize cost of waste

management into the cost of production. They create incentives for waste reduction, making waste disposal not longer the cheapest option to deal with waste while making waste reduction, reuse and recycling economically effective options; and

• Waste produced by one firm could be useful resources for the others. Fostering closer

linkages among stakeholders within and across industries is important for delivering the unwanted materials to someone who could fully utilize it. We shall also maximize the value of resources through waste reduction and recovery before they are disposed of as unless materials.

Sources: Bugge, 1996; DEC, 2008; De Lucia, 2007; Diamond, 2003; EcoRecycle, 2000;

McNabb, 1999; OECD, 1972; SITA UK, 2004; The Department of Environment and Climate Change, 2008; Wastecycle, 2008; Young and Vanderburg, 1992

Table 2.42 Concepts in Waste Management

Concept Description Pollution Prevention

Pollution prevention applies the old adage that “prevention is better than cure” to environmental issues, especially to pollution. It requires a new way of thinking, shifting away from the “after-the-fact” and “end-of-pipe” focus, to fully integrating clean and preventive criteria within the design, development, production, packaging, distribution, consumption and disposal of products and services. It broadly encompasses activities which result in the non-generation or reduction of waste over the entire life cycle of products and activities. Thus, pollution prevention initiatives protect nature and human health at the most fundamental level, before they are threatened by encouraging technological innovation and management improvement to prevent waste production (Young and Vanderburg, 1992).

Product Life Cycle and Materials Life Cycle Approaches

Product life-cycle approach includes the general development, production, distribution, use and discard of a product; whereas, the materials life-cycle approach focuses on the life cycles of constituent materials included in the product from stages of materials extraction and refining, manufacturing and use to disposal and dispersion (Young and Vanderburg, 1992). This cradle-to-grave approach to carry out environmental and pollution analysis brings forward a mindset to consider waste avoidance, reduction, reuse, recycle and its final disposal at each stage of the production process: a holistic and integrated approach in waste management.

Cradle-to-Cradle Approach and Waste as Resource

The cradle-to-cradle waste management approach initiated a breakthrough in the way we look at “waste” from seeing it as a by-product of a production process with no economic value to seeing it as a useful resource. It is because waste from one firm could be a resource for other firms. Resource that could not be utilized would be seen as waste (Diamond, 2003). It is important to provide linkages and allow communications between stakeholders who produce the waste and stakeholders who might want the waste. Recognizing and maximizing the value of resources before we see them as waste provide a fundamental change in ways we look at and manage waste by promoting the non-wasteful behaviour and simulating creativity in resource conservation through waste reduction and recovery.

Waste Management Hierarchy

The waste hierarchy is a hierarchy of management options for waste management. Drawing on the precautionary principle, the waste hierarchy prioritized the prevention and reduction of waste, then its reuse and recycling and lastly the optimization of its final disposal. It is because end-of-pipe management could only recover waste or reduce waste bulk after the waste has been produced, where changes in product design and consumption patterns could prevent and reduce the overall waste production. The concept is described by the “3Rs” – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle – followed by unavoidable disposal (EcoRecycle, 2000; SITA UK, 2004; The Department of Environment and Climate Change, 2008). The waste hierarchy has been widely incorporated in the waste policy of many countries and has taken many forms over the past decade with modifications to fit the local context. The basic concept has remained the cornerstone of prioritizing waste avoidance and minimization with the least preference of unavoidable disposal. These modifications included additional steps in the waste

24

Concept Description Waste Management Hierarchy

management hierarchy such as adding composting for resource recovery, adding energy recovery, waste treatment and bulk reduction before final disposal and adding the fourth R – rethink – to suggest an entirely new way of looking at waste to correct the fundamental flaws of the present waste management system (EcoRecycle, 2000; SITA UK, 2004; The Department of Environment and Climate Change, 2008; Wastecycle, 2008).

Polluter-Pay Principle

The Polluter Pays Principle is an environmental policy principle which requires that the costs of pollution, including also accidental pollution prevention, control and clean-up costs, be borne by those who cause it, in the other words, polluting parties pay for the damages done to the environment and bear the expenses of carrying out measures decided by public authorities to ensure that the environment is in an acceptable state (Bugge, 1996; De Lucia, 2007; OECD, 1972). The polluter-pays principle is normally implemented through two different policy approaches: command-and-control and market-based. Command-and-control approaches include performance and technology standards to internalize the costs of pollution control, i.e. the cost to reduce waste. Market-based instruments include pollution taxes or eco-taxes, fines, tradable pollution permits, product labeling and the elimination of subsidies to internalize the costs of damaging the environment (Ibid.).

Producer Responsibility

Producer responsibility comes hand in hand with the polluter-pays principle. It aims at ensuring that producers, which manufacture, import, sell or package the products, are financially or physically responsible for such products once they have reached the end of their life, shifting the responsibility of dealing with waste from governments to the entities producing it. They must either take back spent products and manage them through reuse, recycling or in energy production, or delegate this responsibility to a third party which is paid by the producer for spent-product management (DEC, 2008; McNabb, 1999). By internalizing the cost of dealing with the waste products, producers are, thus theoretically, provided with incentives to improve the waste profile of their products by minimizing waste and increasing possibilities for reuse and recycling. A life-cycle perspective is also taken in the concept of producer responsibilty that producers should bear the costs of all environmental impacts of their products throughout the product life-cycle, including upstream impacts inherent in the selection of materials for the products, impacts from manufacturers’ production process itself, and downstream impacts from the use and disposal of the products. Producers accept their responsibility when designing their products to minimize life-cycle environmental impacts, and when accepting legal, physical or socio-economic responsibility for environmental impacts that cannot be eliminated by design (Ibid.).

25

26

2.5 What is Construction Waste Management?

The evolution of the mindset and the overall approach in waste management has

affected the management of construction waste too.

In the past, construction waste was simply dumped in open dumps or the sea as end

treatment. Some of them were used in earth filling works but without much effort on

waste separation. Mixed construction waste with high-value recyclables were buried at

the same time. The reuse and recycling of construction materials was once high

because of material shortages during the war and post-war periods, especially when

the cost of virgin materials remained high. However, the incentive to reuse and recycle

construction materials has dropped since the supply of raw materials has become more

stable and sufficient (Hostovsky, 2004; Land Regeneration Network, 2008; Waste

Online, 2008). The relatively low price of virgin materials has made reuse and

recycling a less economically efficient option (Robinson, 2007).

In recent years, a holistic, integrated and life-cycle approach and the waste hierarchy

have also been applied to construction waste management. A number of measures

targeting the construction process itself from the design and planning stage,

demolition and construction operation stage as well as other measures which do not

particularly target the construction process itself have been proposed and adopted

commonly across the world to reduce and manage construction waste. Table 2.51

summarizes these measures for managing construction waste by stages.

Table 2.51 Measures for Construction Waste Management by Waste Avoidance, Reuse and Recycling

Measures and Descriptions avoid reuse recycle

Measures Targeting Construction Projects

Prevention of New Constructions - considering for non-materials measures in problem solving and designing new buildings which preserve the

existing structure of the old buildings as part of the new building

Project Designs for Waste Prevention and Minimization - adopting construction design and method which prevent and provide less waste

Designs for Long-Life, Reuse and Recycling - constructing buildings which could be easily converted into new uses without modifying the building structure

and designing buildings whose components and materials could be reused and recycled when demolished

Lean Construction - adopting designs using thinner internal walls and floor slabs and reducing foundation size which could minimize

the amount of raw materials being used and thus reduce the amount of waste

Modular Building Designs and Pre-casting of Construction Components - pre-casting of construction components and install them on-site

The Use of Recycled Materials in the Construction - designing new construction which use materials with recycled content

Better Site Planning and Logistic Planning - allocating waste facilities at the right places and making sure the logistic is convenient for implementing on-site

waste management

Design and Planning Stage

Better Scheduling of Construction Tasks by Stage - carrying out of one task at a time by scheduling tasks by stage to prevent contamination and mixing of waste

Construction Waste Management and Reduction Plan - planning for waste handling, sorting, collection and disposal, allocating spaces for placing waste facilities and

for waste management, appointing staffs for managing and monitoring and etc before the construction

27

Measures and Descriptions avoid reuse recycle

Demolition Stage Selective Demolition - adopting selective sequential demolition to remove one type of material at one time to avoid mixing.

Salvageable materials such as metals, timber, bricks and tiles should be removed from the buildings before demolition. Hand demolition and dismantling should be considered prior to demolition using point breaker, bulldozer, crane ball and chain, and explosives

Ordering the Right Amount of Construction Materials - avoiding over-estimation and ordering too many materials which could not be fully utilized in the construction

The Use of Reusable Metals for Formwork - replacing wooden panels which could only be used once with metals which could be reused for many times for

formwork

Construction Stage (Site Operation)

On-Site Sorting - avoiding mixing of construction materials and conduct sorting on-site as early as once the waste are produced

when the construction labours are doing their tasks

On-Site Reuse and Recycling by Small-Scale Crushing Machine - reusing inert materials on-site for back filling and crushing concrete and rocks into aggregate for concrete

production and earth filling

Auditing and Performance Monitoring - appointing a managerial staff to oversee the waste management practices on-site and recording the waste

generated

Building Better Coordination and Cooperation among Stakeholders in the Supply Chain - developing linkages and coordinating with other stakeholders in the supply to transport unwanted construction

materials to other places where these materials could be utilized. For examples, materials suppliers could take back surplus materials from contractors; unwanted inert materials could be transported to and used in other concurrent projects; contractors could coordinate with recyclers or scavengers to pick up recyclables; and etc.

Orderly and Proper Waste Handling and Disposal (e.g. waste tracking system) - avoiding fly-tipping and disposing the waste at the designated facilities by waste type

28

Measures and Descriptions avoid reuse recycle

Measures Not Particularly Targeting Construction Projects

Education, Experience Sharing and Information Sharing - promoting awareness on waste reduction to construction staffs and promoting to them waste reduction

practices; promoting to different stakeholders their roles and what they could do to reduce waste; providing information on the latest management approaches and technologies; experiencing sharing among stakeholders and etc.

Creating Incentives to Reduce Waste - waste charging is a common example of financial incentive by internalizing costs of waste management to the

producers; other non-financial incentives include legislations, voluntary schemes, reputation building, creating co-benefits for practicing waste reduction measures and award schemes; and etc.

Provision of Waste Management and Treatment Facilities - providing accessible waste collection, sorting, treatment, processing, disposal and transportation services and

facilities

Technological Innovations on Materials Sorting, Reuse, Recycling, Waste Treatment and Disposal - developing new technologies to sort out wider range of materials, inventing new construction method to reuse

waste materials and use recycled materials, inventing new recycling technologies to recycle wider range of materials, inventing new treatment and disposal methods to reduce bulk and handle waste safely

Creativity and Innovations on Low-Waste Construction Methods, the Use of Recycled Materials, Materials Reuse and Recycling - developing new construction methods and designs for producing less waste, new techniques on reusing waste

materials and using recycled materials

Developing a Local Waste and Recycling Industry - allowing wider range of waste and recycling businesses to enter the industry and establishing networks among

different stakeholders in the industry

Developing Markets for Recycled Products - creating and promoting the use of recycled products, e.g. revising project specifications to include the use of recycled materials; providing construction and building guidelines or practice notes on the uses of recycled materials in construction; promoting the new recycled projects to construction materials manufacturers or suppliers; exploring innovative uses of the recycled materials; amending the restrictions in the Building Ordinance to allow wider uses of recycled materials; developing the acceptance and the confidence to the use of recycled materials by the general markets by certification and qualification systems; and etc.

29

Measures and Descriptions avoid reuse recycle

Sources: Bates, 2006; DECC, 1997, 2007; DECC, 2008a, 2008b; EcoRecycle Victoria, 2000; EcoRecycle Victoria, 2001; EcoRecycle Victoria and Master Builders

Association of Victoria and RMIT 1998a, 1998b, 1998c, 1999; EcoRecycle Victoria and Master Builders Association of Victoria, 2004; Robinson, 2007; Natural Strategies Group, 2008; Poon, 2004; Teo, 2007; The City of Sydney, 2005; Waste Management World, 2007; WMAA, 2007

Building Linkages and Improving Communications among Stakeholders in the Supply Chain - developing more linkages and communications among stakeholders in the supply chain, construction waste

could be managed more efficiently such as the taking back of unused construction materials by the materials suppliers, exchanging ideas between project designers and contractors for designs which produces minimized amount of waste, trading of inert materials among projects and sharing cost saving among haulers and project contractors and etc.

Cooperating with Nearby Political and Administrative Entities - cooperating with cities nearby to solve waste problem regionally

30

31

2.6 The Role of Government in Construction Waste Management

Referring our discussion back to the primary subject of this paper – the role of the

government in construction waste management, this session attempts the discussion of

this topic by answering two questions: why there is a role for the government to play

in waste management? And if there is an irreplaceable role for the government in

waste management, what are the possible roles that the government should play in

order to manage construction waste? This discussion will be based on overseas

experiences drawing from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and

Singapore. The evolution of the roles of government and the private sector as well as

the participation of stakeholders in the construction waste industry when the industry

begins to develop will be discussed in the latter part of this session.

Why there is a Role for Government to Play in Waste Management?

Waste Management, like many other public services such as national defense,

provision of clean air and clean water, environmental protection, public hygiene and

many others, is regarded as a public good. The public good is not usually provided by

the private sector owing to a problem of market failure – free-rider problem. This

problem is caused by the non-exclusive and non-rivalry nature of public goods that the

service or product could not be exclusively provided only to people who pay for it; in

other words, individuals providing these public goods would not able to charge people

for benefiting from their services or products. Therefore, no individual in the private

sector would have incentives to provide public goods. According to this economic

reasoning, waste management as a public good, should be best provided by

government; and that there is a very unique role for the government to initiate actions

32

for waste management since there is lack of incentives in the private sector for

providing waste management services (Pang, 2002; Supachit, 2008).

This economic reasoning was also supported and further argued by political

philosophers that the provision and the management of these public services were

naturally born as a government’s responsibility. Pang (2002), for example, said in his

Zhengfu Jiaose Lun in Chinese or The Role of Government in English translation that

the government’s first appearance in history was for meeting, providing and managing

public affairs. The provision and the management of these public affairs were intended

for public benefits and they were not intended to meet private needs.

In spite of the variance in the preferred levels of government involvement in the

society for different political economies due to the shift of dominating economic

thoughts in history, the involvement of government in waste management has, in fact,

been increasing for all kinds of political economies (Pang, 2002). It was due to the

prevailing influences of upwelling population growth, rapid economic development,

the more-intensified urban living environment, increased demand for better living

standard and the rise of the social and environmental movements (Temmemagi, 1999).

These have brought about the rising demand for expanding the government’s

responsibilities not only on its political and economic functions but also the social and

environmental functions.

Moreover, globalization and the growth of transnational companies has also created

more demands on the government to provide conditions to meet international

standards and enhance international competitiveness, for instances, cross-boundary

pollution and the trading of waste across borders (Ibid.).

33

The involvement of the government in waste management has been shown through

historical evidences. In the old days, the government first participated in waste

management in history for providing street cleaning services. The sweepings were

collected by the government and were dumped into the sea or in open dumps without

separation or treatment. The government was then pushed to seek for centralized

solutions to dispose waste at landfills or diminish it by incineration as population

boomed and industrialization grew in the mid 20th century. Reaching the late 20th

century, there was a surge for tighter environmental standards in the international level

and the voices of the civil society became stronger. The government was forced

further to seek more sophisticated and environmental friendly waste treatment and

disposal solutions and to adopt an integrated approach to managing waste and

targeting waste efforts at the sources as early as in the planning stage (Hostovsky,

2004; Land Regeneration Network, 2008; Waste Online, 2008).

The role of government expanded from simply providing waste collection services to

waste disposal and, to later on, implementing a more complicated waste management

strategy including a wide range of responsibilities and functions. These included

setting up a legal framework and formulating regulations and guidelines to manage

waste, empowering institutions and providing an administrative system, provision of

waste facilities and services, setting reduction and recovery targets, providing training

and education to stakeholders on waste management knowledge and experiences,

creating incentives to the private market, financing waste services, fostering

communications among stakeholders, building public awareness and encouraging

participation. Learning from overseas experiences, collecting public views, importing

and exploring new technologies and management concepts, creating and supporting

the market for recycled materials, assisting the development of the waste management

34

industry, trading of waste and many others. Although the neo-classical economy

supports for “small government, big market” and there has been a revolution on

privatizing public services to the private sector. The government does not provide

some of the waste services and facilities directly; it still needs to play a role in

monitoring these services and operations.

As a result of the economic reason and historical evidences discussed above, the

predominant role of the government in providing and managing waste management

services for the public welfare has been deeply buried in our fundamental belief. We

assume it is the government’s responsibility in providing and managing waste

management services.

What are the Possible Roles that Government could Play in Managing Construction

Waste?

The discussion of the roles of government in the overall waste management applies

the same to managing construction waste. From overseas experiences, the roles of the

government and the private sector, as well as the participation of the stakeholders,

have changed over time. When the local waste industry developed it bought together

the better performances in construction waste management. Table 2.61 shows this

evolution by three phases (i.e. the old days of construction waste management, the

early stage of construction waste industry development and the mature stage of

construction waste industry development). Figure 2.61 and Figure 2.62 illustrate the

old days of construction waste management and the mature stage of a local

construction waste industry development, respectively, in a flow chart for

35

demonstrating the changes over time, including the stakeholders involved and the

changing environment of the industry.

Phase I: Old Days of Construction Waste Management

In the old days, the government was involved in waste management for ensuring

hygiene and clean living environment. The primary concern was to provide places for

final disposal without actual considerations on long-term initiatives on environmental

protection and waste reduction. The involvement of the private sector in construction

waste management was also limited since waste management was assumed to be the

responsibility of government. When the construction waste industry began to develop,

it was difficult for the private sector to carry out the core roles of construction waste

management previously adopted by the government. This was the setting up of a

legislative framework, an institutional framework and an administrative framework

for managing construction waste management, enforcement and monitoring and the

provision of waste facilities.

Stakeholders participated in the construction waste management process included only

those involved directly in construction. Such examples include materials suppliers and

machines suppliers who supply inputs to construction, labour training institutions who

train qualified labours for construction and haulers and scavengers who collect waste

and recyclables and transported them to designated places (Table 2.61).

Setting up Legislative Framework

One primary and irreplaceable role of governments is to provide a legislative

framework, including regulations to manage construction waste. This serves as a

36

backbone for waste management that it defines and classifies waste by laws. The law

also specifies the designated ways of handling, transportation, treatment and disposal

of waste.

Setting up Institutional and Administrative Frameworks

The laws also establish and empower an institutional framework and an administrative

framework to execute the legislations and policies. Designated institutions and

authorized bodies are established to oversee matters related to waste under the

appropriate jurisdiction. Taking the state of New South Wales in Australia as an

example, under the jurisdiction of a state government, the Protection of the

Environment Operations Act (1997) specifies the allocation of responsibilities among

the Environmental Protection Authority, local councils and other public authorities.

The Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Act (2001) established a specialist

waste reduction agency, Resource NSW. The Environmental Guidelines: Assessment,

Classification & Management of Liquid & Non-Liquid Waste issued by the

Department of Environment and Conservation (1999) provides the waste classification

guidelines.

Enforcement and Monitoring

Enforcement and monitoring is another important role that the government can play

through laws and regulations. This is often practiced through the control on offences,

i.e. to prosecute and stop illegal dumping. Most of the developed cities have their own

regulations in controlling illegal dumping (DECC, 2008b; Turley, 2007). Other

regulatory tools that the government can use in controlling waste include mandatory

licensing system, which requires waste to be treated and discarded at licensed facilities

and handled by licensed parties, and mandatory tracking system which requires

37

contractors, haulers and waste facility operators to take records on the inventory and

movement of waste (Angel, 2005; Ingalls, 2007; Spinka, 2004; Taylor, 2008; Turley,

2007; Waste Age, 2006).

Provision of Waste Treatment and Disposal Facilities

In the old days of construction waste management, waste facilities were provided only

by the government with no provision by the private sector. Unlike managing

municipal waste, the collection, separation and transportation of waste are usually

arranged by contractors. Many governments do not actually provide these services for

construction waste; however, they usually own and operate waste facilities, such as

open dumps or landfills (City of Sydney, 2008).

Phase II: The Early Stage of Construction Waste Industry Development

There was little doubt on the government’s responsibility in providing management

services to construction waste before the upwelling of waste generation which

surprised many of the governments. The cost of financing waste treatment and

disposal became really high which became a significant financial burden.

Governments then began to consider measures for waste reduction. They set targets

and gave directions to all government agencies and the private sector. Incentives,

including both financial and non-financial (i.e. voluntary and mandatory), were

provided to change the practices and behaviours of stakeholders in the private sector

and encouraged them to follow through the targets and directions set by the

governments. Many governments also began to involve the private sector in financing

the waste management costs, by very commonly, introducing charging on construction

38

waste based on the polluter-pay principle. This is an example of a financial incentive

that governments commonly adopted.

Targets and Directions Setting

The government gives directions to all governmental agencies and all stakeholders in

the private sector to manage construction waste. In many places, the government

issues waste management strategy which sets the overall goal and targets in waste

management. All levels of the government, public agencies and stakeholders in the

private sector would respond to the targets and waste management directions by

taking corresponding actions. For example, the UK Department for Environment,

Food and Rural Affairs published proposals for reducing the waste produced by the

UK’s construction industry every year and set a goal of a 50% cut in materials waste

going to landfills by the year 2012 (Waste Management World, 2007). The National

Federation of Demolition Contractors in the UK responded to the goal by

acknowledging the importance of waste recovery and its 161 corporate members has

now been recycling or reusing more than 90% of all waste from demolition sites in the

UK in the same year (Robinson, 2007).

Setting challenging yet achievable targets is the first step towards success in

construction waste reduction. Singapore has set a challenging goal of achieving zero

landfill. In only a few years, Singapore successfully achieved a 94% recycling of its

construction and demolition waste in 2005 and the construction and demolition waste

has taken up less than 10% of the total landfill loadings (Bergman, 2008; Teo, 2007).

39

Creating Incentives to the Private Sector

There are two main types of incentives that the government could commonly use to

shape the corresponding behaviors of stakeholders in the private sector – financial

incentives and non-financial incentives. Non-financial incentives include both

voluntary and mandatory measures. Branding and reward schemes are the common

non-financial voluntary incentives. Through granting individual parties industry-

recognized brand and rewards, the government encourages desirable waste

management practices in both private and public construction works (HIA, 2008;

MBAV, 2008). Mandatory measures include restricting the generation of waste to a

desirable level or requiring stakeholders to implement waste reduction practices. Not

all governments would choose to implement mandatory measures depending on their

political views in achieving waste reduction.

Common financial incentives include the waste charge which makes disposal a more

expensive option than waste reduction and recovery, and waste fine which penalizes

waste produced when the quantity is more than the permitted level (Robinson, 2007;

Spinka, 2004; Turley, 2007). One creative financial incentive is the deposit refund

system which requires contractors to post a deposit for the estimated recyclable

materials in their construction and demolition projects and they must demonstrate the

recycling of the estimated quantity to receive a deposit refund (Angel, 2005; Ingalls,

2007).

Adopted by almost every government who has demonstrated political view to reduce

construction waste, the charging scheme has internalized the costs of managing

construction waste to polluters who generate the waste. As costs change, stakeholders

in the construction sector supply chain would change their practices in order to reduce

40

the costs spent on waste management and disposal, such as, seeking for new

technologies and management practices or reducing the production.

In most cases, the actual social costs of managing and disposing construction waste

cannot be easily estimated without continuous trials and errors; however, adjusting the

charging rate frequently is not political acceptable. Politically, it is difficult to charge

the full costs of managing and disposing waste on the polluters. The charge is often

not decided economically but instead socially by engaging interest groups who may

have their vest interests weighted over environmental considerations.

More importantly, the generation of waste can only be best controlled and reduced to

an acceptable level at when the level of waste control is economically efficient. The

level of waste reduction induced by the introduction of waste charging could be way

below the target set by government, especially when the total costs of managing and

disposing waste takes up an insignificant portion of the total costs of the development

projects. Many governments in fact, set aggressive targets on reducing and recovering

construction waste and would like to minimize the generation of waste as much as

possible to release the urgency of their waste problems which are politically

threatening. For example, the target of zero construction waste is economically

inefficient and could hardly be achieved by simply introducing waste charging.

For governments who have strong political views to minimize construction waste may

choose to take mandatory measures to restrict the generation of waste to a desirable

level or require stakeholders to implement waste reduction practices at different stages

of construction. For example, many local governments in the United States have

implemented landfill ban on construction waste and have mandated construction and

41

demolition sites recycle at least 50 percent of the debris they generate (Turley, 2007).

The state government in New South Wales, Australia, also set a target of 76%

recovery in construction waste by 2014 (DECC, 2007). Table 2.51 provides more

information on waste reduction measures commonly adopted by governments

internationally.

Waste charging is a very crucial step in achieving successful construction waste

management. It makes the development of a local waste management industry

possible by generating new business opportunities. New businesses provide cost

savings to waste producers by managing and disposing waste at a cost lower than the

waste charge. The development of these new businesses in the private sector makes

construction waste management more effective and efficient by producing more

options and new innovations at different stages of the construction process.

The construction waste industry, however, requires time and effort to establish and

cultivate. The government plays a significant role as a facilitator to assist stakeholder

involvement in the industry and develop linkages among themselves. When the

industry is still at its early stage of development, the costs of entering the market and

the risk associated are relatively high due to lack of expertise, knowledge and

technologies, the immaturity of the administrative system, management system,

logistics and cooperation networks among stakeholders, and the absence of general

acceptance to new concepts and innovations. Therefore, the incentives for businesses,

except for opportunists, to enter the market would not be sufficient to fuel up the

growth of the industry without the assistance of governments. Besides the core roles

discussed above, the government should also implement a number of supportive

42

measures, including providing education and building awareness, fostering

communication, co-operation and information sharing among stakeholders, importing

technologies and exploring new innovations and supporting the creation of markets for

recycled materials to facilitate the development of a local construction waste industry.

At this early stage of the industry development, new businesses, including the supply

of waste handling equipments and the provision of more sophisticated waste

management facilities such as waste reuse, sorting and recycling facilities would first

be observed entering to the market and provide direct services and facilities for

treating waste. Table 2.61 lists out the roles of government and the private sector as

well as the participation of stakeholders at the early stage of construction waste

industry development.

Education on Waste Management Knowledge and Awareness Building

Many governments have consolidated and extended their role to provide education

and training to different stakeholders in the construction industry with the two primary

aims of providing waste management knowledge and building awareness on waste

reduction (CIC, 1996). Many governments conduct seminars and workshops as well as

training programmes and outreach programmes with certifications to qualified

participants, in cooperation with some industry associations. Closely interacting with

the industry, the government can understand the needs of the industry and the

challenges facing the different stakeholders. Governments could also share

experiences to the industry by conducting pilot projects and technical assistance could

be provided directly to contractors (DECC, 2008a; EcoRecycle Victoria, 2000, 2001;

EcoRecycle Victoria and MBAV, 2004; Ingalls, 2007; Robinson, 2007).

43

Fostering Communication, Co-operation and Information Sharing among

Stakeholders

To facilitate communication and to provide co-operation opportunities among

stakeholders in the construction and waste management industries, many governments

have provided a database of stakeholders involved in the construction, demolition and

waste management processes (City of Sydney, 2008; EcoRecycle Victoria, 2000;

WSN Environmental Solutions, 2008). Through the database, parties involved can

connect with their suppliers, clients, partners and even competitors.

Technological Innovations and Imports of Technologies

To encourage technological innovations on managing waste, including on-site

processing, sorting, recycling, energy recovery, bulk reduction, treatment, disposal

and many others, governments provide sponsorship to the industry (DECC, 2008a).

To learn about the latest technologies in waste management in the international market

and experiences in other countries, governments invite presentations from

international-wide waste management and technology companies or consultants to

bring in new management concepts and technologies for local considerations (Wong,

2008).

Supporting the Creation of Markets for Recycled Materials

One of the major barriers discouraging resource recycling is the lack of markets for

the recycled materials. As Greg Wirsen of Green Seal Environmental in Sandwich

stated in his article (Mel 2006, p.1) that “Commodities extracted from the waste

stream must offset the cost it takes to separate and process the material so that

recyclers can compete with local landfills, incinerators or exportation out of [a place]”.

44

Moreover, materials that are commonly recycled at one place could be difficult to be

recycled depending on economic realities of the local recycling industry. For example,

while the recycling of sheetrock is becoming more common in Europe, in the United

States, it is still difficult to find a viable, cost-effective aftermarket for the recycled

material (Ingalls, 2007; Taylor, 2008).

Local recycling industries in many countries have been pushing their governments for

more support on developing markets for recycled materials, especially for materials

whose markets have not yet be established (Einstein Network, 2002; Turley, 2007).

Moreover, many developed countries have stringent regulations on the materials used

in construction for ensuring qualified standards and safe structures (Turley, 2007).

Providing specifications for the use of recycled materials in construction projects in

the building Ordinance or other building regulations would therefore create a

promising aftermarket for recycled materials.

Recycled materials with a higher quality are more likely to have a market and would

be accepted for more types of uses. Governments could provide guidelines, offer

training and grant supports both financially and technologically to encourage better

source separation as well as to develop more proficient recycling technologies.

Phase III: Mature Stage of Construction Waste Industry Development

Overseas experiences of many developed countries demonstrated a phenomenon that

the involvement of private sector has increased once the waste management industry

has become more developed and matured. Feasible business opportunities are found

by the private sector when regulatory system, institutional setup, government’s

45

directions and business networks have been well established and that the market has

developed acceptance to waste reduction practices, the use of recycled materials as

well as the skills, knowledge and technologies on waste management. At that point,

the private sector can take a more active and predominant role in managing

construction waste, replacing governments in providing many of the supportive

services and facilities. Therefore, more government involvement is expected when

construction waste management is at the early stage of the industry development.

Greater involvement of the private sector would come in the later stage when the

industry matures.

The government could retreat its roles from implementing the supportive measures to

focusing its roles in providing the core functions, which could not be replaced by the

private sector (i.e. setting up legislative, institutional and administrative frameworks,

enforcement and monitoring setting targets and directions and creating incentives to

the private market). Table 2.61 lists out the roles of government and the private sector

as well as the participation of stakeholders at the mature stage of construction waste

industry development.

More variety of waste-related activities and innovations could be brought by the

private sector when new businesses are attracted to enter the market. For example,

waste solution companies or consultancies provide waste management solutions to

construction contractors; research and development companies develop new

management techniques and technologies to reduce and manage waste; and recyclers

could collect recyclables at a rate lower than the costs of disposal and so to allow

recycled products to be manufactured at a more competitive cost. Industry

associations focusing on concerned areas of the industry and some exchange platform

46

providers can also be set up for facilitating the growth of the industry and providing

assistance to stakeholders in the industry. Networks among stakeholders can be

established to allow better information flow across the industry and more

opportunities for co-operations. Knowledge and experiences as well as the public

awareness on waste management can also be built up. Figure 2.72 and Figure 2.73

portray the old days of construction waste management and the mature stage of a local

construction waste industry development, respectively, in a flow chart for

demonstrating the changes over time, including the stakeholders involved and the

changing environment of the industry.

In the recent decades, there has been a revolution for the privatization of waste

facilities and this trend has been fostered by the raise of national-wide and

international-wide waste management and technology providers. These facilities are

usually privately provided in forms of joint venture and BOT (i.e. build, operate and

transfer) (Pang, 2002). Contractors, therefore, are given more choices in handling their

waste in places where the local waste industry is more developed with both privately

and publicly provided services and facilities (City of Sydney, 2008).

Case Study in Australia

In Australia the private sector of waste management is very much developed. A

number of businesses as well as some non-governmental organizations can be found

related to all facets of waste management and the waste management sector takes up a

significant portion of employment in the country. National-wide and international-

wide waste management consultants such as Veolia Environmental Services, an

international resource recovery and waste management consultant company, Sydney

Recycling Centres, a city-wide local waste facilities and services providers and WSN

47

Environmental Solutions Australia, a stated-owned corporation in Sydney, have been

providing all facets of waste management services. These include waste collection,

separation, sorting, recycling, treatment and disposal. They also provide leasing

services of waste management equipments and operate a number of waste facilities

including transfer stations, sorting plants, recycling plants, treatment plants and

landfills (Sydney Recycling Centres , 2008; Veolia Environmental Services, 2008;

WSN Environmental Solutions Australia, 2008). The participation of the international-

wide waste management companies such as Veolia also brings in knowledge,

experiences and technologies in managing construction waste as well as innovative

waste solutions since these companies own the latest information and knowledge

about the international development of waste industry. They could also facilitate the

cooperation of a number of neighbouring administrative regions to manage their waste

regionally (WSN Environmental Solutions Australia, 2006).

Some non-governmental organizations and industry associations, for example, the

Waste Management Association of Australia, have been actively participating in the

development of the waste management industry. Together with other associations such

as the Housing Industry Association Greensmart and Master Builders Association of

Victoria, education and training programmes with industry certification have been

provided to different stakeholders. Industry awards and branded titles, such as HIA

Greensmart Brand and Master Builders Green Living Builders, have also awarded to

green builders and best-practice practitioners (HIA, 2008; MBAV, 2008; WMAA,

2008). Therefore, besides the government, the private sector can also create incentives

for waste reduction and provide education within the industry. WMAA (2007) has

also developed guidelines to enable the industry to respond to difficulties and

challenges as the industry evolves.

48

With the active involvement of the private sector, more technological innovations and

management techniques are evident due to the profit-driven and competitive business

environment. Plastics Industry Pipe Association of Australia Limited, an industry

association in plastics pipe, has developed technologies to recycle post-consumer

plastic pipes into non-pressure pipes or converted into foam core pipe which could be

reused in constructing new buildings (Sydney Recycling Centres, 2005; PIPA, 2008).

The establishment of these industry associations and non-governmental organizations

create platforms for communication and co-operation among the stakeholders. Some

of these organizations have developed a strong base in the industry with members

from a wide range of sectors that they can connect with both vertically and

horizontally within a sector or conglomerated across sectors (HIA, 2008; MBAV,

2008; PIPA, 2008; WMAA, 2008). Some government agencies are also members.

Having developed a network of stakeholders, some self-motivated, community

networks, such as Construction Connect and Recycling Near You, have developed

platforms for stakeholders to trade construction and recycled materials and have

provided creative ideas to reuse and recycle construction materials (Construction

Connect, 2008; Recycling Near You, 2008).

Other services provided by the private sector include some voluntary legal consulting

services. Environmental Defender’s Office Limited is an example of a non-profit

community legal centre providing legal services on waste management (EDO, 2008).

Table 2.61: Evolution of the Roles of Government and the Roles of the Private Sector by Thee Development Stages of Construction Waste Industry

Old Days – No Waste Industry Exist Early Stage of Industry Development Mature Stage of Well-Developed Industry

Core Roles of Government • Setting up Legislative Framework • Setting up Institutional and Administrative

Frameworks • Enforcement and Monitoring • Provision of Waste Treatment and

Disposal Facilities

• Setting up Legislative Framework • Setting up Institutional and Administrative

Frameworks • Enforcement and Monitoring • Provision of Waste Treatment and

Disposal Facilities • Targets and Directions Setting • Creating Incentives to the Private Market,

e.g. financial (e.g. waste charging) and non-financial (i.e. voluntary and mandatory)

• Setting up Legislative Framework • Setting up Institutional and Administrative

Frameworks • Enforcement and Monitoring • Targets and Directions Setting • Creating Incentives to the Private Market,

e.g. financial (e.g. waste charging) and non-financial (i.e. voluntary and mandatory)

Other Supportive or Optional Roles of Government

------ ------

Supportive Measures should be Taken by the Government: • Education on Waste Management

Knowledge and Awareness Building • Fostering communication, co-operation

and information sharing among stakeholders

• Technological innovations and imports of technologies

• Creation of markets for recycled materials

Optional Roles of Government which could be Taken up by the Private Sector: • Provision of Waste Treatment and

Disposal Facilities • Education on Waste Management

Knowledge and Awareness Building • Fostering communication, co-operation

and information sharing among stakeholders

• Technological innovations and imports of technologies

• Creation of markets for recycled materials

Other Stakeholders Involved in the Industry

• Developers • Materials Suppliers • Machines Suppliers • Labour Training Institutions • Construction Contractors • Construction Labours • Haulers • Scavengers • Property Companies

• Developers • Materials Suppliers • Machines Suppliers • Waste Handling Equipment Suppliers • Labour Training Institutions • Waste Management and Solutions

Companies or Consultants • Construction Contractors • Construction Labours

• Developers • Materials Suppliers • Machines Suppliers • Waste Handling Equipment Suppliers • Labour Training Institutions • Environmental Training Agencies • Waste Management and Solutions

Companies or Consultants • Construction Contractors

49

Old Days – No Waste Industry Exist Early Stage of Industry Development Mature Stage of Well-Developed Industry Other Stakeholders Involved in the Industry

• End Users

• Haulers • Scavengers • Recycling Companies or Recyclers • Property Companies • End Users • Other Businesses

• Construction Labours • Haulers • Scavengers • Recycling Companies or Recyclers • Property Companies • End Users • Exchange Platforms • Research and Development Companies • Waste Technologies Providers • Industry Associations for Various

Concerned Areas • Other Businesses

Roles of the Private Sector • Waste Collection • Waste Collection • Waste Collection • Waste Transportation • Waste Separation • Waste Separation • Primitive Practices on Waste Reuse and

Recycling by Scavengers • Waste Transportation • Waste Transportation • More Sophisticated Waste Reuse,

Sorting and Recycling • More Sophisticated Waste Reuse,

Sorting and Recycling • Provision of Waste Treatment Facilities,

e.g. sorting and recycling • Waste Treatment and Disposal • Creating Incentives to Manage Waste

• Education on Waste Management Knowledge and Awareness Building

• Fostering Communication, Co-operation and Information Sharing among Stakeholders

• Technological Innovations and Imports of Technologies

• Creation of Markets for Recycled Materials

• Provision of Waste Treatment and Disposal Facilities

• Targets and Directions Setting

50

Figure 2.61: Flow Chart Showing the Early Stage of Construction Waste Industry Development

• Legislative Framework • Institutional and

Administrative Frameworks • Enforcement and Monitoring

Government

Developer Government

Materials Supplier

Machine Supplier

Labour Labour Training

Scavenger

Disposal Facility

Operated by Government

Hauler

End User

Property Company

Contractor

51

Figure 2.62: Flow Chart Showing the Mature Stage of Construction Waste Industry Development

• Legislative Framework • Institutional & Administrative

Frameworks • Enforcement and Monitoring • Targets and Directions • Waste Reduction Initiatives • Waste Charging and other Incentives

• Strong Environmental Awareness and Knowledge on Construction Waste Management • Well-Developed Network and Linkages and Good

Information Flows among Stakeholders • Waste Management Technologies and Innovations,

e.g. Low-Waste Construction, Sorting, Recycling, Disposal and etc.

Government

Industry Associations

R & D

Exchange Platform

GovernmentDeveloper

Waste Mgt. & Solution Company

MachineSupplier

Labour Labour Training

Scavenger

Waste Treatment and Disposal Facilities

operated by Government or Private Sector

End User

Property Company

ContractorEnv. Equip.

Supplier

Hauler

Materials Supplier

Env. Mgt. Training

Recycler

52

53

2.7 The Roles of Different Stakeholders in Construction Waste Management

From the discussion in chapter 2.6, a number of stakeholders are involved in the

construction waste management process. Each of them involved take different roles in

construction projects with very different objectives. Figure 2.71 provides a summary

of stakeholders involved in the construction waste management process together with

their objectives, roles in construction projects and roles in construction waste

management at different stages of construction.

In construction projects the government apart from playing a core role (as discussed in

chapter 2.6), is also a client. Developers and the government can initiate construction

projects specifying what, how and where to construct. Project designers can design

how construction projects are built and what construction methods should be adopted

by developers and the government. Construction contractors, moreover, manage and

carry out construction operations, including site layout planning, logistic planning, etc.

The suppliers provide machines, construction materials and waste handling

equipments to construction contractors. Labour training institutions provide qualified

construction labours to the industry and they carry out construction works, such as

scaffolding, formwork and cement forming. Environmental and waste management

agencies provide training and education to construction staffs and other stakeholders

in the industry with knowledge and skills on waste management. Waste management

and solutions companies provide waste management plans and other waste services to

contractors to manage their waste. Scavengers pick up recyclables from construction

sites for reuse or recycling. Haulers transport collected waste and recyclables to

designated facilities for further processing. Recyclers recycle collected materials into

new products. Private waste facility companies operate waste facilities such as sorting,

54

recycling and disposal facilities. Research and development companies develop new

technologies on waste facilities and innovations on the use of materials in construction,

low-waste construction methods and waste management concepts. Exchange platform

providers provide communication platforms for information sharing across the

industry and facilities co-operation opportunities across stakeholders. Industry

associations are set up with attention focused on specific concerned areas for

providing benefits to the industry. Finally, property companies market the property to

end users and end users make purchasing decision on new constructions which might,

in return, affect the developers’ decision on what, where and how to build.

Taking part in construction works, the government is intending to provide benefits to

the general public while all other stakeholders in the private sector are doing their

business in construction for profit making, except for the labour training institutions

and environmental and waste management training agency, industry associations,

exchange platform providers which might be running for profit making or they are

voluntary efforts to provide benefits to the industry. It is worth paying attention to

stakeholders whose primary objectives is for profit making and whether they would

implement waste reduction and management practices. They would only change their

practices if the measures offered some co-benefits which could benefit their

businesses, such as cost-saving, compliance to legislations, meeting safety

requirements and building company’s image. There is hardly any incentive for them to

implement waste reduction measures only for environmental protection since making

profit is their primary objective although environmental responsibility has been

promoting to the industry worldwide in many countries. Figure 2.71 provides a list of

specific actions that each stakeholder could take to reduce and mange construction

waste.

Table 2.71: Roles of Stakeholders Involved in Construction Waste Management

Stakeholder Objective Role in Construction Projects Roles in Construction Waste Management Government Doing for the benefits of the society

and the general public - Setting up legislative, institutional

and administrative frameworks; - Enforcement and monitoring; - Targets and directions setting; - Providing waste treatment and

disposal facilities; - Government is also a client who

initiates construction projects and specify what, how and where the construction should be built

- Managing waste by legislative and administrative measures - Mandating waste reduction practices for construction projects by

legislations - Waste reduction targets and directions setting by formulating

waste reduction plans, strategies and policies ; - Creating both financial and non-financial incentives to the private

market to reduce construction waste - Providing waste treatment and disposal facilities; - Educating stakeholders knowledge on waste management and

awareness building, e.g. workshops, leaflets, guidelines and etc. - Fostering communication, co-operation and information sharing

among stakeholders; - Technological innovations and imports of waste technologies; - Supporting the creation of markets for recycled materials; - As a client of construction projects, government could specify

waste reduction requirements in the project specifications and project tenders;

- Adding credits to low-waste designs and contractors with good waste management practices in the bidding procedure of projects

Developer Profit making; Primary concern is to

build, sell and earn profits; prefer short project schedule and cost saving

- a client of construction contractors who initiates construction projects and specify what, how and where the construction should be built

- As a client of construction projects, government could specify waste reduction requirements in the project specifications and project tenders

- Involving both project designers and construction contractors in the planning of construction projects so that they could exchange experiences and knowledge on low-waste construction methods and designs

- Prioritizing waste reduction in policy agenda and adding credits to low-waste designs and contractors with good waste management practices in the bidding procedure of projects;

- Complying to laws

Project Designer Profit making; Meeting specifications required by clients (i.e. developers or government)

- Designing how construction project to be built and construction methods for developers

- Incorporating low-waste design options in the project design plan; Incorporating opinions from construction contractors who have a better knowledge on construction works and operations on-site

55

Stakeholder Objective Role in Construction Projects Roles in Construction Waste Management

Materials Supplier

Profit Making; Primary concern is to sell materials as many as possible for profits

- Selling construction materials to construction contractors

- Advising contractors with the right amount of materials and arranging for taking back surplus materials at an agreed price;

- Minimizing packaging materials used in protecting materials for transporting

Machine Supplier

Profit Making; Primary concern is to sell construction machines and equipments as many as possible for profits

- Selling construction machines and equipments to construction contractors

- Promoting low-waste machines and machines for low-waste construction methods to contractors;

- Arranging maintenance and take-back services to their machines; - Using recycled materials in producing new construction materials

Waste Handling Equipment Supplier

Profit Making; Primary concern is to sell waste handling equipments as many as possible for profits

- Selling waste handling equipments or providing lending services of waste handling equipments, e.g. waste containers, to construction contractors

- Promoting to construction contractors the use of waste handling equipments, for example, in sorting and storing construction waste on-site more efficiently;

- Selling waste handling equipments or providing lending services of waste handling equipments, e.g. waste containers, to construction contractors

Waste Management and Solutions Company

Profit Making; Primary concern is to sell waste management concepts and solutions to contractors for profits

- Selling waste management and reduction plans, suggestions and solutions to construction contractors during the construction;

- Providing waste management services to construction contractors

- Providing waste management and reduction plans, suggestions and solutions and other waste management services to construction contractors during the construction;

- Providing waste reduction and minimization advises to developers, government and contractors on the design and planning of construction projects

Labour Training Institution

Could be driven by profit-making or voluntary to provide benefits to the industry and society; Primary concern is to train qualified labours for construction works

- Training labours for construction industry, including scaffolding, formwork, cement forming and etc.

- Granting certifications and qualifications to qualified labours

- Training labours with low-waste construction methods and skills required

- Granting certifications and qualifications to qualified labours who could carrying out low-waste construction methods and educated with waste management knowledge and awareness for construction operations

Environmental and Waste Management Training Agency

Could be driven by profit-making or voluntary to provide benefits to the industry and society; Primary concern is to educate stakeholders with environmental and waste management knowledge

- Providing education to stakeholders on environmental and waste management knowledge, training stakeholders with waste management skills and providing latest information on management concepts and technologies;

- Providing education to stakeholders on environmental and waste management knowledge, training stakeholders with waste management skills and providing latest information on management concepts and technologies;

- Providing certifications and qualifications to qualified labours and companies with good waste management practices, e.g. green certifications, practitioner branding and labeling, award scheme

56

Stakeholder Objective Role in Construction Projects Roles in Construction Waste Management

Environmental and Waste Management Training Agency

- Providing certifications and qualifications to qualified labours, e.g. green certifications, practitioner branding and labeling, award scheme and etc.

and etc. to encourage waste reduction initiatives across the industry

Construction Labour

Working for salary and job satisfaction

- Carrying out construction works on-site, including scaffolding, formwork, cement forming and etc.

- Conducting waste management practices on-site which facilitate waste reduction, such as minimizing contamination of recycled materials, selective demolition, carefully manage and use the materials to avoid wasting, and etc.

Construction Contractor

Profit Making; Prefer short and well-scheduled project time and cost saving

- Managing and carrying out construction operations, including site layout planning, logistic planning and etc.

- Conducting and Managing waste reduction practices on-site during construction operations;

- Incorporating waste management plan and waste reduction measures in the site layout plan and logistic plan during the planning stage;

- Suggesting to developers or government waste reduction construction methods and practices;

- Building linkages to other stakeholders in the supply chain to maximize the chances for reusing surplus materials and recycling recyclables by transporting materials to places who can utilize them

- Promoting awareness on waste reduction to construction staffs

Hauler Profit Making; Prefer to save costs by traveling shorter distance than initially required by projects

- Transporting recyclables and construction waste to designated destinations

- Avoiding flytpping and transporting waste to designated sites; - Coordinating with construction constructors to transport waste to

places which could utilize the construction waste for other purposes

Scavenger Profit Making; Prefer to pick up

uncontaminated recyclables as many as possible for profits

- Picking up recyclables with good market and high value for reselling them to recyclers

- Picking up recyclables with good market and high value for reselling them to recyclers;

- Coordinating with construction contractors for sorting waste sand picking up recyclables

Recycler Profit Making; Prefer to recycle

materials at low cost and sell them at a price that could make a profit;

- Recycling collected construction waste into new products, e.g. rock pieces and concrete are recycled

- Coordinating with construction contractors, scavengers and haulers to pick up waste from construction sites;

- Developing and importing technologies to recycle wider range of

57

Stakeholder Objective Role in Construction Projects Roles in Construction Waste Management

Recycler Prefer to have a bigger market receiving recycled products

into aggregates for cement production

waste; - Coordinating and promoting to materials manufacturers to use the

recycled products for producing new products; - Assuring the recycled products are in qualified standard which

could be reused in high-value purposes

Private Waste Facility Provider or Operator

Profit Making; Prefer to have constant supply of waste to utilize the facilities

- Providing or operating waste facilities such as sorting, recycling and disposal facilities

- Providing or operating waste facilities such as sorting, recycling and disposal facilities;

- Investing and importing wider range of waste facilities, for examples, sorting facilities which could sort out wider range of waste with different sizes, recycling facilities which could accept more types of waste and etc.,

- Marking sure all waste are accepted and treated according to their designated ways by the legislations

Research and Development Company

Profit Making; Prefer to develop new technologies which would be demanded by the market

- Developing new technologies such as sorting, recycling and disposal facilities which might be demanded by the market and providing innovations on the use of materials in construction, low-waste construction methods and waste management concepts

- Developing new technologies such as sorting, recycling and disposal facilities to treat waste efficiently and providing innovations on the use of materials in construction, low-waste construction methods and waste management concepts

Exchange Platform Provider

Could be driven by profit-making or voluntary to provide benefits to the industry; Prefer to link up as many stakeholders as possible in the industry

- Providing communication platform for exchanging information across the industry and sharing contacts among stakeholders in the industry so that better linkages and communications could be established and potential businesses suppliers, clients and partners could be networked

- Providing communication platform for exchanging information across the industry and sharing contacts among stakeholders in the industry so that better linkages and communications could be established and potential businesses suppliers, clients and partners could be networked

- Encouraging networking of materials suppliers, project contractors and waste facility provider to trade waste for new purposes and to avoid wasting

Property Company

Profit making; Primary concern is to sell property at high price

- Marketing the new construction to the market and selling them for profits

- Marketing to the end buyers the benefits of low-waste construction and waste management practices implemented during the construction to the end buyers;

- Promoting to the end buyers the benefits of waste management

58

Stakeholder Objective Role in Construction Projects Roles in Construction Waste Management

Property Company

and reduction and the concept of socially and environmentally responsible purchasing

End Users/ Consumers

Purchasing property with desired properties at low price

- Purchasing desired properties - Prioritizing waste reduction in purchasing decisions

Industry Association

Providing benefits to the industry - Providing latest information and - Developing a waste reduction culture or norm in the industry; news about the industry to - Providing latest information and news about the industry on waste stakeholders in the industry; management to stakeholders in the industry;

- Providing assistance and supporting - Providing assistance and supporting services to the industry to services to the industry; manage waste;

- Providing training and education to - Providing training and education to stakeholders on waste stakeholders in the industry; management in the industry;

- Providing a platform for information - Fostering communication, co-operation and information sharing exchanging and communication among stakeholders by encouraging information sharing, co-among stakeholders; operations and communication among stakeholders;

- Providing branding, labeling, awards - Providing certifications and qualifications to qualified labours and and certifications to qualified companies with good waste management practices, e.g. green stakeholders in the industry on certifications, practitioner branding and labeling, award scheme various concerned areas; and etc. to encourage waste reduction initiatives across the

- Promoting and encouraging industry; research and development on - Promoting and encouraging research and development on inventing more effective waste inventing more effective waste reduction technologies reduction technologies

* Stakeholders with their primary objective for profit making would implement waste reduction and management practices only if the measures offer some co-

benefits which may be of interest to the stakeholders.

59

60

VI. CONSTRUCTION WASTE MANAGEMENT IN HONG KONG

3.1. Waste Crisis: The Problem of Construction Waste

Interpretation of Construction Waste

According to the waste classification and terminology used in Monitoring of Solid

Waste in Hong Kong – Waste Statistics for 2006 published by the Environmental

Protection Department (2007), solid waste is classified into five types according to the

sources of waste and the arrangement for waste handling. These five types of solid

waste are municipal solid waste, construction waste, chemical waste, special waste

and other solid waste. Construction waste (previously known as construction &

demolition waste), according to this publication is defined as “a mixture of surplus

materials arising from site clearance, excavation, construction, refurbishment,

renovation, demolition and road works. Over 80% of construction waste is inert,

which include debris, rubble, earth and concrete, are suitable for land reclamation and

site formation. When sorted, materials such as concrete and asphalt can be recycled

for use in construction. The remaining non-inert substances, which include bamboo,

timber, vegetation, packaging waste and other organic materials, are not suitable for

land reclamation and are disposed of at landfills (EPD 2007a, pp. 17-18).”

Problems with Construction Waste

1) Construction Waste Takes Up a Significantly High Portion of Landfills

According to monitoring statistics from 1996 to 2006, in Monitoring of Solid Waste in

Hong Kong – Waste Statistics, published by the Environmental Protection Department

61

(1997 – 2007), construction waste took up a portion of more than one-third to almost

half of the waste disposed of at the three existing landfills (Figure 3.11). Although the

waste charging scheme on construction waste has been effective since January 2006

and only waste containing no more than 50% by weight of inert construction waste

could be accepted at landfills, construction waste still took up 27% of all waste

disposed of at landfills in 2006 (EPD, 2007a). From 1996 to 2005, the total

construction waste disposed of at landfills remained high by weight and it was over

6000 tonnes per day (EPD 1996, 1997, 1998a, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 204,

2005, 2006) (Figure 3.12).

2) Stockpiling of Inert Materials in Fill Banks

Currently, more-than 80% of inert materials in construction waste are chemically

stable materials which are transported to the two fill banks, Tseung Kwan O Area 138

and Tuen Mun Area 38 for temporary banking. These materials can be reused for land

reclamation, site formation, site stabilization at reclaimed sites and other earth-filling

projects such as paving of road base in road projects (EPD, 2008b; Fong, 2008).

In the last decade, the amount of total construction waste generated has swelled up

from 30510 tonnes per day in 1996 to 58767 tonnes per day in 2005 (EPD, 1997,

2006). Among this surge, the percentage disposed of at public fill reception facilities

has increased from 75% in 1996 to 89% in 2005 (Ibid.). The total amount of inert

materials being received at public fill reception facilities has increased dramatically in

the past decade from 22990 tonnes per day in 1996 to 52211 tonnes per day in 2005

(Ibid.). The total construction waste disposed of at landfills per day has remained at

the level between 6500 tonnes to 7500 tonnes per day. Figure 3.13 shows the daily

construction waste being received at landfills and the public fill reception facilities.

62

Figure 3.11 Percentage Share of Construction Waste in Landfills (1996 – 2006)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Year 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006% 49 42 42 44 42 38 48 38 38 37 27

Source: (EPD 1997, 1998a, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 204, 2005, 2006, 2007a)

Figure 3.12 Construction Waste Disposed of at Landfills Daily by Weight (tpd) (1996 – 2006)

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Year 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006tpd 7520 6480 7030 7890 7480 6410 10202 6728 6595 6556 4125

Source: (EPD 1997, 1998a, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 204, 2005, 2006, 2007a)

63

However, the Protection of the Harbour Ordinance, in effect starting June 1997, fights

against any reclamation in Hong Kong (SPH, 2004). Losing the largest reception of

the fill materials, inert materials have been increasingly stockpiled at the fill banks.

Unfortunately, there are limited outlets for these inert materials. They would not be

reused in all private projects in Hong Kong and public projects do not require these fill

materials, thus the total amount being reused in public projects remains very low

(Chan 2008; Fong, 2008). Recently, this problem has deteriorated due to the absence

of any reclamation works or large-scale earth filling projects reusing these inert

materials.

The charging scheme on construction waste effective since 2006 and diverts inert

materials from landfills to fill banks since waste containing more than 50% by weight

of inert construction waste will not be accepted at landfills. Inert materials need to be

sorted out at sorting facilities either operated by the government or by the private

sector and these inert materials are then transported to fill banks (EPD, 2008c; Fong,

2008).

Owing to the above factors, inert materials have been increasingly stockpiled at fill

banks. Among all construction waste being received at all public fill reception

facilities as shown in Figure 3.13 (the orange area), fill banks have been stockpiled

with increasing amounts of inert materials from 0.68 million tonnes per year in 2002

to 6.62 million tonnes per year in 2005 as shown in Figure 3.14 (CEDD, 2008a; EPD

2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006). Figure 3.14 shows the annual disposal of

construction waste at different reception facilities. To further illustrate the significant

amount of inert materials being received at public fill reception facilities, Figure 3.15

shows that the total inert materials disposed of at public fill reception facilities have

64

been more than double of all waste (i.e. including municipal waste) being disposed of

at the landfills between 1996 and 2005 (EPD 1997, 1998a, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,

2003, 2004, 2005, 2006).

Currently, Hong Kong ships some of these inert materials to Toi Shan in China as a

temporary resort. Hong Kong has also been paying for the shipping cost and

compensation to Toi Shan for receiving these inert materials (Chan, 2008a; Fong,

2008; Ng, 2008). Dealing with these inert materials is costly and the cost of allocating

big pieces of land, which could be used for other purposes, for storing these materials

is high. Treating these inert materials, especially the soft inert materials which are

difficult to recycle into new products and have low market value, is the biggest

obstacle in dealing with construction waste in Hong Kong.

3) Current Move Only Diverts Construction Waste from Landfills to Fill Banks

The charging scheme on construction waste taken into effect January 2006 was

intended to reduce construction waste generation through the creation of financial

incentives to prevent, minimize, reuse and recycle waste. This charging scheme,

however, does not create effective economic incentives for developers to adopt waste

management strategies in the planning and design of their construction projects,

according to the findings obtained from interviewing various targeted stakeholders

(Chan, 2008a; Chan 2008b; Fong, 2008; Kwan, 2008; Ng, 2008; Tse, 2008). This

scheme predominately targets contractors during the construction stage. To reduce the

cost of disposal, contractors have incentives to separate inert materials from

construction waste and dispose them at fill banks which accept fill materials at a rate

4.5 times less than disposing these materials into the landfills (i.e. $125/ tonnes at

landfills, $27/ tonnes at fill banks) while about 80% to 90% of construction waste are

65

inert materials (Ng, 2008; Tse, 2008). Instead of reducing the overall generation of

construction waste, the charging scheme has been working to divert inert materials

from landfills to the fill banks. Inert materials diverted from the landfills would then

be banked up at the fill banks if they are not reused in other projects.

Figure 3.13 Construction Waste Disposed of at Landfills and Public Fill Reception Facilities Daily by Weight (tpd) (1996 – 2006)

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

45000

50000

55000

60000

65000

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Landfills Public Fill Reception Facilities

Year 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

30510 28430 32710 37110 37690 38840 45385 51710 55993 58767 29884Total (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%)

7520 6480 7030 7890 7480 6410 10202 6728 6595 6556 4125 Landfills (25%) (23%) (21%) (21%) (20%) (17%) (22%) (13%) (12%) (11%) (14%)

22990 21950 25680 29220 30210 32430 35183 44982 49398 52211 25759

Con

stru

ctio

n w

aste

(tp

d)

Public Fill Reception Facilities (75%) (77%) (79%) (79%) (80%) (83%) (78%) (87%) (88%) (89%) (86%)

* Public Fill Reception Facilities include fill banks and fill reception areas (including

reclamation sites, ground filling projects)

Source: (EPD 1997, 1998a, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 204, 2005, 2006, 2007a)

66

Figure 3.14 Total Annual Construction Waste Disposed of at Different Waste Facilities by Weight (million tones per year) (1996 – 2006)

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Disposed of at Lanf ills Reused in Reclamation/ Earth Filling Projects

Stockpiled in Fill Banks Resued in East Sha Wan Mud Pit Capping

Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

13.78 14.18 16.36 19.6 20.48 21.44 Total (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%)

2.73 2.34 3.72 2.45 2.41 2.39 Landfills (20%) (17%) (23%) (13%) (12%) (11%)

11.05 11.84 11.96 10.59 9.33 9.75 Reclamation and Earth Filling (80%) (83%) (73%) (54%) (46%) (45%)

0 0 0.68 6.44 7.07 6.62 Fill Banks (0%) (0%) (4%) (33%) (35%) (31%)

0 0 0 0.12 1.67 2.68

Con

stru

ctio

n w

aste

(m

illio

n to

nne

per y

ear)

East Sha Wan Mud Pit Capping (0%) (0%) (0%) (1%) (8%) (13%)

* Public Fill Reception Facilities (Orange Area in Figure 3.4) include fill banks, reclamation

and earth filling and mud pit capping projects. * Construction Waste Disposal in Figure 3.4 is presented in a unit of tonne per day and that

in Figure 3.5 is presented in a unit of million tonne per year. The figures in Figure 3.4 can be converted to match up with the figures in Figure 3.5 by multiplying a factor of 365 days (i.e. one year = 365 days)

Source: (CEDD, 2008a; EPD 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006)

67

Figure 3.15 Waste Disposed of at Landfills and at Public Fill Reception Facilities Daily by Weight (tpd) (1996 – 2006)

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

45000

50000

55000

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Construction Waste Disposed at Public Fill FacilitiesTotal Wastes Disposed at Landf illsConstruction Wastes Disposed at Landf ills

Source: (EPD 1997, 1998a, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 204, 2005, 2006)

68

69

Although the total construction waste disposed of at both public fill reception facilities

and landfills dropped in 2006, no studies or assessments have been conducted to prove

that this reduction is statistically significantly and attributed to the charging scheme

taken into effect at the beginning of the same year. Other factors including flytipping

and a drop in the number and scale of development projects have higher impacts on

the overall generation of construction waste.

4) Over-Reliance of Imports for Construction Materials

Hong Kong is currently under a threat of impeding supply of rock pieces, aggregates

and sand. Currently, more than 50% of rock pieces and aggregates for construction are

imported from China and almost 100% of sand is imported from Siu Hing, China.

China banned the export of sand last year, except for Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau.

In addition, the price of construction materials in general has increased significantly in

recent years. China has been rapidly developing also needs enormous amounts of both

rock pieces and sand for development. There also exists a shortage in the world

market. Countries such as Singapore and Malaysia have run out of the supply of sand

locally and now import sand for construction (Fong, 2008). The current practice of

Hong Kong would lead to its continued reliance on virgin materials imported outside

of Hong Kong with prices increasing every year; while enormous amounts of inert

materials can be reused in new construction projects, many are being dumped as waste

or stockpiled at fill banks as low-value material (Chan 2001; Fong 2008).

70

3.2 Shift of Management Approach on Construction Waste

The old management approach of construction waste relied on the provision of

sufficient infrastructure for final disposal of construction waste and the enforcement of

regulations to fight against illegal dumping. The Waste Disposal Ordinance and the

Dumping at the Sea Ordinance have been enforced by the government as two pieces

of major legislations on construction waste management in Hong Kong. The

objectives of these Ordinances are to control the proper handling and disposal of waste

and to prevent illegal dumping in the Territory (Chan, 2001).

In the early 1970s, the government began to provide designated open areas at

reclaimed land for the disposal of construction waste. As the demand for infrastructure

to dispose of the increasing generation of construction waste produced by the rapid

development was increased, the government undertook the public filling strategy in

1992 at which the government looked for public dumping areas as designated areas for

accepting public fill. These dumping areas were usually land reclamation sites, site

formation projects or newly reclaimed land where public fill could be stockpiled as

surcharging materials to accelerate the settlement process (Chan, 2001; Chek, 1999).

These public dumps were provided free-of-charge and no restrictions were made on

the quality of disposed materials. As a result, the disposed materials were usually

mixed with refuse and other mixed construction waste which would not be qualified as

public fill according to the current standards. Many reclamation sites were formed by

these means of public filling. They include the Western Reclamation, Central

Reclamation, Aldrich Bay Reclamation, Kowloon Bay Reclamation, etc. (Ibid.).

71

Disposing at landfills was another free-of-charge option in dealing with construction

waste. Construction waste was usually transported to a disposal ground (i.e. landfills

and public dumps) which were closer to construction sites. Despite the

implementation of the public filling strategy, a large proportion of construction waste

was disposed of at landfills and the situation became uncontrolled in the early 1990s

(Chan, 2001). Up to 77% and 65% of construction waste was disposed of at landfills

in 1991 and 1994, respectively (EPD, 1992, 1995).

In response to this, a change in the management approach on construction waste was

implemented by the launching of the Waste Reduction Framework Plan (WRFP) in

1998. In addition to the provision of infrastructure for final disposal, the attention

shifted to diverting waste from landfills. Public dumps were renamed as public filling

areas. Public filling materials were renamed as public fill. Barging points were

allocated to provide convenient access to accept inert materials and transfer public fill

from road vehicles to marine-based public filling areas. Filling materials from

construction waste began to be seen as useful materials for earth filling works. There

were also more stringent requirements on the quality of public fill which could be

accepted at the public fill reception facilities. Up until that time, however, efforts have

been made primarily on diverting construction waste from landfills to fill banks and

other public filling areas (Chan, 2001; EPD, 1998b).

Due to the lack of strong a political view and the robust administrative procedure

within the government, it took almost a decade for the government to take the next

move – the waste charging scheme on construction in 2006, even though four

measures (i.e. landfill charging scheme, on-site/ off-site sorting of construction waste,

reuse and recycling of construction waste and avoiding and minimizing construction

72

waste through better design and construction management) were proposed in the

WRFP as early as in 1998. According to the polluter-pay principle, waste charging is a

proper move to create incentives to the industry to start paying attention to

construction waste management since it will no longer be free. However, it is only the

very first step. Based on the findings from overseas experiences and the interviews

with some targeted stakeholders, construction waste charging would only work for

diverting inert materials from landfills to fill banks without other supportive

regulations and administrative measures, such as enforcement on flytipping, creation

of markets for recyclables, technological innovations on reuse and recycling materials,

skill transfer, education and many others (Chan, 2008b; Kwan, 2008; Tse, 2008). Up

to the present, no particular actions were made to prevent, minimize, reuse or recycle

the construction waste. However, the importance of shifting the emphasis from

providing infrastructure for final disposal to waste prevention and the reusing and

recycling of waste materials was realized by the government more than a decade ago

(Ibid.).

73

3.3 Institutional Framework

Issues related to construction waste management in Hong Kong are primarily

managed under the jurisdictions of four bureaus. These include the Environment

Bureau, the Food and Hygiene Bureau, the Security Bureau and the Works Bureau

under the authorities of the Secretary for the Environment, the Secretary for Food and

Health, the Secretary for Security and the Secretary for Development, respectively.

Figure 3.31 maps out the responsible bureaus and departments in the organization

chart of the HKSAR Government to illustrate the distribution of powers and duties in

the government organization. Table 3.31 lists out the duties related to construction

waste management for the bureaus and the departments.

Environmental Protection Department (EPD) and Civil Engineering and Development

Department (CEDD)

The Environment Bureau oversees the protection of the environment. The Works

Bureau oversees the development in Hong Kong and it specifies codes of practices

and requirements for public projects. The Environmental Protection Department (EPD)

and the Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD) under which,

respectively, are the two major departments that are authorized by the Waste Disposal

Ordinance (Cap. 354) with powers to manage construction waste and provide waste

facilities. The EPD deals with issues related to mixed construction waste which is

material that is regarded as having no reuse or recycling value that needs to be

disposed of. The CEDD, on the other hand, oversees and pays special interest to the

management of public fill as there are materials which could be reused in construction

and development projects. The Fill Management Division and the Public Fill

74

Committee (PFC) are the two working teams which are responsible for the

management of public fill (CEDD, 2008b; EPD, 2008c).

The duties of implementing measures to promote avoidance, minimization, re-use and

recycling of construction waste, however, are hardly divided clearly between the two

departments. Most of the management measures on construction waste are also jointly

implemented by the two departments.

Provision of Facilities

Waste facilities are planned and managed by both the EPD and the CEDD. The EPD

plans and manages the existing three landfills and the seven outlying transfer stations

for the disposal of mixed construction waste. The CEDD plans and manages public fill

reception waste facilities and sorting facilities including two fill banks, two barging

points and one recycling facility for transporting, stockpiling and recycling of inert

materials as well as two sorting facilities for sorting construction waste (Ibid.).

Charging Scheme on Construction Waste

The EPD is responsible for the implementation of the charging scheme on

construction waste. Their duties include the promotion of the scheme, the handling of

account applications, keeping track of accounts, etc. The CEDD also assists in the

implementation of the charging scheme on construction waste by handling

applications for vessels to be approved for delivering inert construction waste to

public fill reception facilities (Ibid).

75

Trip-Ticket System

Both the EPD and the CEDD are involved in the implementation the trip-ticket system

as required for public projects. The trip-ticket system is a recording system for orderly

disposal of construction waste to designated disposal facilities by trucks. A receipt is

issued to the vehicle operator or returned to the project representative for verification

of the contractor's compliance with the policy requirements (EPD, 2008d). For the

implementation of the system, the EPD designates landfill facilities for the disposal of

non-inert materials equal or more than 50m3. The EPD is also responsible for advising

the acceptance criteria of the landfill facilities; whereas the CEDD designates disposal

ground for the disposal of inert materials (ETWB, 2004).

Public Fill Management

In term of the management of public fill, the Fill Management Division for the CEDD

also issues dumping licenses free of charge to lorry owners for delivering public fill to

public fill reception facilities. The division also formulates the overall public fill

strategy and programme and plans for short-term and long-term strategic public fill

reception facilities and construction waste sorting facilities. Moreover, the PFC

produces and circulates the public filling programme (CEDD, 2008c).

Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD), Food and

Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) and Hong Kong Police Force

The Food and Hygiene Bureau and the Security Bureau are involved in the

construction waste management for protecting the safety and hygiene of our living

environment and conserving our natural environment for fighting against the illegal

dumping of construction waste. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation

76

Department (AFCD) fights against illegal dumping of construction waste within a

country park or special area by enforcing the Country Parks and Special Areas

Regulation (Cap. 208A). The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD)

fights against illegal dumping of construction waste on a street, in a public space, in

the commons parts of any building and on any land without the consent of land owner

or from any vehicle by enforcing the Public Cleansing and Prevention of Nuisance

Regulation (Cap. 132BK). The Hong Kong Police Force then prosecutes the offenders

by enforcing the Summary Offences Ordinance (Cap. 228) (EPD, 2007b).

Lands Department, Planning Department and Building Department

The Lands Department, the Planning Department and the Building Department also

oversee some areas of duties which could influence the management of construction

waste. The Lands Department controls the dumping of public fill by enforcing the

Lands Ordinance. It also allocates land for providing facilities and services for

construction waste which is usually regarded as an activity with low economic value.

The Planning Department sites construction waste facilities by land use zoning; and to

plan for and control uses and activities on land allocated for providing facilities and

services for construction waste. The Building Department, on the other hand, ensures

building structures and the operation of construction sites meet the safety standards by

enforcing the Building Ordinance. It controls the use of construction materials and,

thus, also the use of construction materials with recycled content, in building projects

(Chung, 2008; EPD, 2008e)

77

Conflicting Objectives and Jurisdictions across Departments

From the above discussion, a confusing and complicated division of duties between

the EPD and the CEDD on construction waste management can be seen. Both

departments are involved in the implementation of most measures such as the

provision of waste facilities and the implementation of the charging scheme and the

trip-ticket system. Stakeholders involved in the construction supply chain found the

current arrangement complicated and were confused; not knowing which department

they should approach, especially when they needed to submit an application or inquire

about information on various issues (Chung, 2008).

The enforcement on illegal dumping is also shared by the EPD, AFCD, FEHD and the

Hong Kong Police Force under the jurisdictions of different ordinances (i.e. Waste

Disposal Ordinance, the Country Parks and Special Areas Regulation, the Public

Cleansing and Prevention of Nuisance Regulation and the Summary Offences

Ordinance). It can cause confusion when making a decision on prosecution under so

many different ordinances.

The departments discussed above also serve for many other different objectives

although they are all working on construction waste management. Of them all, only

the EPD works for the protection of the environment, while the other departments do

not. For example, Hong Kong Police Force is not purposely trained to fight

environmental crimes and fighting environmental crimes is not their primary interest.

The Lands Department has its interest to maximize land usage and value for the

government by allocating lands for high-value uses while providing waste facilities is

regarded as activity with very low economic value. The Building Department needs to

78

ensure the safety standard of building structure; however, the stringent building

standard might restrict the use of some materials with recycled content in new

buildings and this discourages the market for recycling. Moreover, the primary interest

of the CEDD is to oversee development projects. Any waste issues other than the

public fill management, such as the treatment and disposal of mixed construction

waste, are rarely considered under the scope of the CEDD (Ibid.).

Figure 3.31 Bureaus and Departments Responsible for Construction Waste Management in the Organization Chart of the Government of Hong Kong

Source: (HKSAR, 2007)

79

Table 3.31 Duties Related to Construction Waste Management for Government Bureaus and Departments in Hong Kong

Bureau Department Duties Related to Construction Waste Management Environment

Environmental Protection Department (EPD)

To protect the environment by promoting and overseeing construction waste management practices To oversee and promote the construction waste management to solve the waste problem by the reduction of waste To provide disposal facilities for construction waste by planning and managing the existing three landfills and the seven outlying transfer stations for the disposal of construction waste; To implement and manage the charging scheme on construction waste including handling account application, keep tracks of accounts and etc.; and To implement the trip-ticket system as required for public projects by designating landfill facilities for the disposal of non-inert materials equal or more than 50m3 and advise the acceptance criteria of the landfill facilities;

Food and Hygiene Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD)

To ensure the hygiene of our living environment by fighting against illegal dumping To fight against illegal dumping of construction waste within a country park or special area by enforcing the Country Parks and Special Areas Regulation (Cap. 208A) To fight again illegal dumping of construction waste on a street, in a public space, in the commons parts of any building and on any land without the consent of land owner or from any vehicle by enforcing the Public Cleansing and Prevention of Nuisance Regulation (Cap. 132BK)

80

81

Bureau Department Duties Related to Construction Waste Management Security

Hong Kong Police Force

To prosecute offenders of illegal dumping of construction waste To prosecute offenders of illegal dumping of construction waste on any public place, government property, private property without the consent of owner or occupier by enforcing the Summary Offences Ordinance (Cap. 228)

Works Civil Engineering and Development Department (CEDD)

To specify requirements on construction waste management for public works by issuing technical circulars To oversee the management of public fill and public filling operations by producing and circulating the public filling programme; To implement measures to promote avoidance, minimization, re-use and recycling of construction and demolition material; To oversee the management and disposal of public fill by planning and managing some of the existing waste facilities for construction waste: public fill reception waste facilities and sorting facilities including two fill banks, two barging points and one recycling facility for transporting, stockpiling and recycling of inert materials as well as two sorting facilities for sorting construction waste; To implement the trip-ticket system as required for public projects by designating disposal ground for the disposal of inert materials; To assist the implementation of the charging scheme on construction waste by handling application for Vessel to be approved for delivering inert construction waste to public fill reception facilities; and To issue Dumping licences free of charge to lorry owners for delivering public fill to public fill reception facilities.

Bureau Department Duties Related to Construction Waste Management Building Department

Lands Department Planning Department

To ensure building structures and the operation of construction sites meet the safety standards by enforcing the Building Ordinance. It controls the use of construction materials and, thus, also the use of construction materials with recycled content, in building projects. To control dumping of public fill by enforcing the Lands Ordinance and to allocate land for providing facilities and services for construction waste which is usually regarded as activities with low economic value. To site construction waste facilities by land use zoning; and to plan for and control uses and activities on land allocated for providing facilities and services for construction waste.

Source: (CEDD, 2008b; CEDD, 2008c; Chan, 2008a; Chung, 2008; EPD, 2007b; EPD, 2008c; EPD, 2008e, ETWB, 2004; Fong, 2008)

82

83

3.4 Legislative Framework and Policies

Legislations

A list of legislations has been in use to regulate the management of construction waste.

Table 3.41 shows a summary of legislations on construction waste management in

effect as of May 31, 2008, including the description of the legislations in relation to

construction waste management. Table 3.42 summarizes the legislations in effect by

various areas of control.

Ordinances and Areas of Control

The Waste Disposal Ordinance (Cap. 354), enacted in 1980 and the Waste Disposal

Regulation provide comprehensive framework for the management of construction

waste from the point of arising to the point of final disposal. The intention is for waste

to be disposed of in an environmentally acceptable manner. The ordinance and the

regulation have been amended several times to expand the scope of control. The

control extends over the disposal of construction waste by designating waste facilities,

the permit and licensing systems, the import and export of waste, illegal dumping,

provision and management of waste facilities, the management of public fill, the

charging scheme on construction waste, the management of chemical waste (i.e.

asbestos) for all aspects with respect to packaging, labeling, storage, collection,

transport, treatment, disposal and the import and export activities (EPD, 2008e).

Other Ordinances, including the Dumping at Sea Ordinance (Cap. 466), enacted in

1995, the Shipping and Port Control Ordinance (Cap.313), enacted in 1978, the Public

Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap.132), enacted in 1960, the Fixed

84

Penalty (Public Cleanliness Offences) Ordinance (Cap.570), enacted in 2001, the

Country Parks Ordinance (Cap.208), enacted in 1976 and the Summary Offences

Ordinance (Cap.228), enacted in 1933, control over illegal dumping of construction

waste with respect to offenses at different venues and scenarios.

The provision of waste facilities is also controlled also by the Town Planning

Ordinance (Cap.131), enacted in 1939, and the Land (Miscellaneous Provisions)

Ordinance (Cap. 28), enacted in 1972, in addition to the Waste Disposal Ordinance

and Waste Disposal Regulation. The Town Planning Ordinance controls over land

usage including waste management uses and the Land Ordinance controls on the

dumping of public fill and the allocation of land for providing waste facilities and

services.

Moreover, the Building Ordinance (Cap.123), enacted in 1956, ensures the structure of

new buildings meet the safety standards. It also controls the use of qualified materials

which might restrict the use of recycled materials in new buildings.

Construction Waste Disposal Charging Scheme

In fact, the attention paid to construction waste has only come about very recently.

Most of the management strategies set out for waste management focus on municipal

waste. To the present, only one piece of legislation has been effective particularly for

construction waste. It is the Construction Waste Disposal Charging Scheme.

This legislation was passed by the Legislative Council in January 2005 and the

charging for disposal of construction waste started on 20 January, 2006. From that day,

construction waste producers, such as construction contractors, renovation contractors

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and premises owners are required to open a billing account with the Environmental

Protection Department and pay for the corresponding disposal charges for prior to

using government waste disposal facilities (EPD, 2008c). Table 3.43 shows the

disposal charges for different government waste disposal facilities.

Policies

The Environmental Protection Department also published some policies to guide the

management of construction waste by proposing strategies and setting out targets for

actions. However, few policies target construction waste while most of them are target

the management of municipal waste. The Waste Disposal Plan, published in 1989,

established new facilities for waste disposal in addition to the three existing strategic

landfills. The Waste Reduction Framework Plan published in 1998 and reviewed in

2001, was the first initiative to regard construction waste management as an area of

concern. Targets were set to divert 80% of the total construction waste produced to

public filling areas and the overall reduction of construction waste going into landfills

by 25% between 1999 and 2004 (EPD, 1998b). These targets were achieved long ago.

Since then, no new targets and further actions, besides the charging scheme, were

taken on construction waste management.

Public Projects versus Private Projects

The requirements on construction waste management for public projects and private

projects are very different. More stringent requirements are specified for public

projects while there is, up until now, no specific requirements on waste management

and reduction measures required for private projects (Chan, 2001; Chan, 2008a; Chan

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2008b; ETWB, 2005). A number of instruments, other than legislations, including

technical circulars issued by the Works Branch of the Development Bureau

(Environment, Transport and Works Bureau in the past) and project tenders and

practice notes adopted by departments, are also used to set out specifications and

requirements for public works.

Development Bureau Technical Circulars

The technical circulars issued by the Development Bureau provide requirements and

specifications for all public projects to follow. Most of these requirements are also

specified in the project tenders. Table 3.44 provides a summary of these technical

circulars related to construction waste management.

A number of waste management and reduction measures are required for public

projects applying to both capital works contracts and term contracts. Since November

2000, public works contractors have been required to take concrete steps to reduce the

generation of C&D materials at construction sites through the requirement of a waste

management plan (WMP) under WBTC No. 29/2000. WMP was incorporated as part

of the environmental management plan (EMP) in ETWB TCW No. 19/2005 on

“Environmental Management on Construction Sites” (ETWB, 2005). Contractors are

required to submit an outline EMP for tender assessment; and submit the finalized

EMP before the implementation of the project.

The EMP requires the consideration and implementation of waste management and

reduction measures. Contractors are required to consider measures to minimize the

generation of construction waste at the outset during the planning and design stage of

a project and to reduce waste disposed of during the course of construction as

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stipulated in ETWB TCW No. 15/2003. Contractors also need to avoid waste from

surplus materials and consider the space requirement for the environmental provisions,

e.g. on-site sorting and temporary storage of C&D materials and prepare layout plan

with waste flow.

Contractors should provide the estimated quantities of C&D materials that will be

generated each year from the site, using the “Yearly Summary Waste Flow Table” and

thereafter update the summary table on a half-yearly basis. Plans have to be made for

sorting, collecting, on-site handling, temporary storage on-site, transporting and

disposal of these wastes before the beginning of the construction.

Regular monitoring on performance, regular reporting and updating the EMP

periodically are also required as stipulated in ETWB TCW No. 15/2003. As part of the

EMP on waste management, the contractor should establish a mechanism to record the

quantities of C&D materials generated each month and report the quantities on a

monthly basis, using the “Monthly Summary Waste Flow Table”. Weekly

environmental walks should also be arranged to monitor the implementation of waste

management measures on-site. The contractors should assign a person as the

Environmental Officer and one additional site staff to oversee all the environmental

matters of the Works.

Public projects are required to develop measures for avoiding and minimizing the use

of timber for Temporary Works construction. They are also required to minimize the

generation of construction waste from equipment or material packaging during the

course of the Works.

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On-site sorting is mandatory for public projects. The Contractor shall sort the

materials at source into: (i) hard rock and large broken concrete, (ii) metals, (iii) paper

and plastics, (iv) chemical waste, and (v) materials suitable for disposal at public fill

reception facilities, sorting facilities and landfills/outlying islands transfer facilities.

Inert materials, metallic waste and cardboard and plastic packaging shall be sorted for

recovery. Contractors shall make arrangements with recycling contractors for

collecting these recyclable materials.

For works involving demolition, the Contractor shall submit a method statement

which shall include the sequence of demolition and the work programme to facilitate

effective recovery of reusable and/or recyclable portions of construction materials at

the earliest stage. Construction waste arising from demolition debris shall be separated

into: (i) broken concrete, (ii) other inert materials, e.g. blockwork, brickwork etc. (iii)

metals, e.g. reinforcement bars, mechanical and electrical fittings, building services

fittings, hardware etc., (iv) general refuse and (v) hazardous materials. Broken

concrete, reinforcement bars, mechanical and electrical fittings, hardware and other

fittings/materials that have established recycling outlets need to be sorted out for

recovery.

Contractors shall establish a system for proper handling and storage of chemical waste

and hazardous waste generated from the site, and arrange collection and disposal of

such by specialist contractors.

Staff working on-site shall be trained by site-specific induction training and toolbox

talks to cover environmental topics. Workers shall also be promoted with awareness

on handling, sorting, reuse and recycling of construction materials by displaying the

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company’s environmental policy, non-compliance statistics, posters and signs at

prominent locations.

Contractors shall also set up a disposal recording system as part of the EMP by

adopting the trip-ticket system as promulgated under WBTC No.5/99 and stipulated in

WBTC No. 31/2004, for ensuring the proper disposal of C&D materials to designated

outlets and avoiding illegal dumping (ETWB, 2004).

Provisions in ETWB TCW No. 19/2005 require all trucks used for the transportation

of construction materials to and from the site be fitted with mechanical covers, an

automatic wheel washing system, quality powered mechanical equipment (QPME)2,

dust/acoustic screens or enclosures and wastewater treatment facilities etc. for

ensuring safe transportation of construction waste.

Many of these specifications and requirements are incorporated into the project tender

for public projects for contractors to follow through.

Tenders

Contractors carry out construction works by following specification clauses required

by the tenders. For example, the Housing Department has stipulated in all demolition

contracts that all construction waste arising from demolition works shall be sorted at

source (Chan 2001; CED, 1998). To further promote environmentally friendly

construction practices in public works projects, The CEDD also includes the

Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region General Specification

for Civil Engineering Works (2006 Edition) which incorporates the use of “green”

construction materials including recycled aggregates and reclaimed asphalt material,

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for all tender invitations under the DEVB TCW No. 7/2007 (Development Bureau,

2007).

Practice Notes

Moreover, government departments could prepare and adopt practice notes to guide

and control projects overseen by the departments accordingly. Table 3.45 provides a

summary of practice notes related to construction waste management adopted by the

Building Department and joint practice notes adopted by the Building Department, the

Lands Department and the Planning Department.

Guidelines

The Environmental Protection Department and some construction industry

associations such as the Construction Industry Council also publish some non-legal

binding guidelines to promote waste reduction strategy and provide the industry

stakeholders with knowledge on waste management and reduction. The Site Practice

for Waste Reduction in Construction Industry (EPD and HKCA and RED, 2008) is

one of the examples.

Table 3.41 Environmental Legislations Related to Construction Waste Management in Effect as at 31 May 2008

Legislation Description of Control in Relation to Construction Waste ManagementWaste Disposal Ordinance (Cap.354) 1980 Provides for the licensing of collection services and disposal facilities for waste, the control scheme

on chemical waste, the control on illegal dumping of waste, the control on import and export of waste and for the establishment of a system whereby specified waste must be notified to the relevant authority who may give directions as to the method of disposal. Requires also the production of a comprehensive plan for the collection and disposal of waste.

Waste Disposal (Amendment) Ordinance 1991

Provides for control of chemical waste with respect to packaging, labeling, storage, collection, disposal, import and export activities.

Waste Disposal (Amendment) Ordinance 1994 Introduces a heavy penalty for illegal dumping of waste and makes it an offence to breach the license conditions of the waste collection and disposal licenses.

Waste Disposal (Amendment) Ordinance 1995 Introduces a permit system to control the import and export of hazardous and other waste in accordance with the requirements set out under the Basel Convention, enables recovery of costs for the provision of different types of waste management services and surcharges for emergency cases and overdue payments.

Waste Disposal (Amendment) Ordinance 1997

Expands the regulation making powers for implementation of various waste disposal charging schemes and repeals section 28 which is inconsistent with the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance (Cap.383).

Waste Disposal (Amendment) Ordinance 2004

Provides for charging for disposal of construction waste at designated waste disposal facilities and for enhancing control on flytipping of waste.

Waste Disposal (Permits and Licences) (Forms and Fees) Regulation 1992

Prescribes the forms and fees for application of licenses for waste collection and disposal, and the permits for import and export of waste.

Waste Disposal (Chemical Waste) (General) Regulation 1992

Provides for control of all aspects of chemical waste disposal, including storage, collection, transport, treatment and final disposal.

Waste Disposal (Appeal Board) Regulation 1992 Provides for the setting up of an appeal mechanism against decisions made under the Waste Disposal Ordinance.

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Legislation Description of Control in Relation to Construction Waste ManagementWaste Disposal (Designated Waste Disposal Facility) Regulation 1997

Provides for the maintenance of orderly conduct within sites used for waste disposal activities; measures to counteract the evasion of charges payable in connection with the provision of waste disposal services at such sites; and proof of matters in proceedings before a court in relation to the provision of waste disposal activities at such sites.

Waste Disposal (Charges for Disposal of Construction Waste) Regulation

Substitutes the Waste Disposal (Charges for Disposal of Waste) Regulation 1995 to give effect to the revised charging scheme.

Waste Disposal (Designated Waste Disposal Facility) (Amendment) Regulation 2004

To add provisions for operations at the Designated Waste Disposal Facilities for implementation of the revised charging scheme.

Dumping at Sea Ordinance (Cap. 466) 1995

Provides for control on marine dumping, and for connected purposes.

Shipping and Port Control Ordinance (Cap.313) 1978

Prohibits the dumping of refuse and general littering from vessels or port-based operations.

Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap.132) 1960

Provides for prevention and control of waste. It also provides for removal of litter or waste from any places.

Fixed Penalty (Public Cleanliness Offences) Ordinance (Cap.570) 2001

Provides for fixed penalty for offences including littering in public places. EPD is empowered to enforce the scheduled offence "unlawful depositing of waste".

Country Parks Ordinance (Cap.208) 1976

Places controls on littering in country parks.

Summary Offences Ordinance (Cap.228) 1933

Contains provisions relating to littering offences including marine littering.

Town Planning Ordinance (Cap.131) 1939

Provides for control over land use including waste management uses.

Land (Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance (Cap. 28) 1972

Provides for control on dumping of public fill and the allocation of land for providing waste facilities and services.

Buildings Ordinance (Cap.123) 1956 Ensures the structure of new building meeting the safety standards and the use of qualified materials which might restrict the use of recycled materials in new building.

Details of the ordinances and regulations can be found in the "Bilingual Laws Information System" website of the Department of Justice at http://www.legislation.gov.hk/Sources: (EPD, 2008e; Chan, 2008a; Ng, 2008)

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Table 3.42 Legislations in Effective by Areas of Control

Scope of Control Ordinances A Comprehensive Framework for the Management of Construction Waste from the Point of Arising to the Point of Disposal, Disposal of Construction Waste by Designating waste facilities, Permit and Licensing Systems, import and export of waste, Illegal Dumping, Provision and Management of Waste Facilities, the Management of Public Fill, the Charging and the Management of Chemical Waste (i.e. asbestos)

Waste Disposal Ordinance (Cap. 354) Waste Disposal Regulation 1992 and 1997

Illegal Dumping

Waste Disposal Ordinance (Cap. 354) Waste Disposal Regulation 1992 and 1997 Dumping at Sea Ordinance (Cap. 466) 1995 Shipping and Port Control Ordinance (Cap.313) 1978 Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap.132) 1960 Fixed Penalty (Public Cleanliness Offences) Ordinance (Cap.570) 2001 Country Parks Ordinance (Cap.208) 1976 Summary Offences Ordinance (Cap.228) 1933

Provision and Management of Waste Facilities

Waste Disposal Ordinance (Cap. 354) Waste Disposal Regulation Town Planning Ordinance (Cap.131) 1939 Land (Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance (Cap. 28) 1972

Control over the Use of Recycled Materials in New Buildings

Buildings Ordinance (Cap.123) 1956

Sources: (EPD, 2008e; Chan, 2008a; Ng, 2008)

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Table 3.43 Disposal Charges for Using Different Government Waste Disposal Facilities and Types of Construction Waste Accepted

Disposal Facilities Type of Construction Waste Accepted Charge per Tonne#

Public fill reception facilities

Consisting entirely of inert construction waste++ $27

Sorting facilities Containing more than 50% by weight of inert construction waste++ $100

Landfills@ Containing not more than 50% by weight of inert construction waste++ $125

Outlying Islands Transfer Facilities@

Containing any percentage of inert construction waste++ $125

# Except for the Outlying Islands Transfer Facilities, the minimum charge load is 1 tonne, i.e. if a load of waste weighs 1

tonne or less, it will be charged as 1 tonne. A load of waste weighing more than 1 tonne will be charged at 0.1 tonne increment. For Outlying Islands Transfer Facilities, the charge is $12.5 per 0.1 tonne and the minimum charge load is 0.1 tonne.

++ Inert construction waste means rock, rubble, boulder, earth, soil, sand, concrete, asphalt, brick, tile, masonry or used bentonite.

@ If a load of waste contains construction waste and other waste, that load will be regarded as consisting entirely of construction waste for the purpose of calculating the applicable charge.

Source: (EPD, 2008c)

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Table 3.44 Summary of Development Bureau Technical Circulars on Construction Waste Management

Technical Circulars Titles

WBTC No. 32/92 The Use of Tropical Hardwood on Construction Sites

WBTC No. 2/93 Public Dumps

WBTC No. 2/93, 2/93B Public Filling Facilities

WBTC No.14/94 Use of PFA as General Fill in Reclamation

WBTC No. 16/96 Wet Soil in Public Dumps

WBTC No. 2/97 Use of PFA in Concrete Pile Caps and Substructures

WBTC Nos. 4/98 & 4/98A Use of Public Fill in Reclamation & Earth Filling Projects

WBTC Nos. 25/99, 25/99A and 25/99C

Incorporation of Information on Construction and Demolition Material Management in Public Works Subcommittee Papers

WBTC No. 12/2000 Fill Management

WBTC No. 30/2000 Construction Site Safety Manual Second Updating of Chapters 3 and 12

WBTC No. 19/2001 Metallic Site Hoardings and Signboards

WBTC No. 6/2002 and 6/2002A

Enhanced Specification for Site Cleanliness and Tidiness

WBTC No. 11/2002 Control of Site Crushers

WBTC No.12/2002 Specifications Facilitating the Use of Recycled Aggregates

WBTC No.15/2002 Contract Advisers and Technical Audits on Works Contracts

ETWB TCW No. 30/2002 Implementation of Site Safety Cycle and Provision of Welfare Facilities for Workers at Construction Sites

ETWB TCW No. 33/2002 Management of Construction & Demolition Materials Including Rock

ETWB TCW No. 13/2003 Guidelines and Procedures for Environmental Impact Assessment of Government Projects and Proposals

ETWB TCW No. 14/2003 Role of Departmental Safety and Environmental Advisor on Health, Safety and Environmental Protection on Construction Sites

ETWB TCW No. 24/2004 Specification Facilitating the Use of Concrete Paving Units Made of Recycled Aggregates

ETWB TCW No. 31/2004 Trip ticket system for disposal of Construction & Demolition Materials

ETWB TCW No. 19/2005 Environmental Management on Construction Sites

DEVB TCW No. 07/2007 General Specification for Civil Engineering Works, 2006 Edition

Details of the technical circulars can be found in the "Technical Circulars" website of the Development Bureau at http://www.devb-wb.gov.hk/technical_circulars/index.aspx?langno=1&nodeid=1108. Source: (Chan 2001; Ng, 2008)

Table 3.45 Practice Notes Related to Construction Waste Management

No. Title Links

Practice Note (Building Department) for Authorized Persons and Registered Structural Engineers243 Construction and Demolition Waste

http://www.bd.gov.hk/english/documents/pnap/Pnap243.pdf

245 Waste Minimization: Provision of Fitments and Fittings in New Buildings

http://www.bd.gov.hk/english/documents/pnap/Pnap245.pdf

275 Use of Recycled Aggregates in Concrete

http://www.bd.gov.hk/english/documents/pnap/Pnap275.pdf

299 Quality Control and Supervision of Precast Concrete Construction

http://www.bd.gov.hk/english/documents/pnap/Pnap299.pdf

Practice Note (Building Department) for Registered Contractor6 Demolition Works: Measures for Public Safety

http://www.bd.gov.hk/english/documents/pnrc/Pnrc06.pdf

Joint Practice Notes (Buildings Department, Lands Department, Planning Department)

1 Green and Innovative Buildings

http://www.bd.gov.hk/english/documents/joint/JPN01.pdf

2 Second Package of Incentives to Promote Green and Innovative Buildings

http://www.bd.gov.hk/english/documents/joint/JPN02.pdf

Source: (Ng, 2008)

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3.5 Destinations and Waste Reception Facilities

Facilities Provided by the Government

In support of the construction waste charging scheme, the government currently

provides four types of facilities for construction waste. They include public fill

reception facilities, sorting facilities, landfills and outlying islands transfer stations.

These facilities would be discussed one by one in terms of their functions and services

they provide. Table 3.51 provides a summary of all the existing facilities for

construction waste as of 2008. Table 3.52 summarizes the information on the type of

waste received, the waste reception fee and the responsible government departments

responsible for the planning and management of the facilities. Figure 3.51 shows the

distribution of these facilities across the territory.

a) Public Fill Reception Facilities

Public fill reception facilities include five types of facilities that serve different

functions to handle the fill materials. They are: public filling areas, public filling

barging points, public fill stockpiling areas, fill banks and C&D materials recycling

facilities. According to the classification provided by the Environmental Planning

Department (2008b) and the Civil Engineering and Development Department (2008d),

the description of these facilities is provided in Table 3.51.

Currently, no public filling areas and public fill stockpiling areas are provided to

receive filling materials. These two facilities are expected to disappear soon since

Hong Kong will not have any new proposed reclamation sites under the effect of the

Protection of the Harbour Ordinance. Two temporary barging points at Mui Wo and

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Quarry Bay have been transferring the received fills from road vehicles to the two

existing fill banks in Tuen Mun Area 38 and Tseng Kwan O Area 138. These fill

banks have become the only officially designated destinations for accepting sorted

inert materials. Only materials consisting of entirely inert materials are accepted in

these fill reception facilities at the fee of $27 per tonne. These facilities, however,

might be closed when the contract of these facilities is over by 2009 (Chan 2008a;

Fong, 2008).

The recycling facility at Tseng Kwan O Fill Bank is a crushing facility which

mechanically sorts out hard inert materials including broken concrete and rock pieces

from the received inert materials and crushes them into recycled aggregates and

granular materials of different sizes for use in construction works. The recycled

product is called G200 recycled rockfill which, for now, can only be supplied to

public projects. The facility is still in its initial stage (CEDD, 2008d; Fong, 2008).

Some inert materials are recycled as daily cover materials for the South East New

Territories Landfill (Chan, 2001).

b) Sorting Facilities

Mixed construction waste containing more than 50% by weight of inert materials are

not be accepted by any official waste facilities in Hong Kong, except for the outlying

islands transfer stations. Therefore, mixed construction waste containing more than

50% by weight of inert construction waste needs to be sorted before disposal and

delivered to the two sorting facilities provided by the government under the

jurisdiction of the Civil Engineering and Development Department at a fee of $100

per tonne. The two sorting facilities are located next to the two fill banks at Tseng

Kwan O Area 139 and Tuen Mun Area 38. This arrangement is intended to help waste

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producers, particularly small construction sites that do not have enough space to carry

out on-site sorting (EPD, 2008c).

c) Landfills

Mixed construction waste containing not more than 50% by weight of inert

construction waste can be disposed of at the three strategic landfills, viz. the West

New Territories (WENT) Landfill in Nim Wan, Tuen Mun, the South East New

Territories (SENT) Landfill in Tai Chik Sha, Tseung Kwan O and the North East New

Territories (NENT) Landfill in Ta Kwu Ling, New Territories which are managed by

the Environmental Protection Department at a fee of $125 per tonne (Ibid.).

d) Outlying Islands Transfer Stations

Seven outlying islands transfer stations located in the outlying islands utilize barge

transportation to transfer construction waste from road vehicles to Western from the

outlying islands to West New Territories Landfill at Nim Wan, Tuen Mun. They are

intended to receive only small quanties of construction waste and bulky waste

produced at the outlying islands at a fee of $125 per tonne. Construction waste

containing any percentage of inert construction waste can be received by these transfer

stations (Ibid, Chan, 2008a).

Facilities Provided by the Private Sector

The involvement of the private sector in providing these facilities is terribly small.

Part of the reason is because facilities and services for construction waste were

provided free-of-charge by the government before 2006. It is almost true to say that

there was no market that existed in the waste management industry for construction

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waste. Thus, it makes economic sense that no private business was attracted to provide

these facilities. The participation of the private sector was limited to the provision of

some of these facilities under build-operate-transfer (BOT) contracts and some small-

scale private businesses, participated in waste collection, sorting and recycling (Chek,

1999).

Moreover, the charging scheme on construction waste implemented in 2006, moreover,

created new business opportunities. Since the implementation, some new private

businesses have been establish to collect recyclables and provide off-site sorting and

recycling services at a rate lower than the fees required by the waste facilities

provided by the government (Tse, 2008; Fong, 2008).

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Table 3.51 Existing Public Fill Reception Facilities for Construction Waste as of 2008

Facilities Description Existing Location

Public Filling Area a designated part of a development project that accepts public fill for reclamation purpose -- --

Public Filling Barging Point

a strategically located public fill reception facility that utilizes barge transportation to transfer public fill from road vehicles to marine based public filling areas

1. Mui Wo Temporary Public Fill Reception Facility

2. Temporary Public Filling

Barging Point at Quarry Bay

Public Fill Stockpiling Areas

a newly reclaimed land where public fill is stockpiled as surcharging material to accelerate the settlement process. Upon the achievement of the required settlement, the public fill will be removed and deposited in other reclamation

-- --

Fill Banks

an area allocated for temporary stockpile of public fill for later use

1. Tseng Kwan O Area 137 2. Tuen Mun Area 38

C&D Material Recycling Facilities

the facility process hard inert materials into recycled aggregates and granular materials for use in construction activities

1. Recycling Facility at Tseng Kwan O Fill Bank

Source: (EPD, 2008b; CEDD, 2008d)

Table 3.52 Construction Waste Management Facilities in Operation in Hong Kong (2008)

Facilities Type of Waste Accepted Code Name Gov.

Dept.Fee ($)per ton

MW--PFRF Mui Wo Temporary Public Fill Reception Facility CEDD 27

QB--PFBP Temporary Public Filling Barging Point at Quarry Bay CEDD 27

TKO137FB Fill Bank at Tseng Kwan O Area 137 CEDD 27

TM38--FB Fill Bank at Tuen Mun Area 38 CEDD 27

Public fill reception facilities

Consisting entirely of inert construction waste

-- Recycling Facility at Tseng Kwan O Fill Bank CEDD --

TKO137SF Sorting Facilities at Tseng Kwan O Area 137 CEDD 100 Sorting facilities

Containing more than 50% by weight of inert construction waste

TM38--SF Sorting Facilities at Tuen Mun Area 38 CEDD 100

NENT North East New Territories Landfill (Ta Kwu Ling, New Territories) EPD 125

SENT South East New Territories Landfill (Tai Chik Sha, Tseung Kwan O) EPD 125 Landfills

Containing not more than 50% by weight of inert construction waste WENT West New Territories Landfill (Nim Wan, Tuen Mun) EPD 125

CC Cheung Chau Station EPD 125

HLC Hei Ling Chau Station EPD 125

MaW Ma Wan Station EPD 125

MW Mui Wo Station EPD 125

PC Peng Chau Station EPD 125

SKW Sok Kwu Wan Station EPD 125

Outlying Islands Transfer Facilities

Containing any percentage of inert

(OITF)

construction waste

YSW Yung Shue Wan Station EPD 125

Source: (EPD, 2008b, 200bc; CEDD, 2008d)

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Figure 3.51 Locations of Existing Facilities for Construction Waste (2008)

Source: Extracted from EPD website at http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/misc/cdm/management_intro.htm

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104

3.6 Logistic of Waste Management Procedure for Construction Waste

Interplaying the legislations, regulations, project specifications and common practices

in the construction industry with profit-driven commercial considerations in the

private sector, the behaviours of all stakeholders are shaped accordingly thereafter. To

better understand the actual practices of construction waste management in response

to all these determining factors, a logistic diagram in Figure 3.61 adds together

findings from interviewing different stakeholders involved in the process, site

observations and reviewing legislations, government’s publications and industry’s

specifications. The logistic diagram captures the material flows and money flows for

material prevention, reuse, recycling and disposal from the sources of generation at

construction sites to material handling and the final disposal at the waste facilities.

Material Flows

Depending on the types of projects, a number of waste management and reduction

measures are required for public projects while there are no specific waste reduction

measures are required for private projects. Regulated by the Waste Disposal

Ordinance, construction waste could only be disposed of at designated waste facilities

and these facilities are currently managed and operated by contractors appointed by

the government under the BOT contracts. As construction waste containing more than

50% inert materials would not be accepted by any of these facilities and only materials

containing entirely inert materials would be accepted by the public fill reception

facilities, waste would have to be sorted before disposal, although this is not required

for private projects (Chan, 2008a; Chan 2008b; EPD, 2008c; ETWB, 2005; Fong,

2008; Tse, 2008).

105

Off-Site Sorting

On-site sorting is encouraged; however, construction sites without enough space for

sorting could sort their waste off-site at the two sorting facilities provided by the

government. The sorting facilities are located at Tuen Mun Area 38 and at Tseng

Kwan O Area 138. These facilities are located at two fill banks in Tuen Mun and

Tsang Kwan O next to the two existing landfills, West New Territories (WENT)

Landfill and South East New Territories (SENT) Landfill, respectively.

Construction waste containing more than 50% inert materials could be transported to

these two sorting facilities for sorting. These materials are then sorted into three types

of materials: inert materials, recyclables and mixed construction materials. Inert

materials are comprised of rock pieces, concrete, asphalt, rubble, bricks, boulders,

stones, tiles, masonry, debris and earth. They would be stockpiled at the fill banks

nearby. These stockpiled inert materials could be reused for reclamation and other

earth filling works for only public projects. Some of these inert materials stockpiled at

the Tseng Kwan O Area 138 fill bank are currently being shipped to Toi Shan in

China for reclamation. Some of these inert materials stockpiled at the Tseng Kwan O

Area 138 fill bank are also recycled into daily cover materials for the operation of the

SENT Landfill. Hard inert materials including rock pieces and concrete are sorted out,

crushed into different sizes and recycled into aggregates for concrete production, road

sub-base and drainage layers. These recycled aggregates are grade-200 recycled

rockfills, which are supplied only for public projects for the time being (Ibid.).

Only materials with high value would be sorted for recycling. Moreover, only

materials with high value and profitable market could simulate business incentives to

establish corresponding recycling services and technologies. Currently, only metals

106

and cardboards are sorted out from construction waste for recycling. These sorted

recyclables would then be transported and sold to recyclers. Although some materials

could be recycled with today’s technology including plastics, timber, organic waste,

rubber, glass and expanded polystyrene, these materials are not sorted out for

recycling for their relatively low market value. They are, thus, treated as mixed

construction waste (Chan, 2008a; Fong, 2008; Tse, 2008).

Mixed construction waste is comprised of bamboo, plastics, timber, organic waste,

rubber, glass, expanded polystyrene and other packaging materials. These materials

sorted out by the sorting facility at Tuen Mun 38 Area and the sorting facility at Tseng

Kwan O Area 138 would be disposed at the WENT Landfill and SENT Landfill,

respectively (Ibid.).

On-site Sorting

Construction contractors could sort waste on-site if the construction sites have

sufficient space. Construction waste is sorted into three types of materials: inert

materials, recyclables and mixed construction waste. Inert materials containing no

other materials are transported to the public fill reception facilities by contracted

haulers. The public fill reception facilities include fill banks and barging points.

Materials transported to the two barging points: Mui Wo Temporary Public Fill

Reception Facility and Quarry Bay Temporary Filling Barging Point, would then be

shipped to the fill banks at Tuen Mun or Tsang Kwan O. As an alternative, these inert

materials could also be transported to other construction sites which may need them

for back filling. Currently, this is the only channel that construction waste could be

reused (Ibid.).

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Recyclables including metals and cardboards would be sorted out and transported to

recyclers for recycling. Scavengers would also pick up these recyclables from mixed

construction waste temporarily stored at the construction sites and sell them to

recyclers for profit. Recyclers may recycle some of these recyclables locally into new

products. Some of them are mechanically processed and exported aboard for further

processing and recycling (Ibid.).

Mixed construction materials containing less than 50% of inert materials and

comprising of bamboo, plastics, timber, organic waste, rubber, glass, expanded

polystyrene, fuel ashes and other packaging materials are transported to one of the

landfills (i.e. North East New Territories (NENT) Landfill in Ta Kua Ling, WENT

Landfill and SENT Landfill) for final disposal (EPD, 2008c).

Construction Waste Produced at Outlying Islands

Construction waste produced at outlying islands could be transported to one of the

seven outlying islands transfer stations (OITSs). Construction waste may not need to

be sorted. Construction waste containing any percentage of inert materials could be

accepted by OITSs. These construction wastes would then be transported and disposed

of at the WENT Landfill by ship (EPD, 2008b).

Money Flows

For construction sites which do not have sufficient space for on-site sorting,

contractors could pay a fee of $100 per tonne for sorting and dispose their

construction waste at the two sorting facilities (EPD, 2008c). The appointed

108

contractors operating the sorting facilities would sell the sorted recyclables (i.e. metals

and cardboards) to local recyclers for extra earnings.

For construction sites which have sufficient space for on-site sorting, inert materials

sorted out could be transported and disposed of at any of the public fill reception

facilities at a fee of $27 per tonne. Sometimes, contraction contractors may pay the

contractors of other construction projects for accepting and reusing the inert materials

at a rate lower than the costs of disposing the materials at the public fill reception

facilities (i.e. including transportation cost and disposal fee). This may happen when

other projects are taking place at a close distance. Currently, the government is paying

the Toi Shan’s government in China for accepting some of the inert materials

stockpiling at the Tseng Kwan O Area 138 fill bank (Chan, 2008a; EPD, 2008c).

Mixed construction materials sorted out at construction sites can only be disposed of

at any of the three existing landfills at a fee of $125 per tonne. Construction waste

produced at the outlying islands can be disposed of at the OITSs at a fee of $125 per

tonne (EPD, 2008c).

Recyclables at the construction sites can be picked by scavengers and sold to recyclers

for profit. However, construction contractors may sometimes pay a fee at a rate lower

than the costs of disposing these materials at the designated waste facilities, to

recyclers for accepting these materials. Construction contractors, moreover, need to

pay haulers with an agreed rate, usually by project or by the number of truck loadings,

for transporting any of the sorted or unsorted materials to designated waste facilities or

for transporting the recyclables to recyclers. Sometimes, construction contractors and

haulers may share the earnings from selling the recyclables (Tse, 2008).

Figure 3.61 Logistic of Waste Management Procedure for Construction Waste

($125 / tonne)

Hauler

Barging Points

WENT

C & D Material Recycling Facility(Crushing Facility)

Hauler

TKO Area 138Sorting Facility

Inert

TM Area 38Fill Bank

Mixed Construction Materials

Outlying Islands Transfer Stations

TKO Area 138Fill Bank

NENT

TM Area 38 Sorting Facility

Hauler

Inert

HaulerScavenger

Mui Wo Temporary Public Fill Reception

Facility

Export

Recyclable

Mixed Construction Material

Aggregates, Rock pieces and concrete

G2000 Rockfill

Daily Cover Material

Landfills

Fill Banks

Recycler

Public Sources

Recyclable

Local Market

SENT

Quarry Bay Temporary

Filling Barging Point

Hauler

Sorting Facilities

Private Sources Other Sources Sources at Outlying Islands

Construction Wastes

Off-site Sorting

Construction Wastes

On-site Sorting

Waste Reduction

Public Fill Reception Facilities

Ta Kua Ling

Tuen Mun

Monetary Flow

Tsng Kwan O

Material

Venue/ Location

Stakeholder

Material Flow

($100 / tonne)

($27 / tonne)

($125 / tonne)

109

110

3.7 Construction Waste Avoidance and Minimization, Reuse and Recycling

A number of effective measures have been developed across the world on construction

waste avoidance and minimization, materials reuse and materials recycling. This

section depicts the current practices in Hong Kong on these three aspects. To facilitate

the discussion, Figure 2.51 shows a list of effective measures which are commonly

adopted across the world. Readers can follow the discussion on the current practices in

Hong Kong; while making reference to the practices overseas.

Construction Waste Avoidance and Minimization

Up until the present, only public projects were required to carry out waste

management and reduction measures. Few of these measures, however, are targeted

for waste avoidance and minimization at the planning and design stage. Moreover, the

compliance is not required by legislations. Project contractors are only advised, but

not required, to consider waste avoidance and minimization for project design or for

the overall planning of a project. Currently, only limited number of projects managed

by the Housing Authority and The Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTRC) has

more stringent requirements on waste avoidance and waste management on-site under

their own set of project specifications (Chan, 2008a; Ng, 2008).

The government, however, welcomes and is willing to adopt better alternatives that

produce less waste. These alternatives may be suggested by contractors even though

the design of the project has been confirmed as long as the alternative provides some

cost savings for the government (Tse, 2008). This is specified in the tenders and

project specifications for public works.

111

Materials Reuse

It is not a common practice in Hong Kong to reuse construction waste either on-site or

off-site. Sometimes inert materials are traded across projects only if linkages have

been built between the contractors and there is cost saving for trading the materials.

Materials reuse is not required by both public and private projects (Fong, 2008; Tse,

2008).

Materials Recycling

Almost all materials produced by construction can be recycled with today’s

technology, however, only one or two types of materials are sorted out for recycling

currently. Table 2.21 in chapter two provides a list of materials which can be recycled

into new products and Table 3.71 provides a list of construction waste commonly

generated at construction sites in Hong Kong by different sources according to the

audit conducted by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Hong Kong

Construction Association Limited (1993). Although materials including plastics,

timber, organic waste, rubber, glass and expanded polystyrene can be recycled, these

materials are not sorted out for recycling due to their relatively low market value.

They are regarded and treated as mixed construction waste. Only two materials with

high market value, metals and cardboards, are commonly sorted out for recycling

(Fong, 2008; Tse, 2008). These materials, especially for metals, are sorted out and

sold to the recyclers for extra earnings even though it is not required for private

projects.

112

The recycling industry in Hong Kong is not yet fully developed. Only a limited range

of materials are collected and recycled in Hong Kong. Most are actually mechanically

processing of the collected materials, such as sorting, crushing, packing and etc.

Despite the availability of collection and recycling facilities for some recyclables,

such as plastics, rubber, glass and timber, these materials are often contaminated at the

construction sites, making the recycling values of these materials low (Chan, 2008a).

Hard inert materials, including rock pieces, asphalt and concrete, are crushed and

recycled into Grade-200 rockfill by the government’s recycling facility in Tseung

Kwan O Area 138 for concrete production or road sub-base used in public projects.

These hard inert materials can be mixed with other inert materials such as sand, mud

and soil crushed stones and rubbles to produce daily cover materials for SENT

Landfill (CEDD, 2008d).

The market for recycled aggregated is very limited. The practice note no. 275 adopted

by the Building Department (2003) for authorized persons and registered structural

engineering sets out specifications for the use of recycled aggregate in concrete.

Concrete produced by high percentage recycled aggregates can only be used in a

limited range of applications which are all low-value uses. The provisions in the

Buildings Ordinance (Cap. 123) also prevent the use of recycled materials in building

works. Good quality recyclable materials can only be used for road works which

require aggregate with lower strength rather than large-scale building works

(Legislative Council, 2007).

Table 3.71 Construction Waste Generated in Hong Kong by Source

Source: (PolyU and HKCA, 1993)

113

114

IV. CURRENT ROLES OF HKAR GOVERNMENT AND INVOLVEMENT

OF PRIVATE SECTOR

4.1 Roles of HKSAR Government in Construction Waste Management

Referring back to the evolution model developed in Chapter 2.7 on the changing roles

of government and the private sector, Hong Kong is in phase two of the evolution

model. It is at the early stage of construction waste industry development. This

industry has only began to develop and more businesses have been attracted to enter

the market since Hong Kong first initiated the management and reduction of

construction waste under the Waste Reduction Framework Plan (1998) and the

introduction of the waste charging scheme on construction waste in 2006. The

construction waste industry in Hong Kong is still very small and the connections

among stakeholders are still very loose. Extracting the roles of government listed in

phase two of the evolution model in Table 2.61 in chapter two, Table 4.11 provides a

checklist comparing the roles of the HKSAR Government in construction waste

management to those on the evolution model. Figure 4.12 lists the roles of government

and private sectors as well as the participation of stakeholders involved in the Hong

Kong’s construction waste management industry. Figure 4.11 illustrates the

construction waste industry in Hong Kong in the form of a flow chart.

Core Roles of Government

The HKSAR Government established a legislative framework, as discussed in Chapter

3.4, to define construction waste and designate where, how and when to treat the

construction waste at designated waste facilities. Controls under the legislations in

115

Hong Kong also cover the permit and licensing systems, the import and export of

waste, illegal dumping, enforcement and monitoring, provision and management of

waste facilities, the management of public fill, the charging scheme on construction

waste and the management of chemical waste (EPD, 2008e).

Institutional framework was also established and authorized governmental agencies

were also empowered by the legislative system to carry out different aspects of

construction waste management in Hong Kong, as discussed in chapter 3.3.

Enforcement is conducted by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department

(AFCD), while the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) and the

Hong Kong Police Force fight against illegal dumping, as discussed in chapter 3.3.

The trip-ticket system keeps track of transportation and the disposal of construction

waste at designated facilities (EPD 2007b, 2008d).

The HKSAR Government also provides and increased variety of waste facilities,

besides landfills for disposal, including fill reception facilities, two barging points,

two fill banks and one recycling facility, two sorting facilities and three landfills, for

handling and receiving construction waste, as discussed in chapters 3.5 and 3.6 (EPD,

2008b).

However, besides taking up these core roles of government in construction waste

management, limited effort has been taken by the government to create incentives to

the private market and encourage them to implement waste reduction measures. The

only incentive provided is the waste charging scheme.

116

Moreover, the government is trying hard to stay away from implementing any

mandatory measures. It is the governance culture in Hong Kong that the government

should try all possible measures, including administrative measures, before

considering the proposal of a new legislation. The government explains that the

legislative procedure in Hong Kong is very robust and it is difficult to balance the

interests of all interest groups. Moreover, the government believes a package of

associated and supportive measures should be in play as to ensure efficient and

effective execution, effective performance, monitoring and enforcement before the

passing of a new legislation (Chung, 2008; Lai, 2008).

In addition, since the reduction and recovery for construction waste was first set in the

Waste Reduction Framework Plan (1998) (and were achieved long time ago) no new

targets have been set for the current construction waste situation.

Supportive Measures

The HKSAR Government is very passive. No particular efforts, thereafter, have been

taken to implement any supportive measures to facilitate the development of a local

construction waste industry and cultivate the construction waste market or exercise

any mandatory measures to ensure stakeholders incorporate waste reduction measures

into their usual practices. After the waste charging scheme took into effect in 2006,

the Government has no plans for more action in the future. Interviews have been

conducted with the EPD to better understand the reasons of the government for not

taking these supportive and mandatory measures. Table 4.13 lists the reasons for

government inaction towards adopting particular measures.

117

Education on Waste Management Knowledge and Awareness Building

There is no incentive for government to provide education on the knowledge and skills

in construction waste management, except for some guidelines and booklets they have

published to promote waste management to construction staff. The government does

not assume its responsibility is to educate and train stakeholders in the construction

industry. The government thinks that the industry owns better knowledge, skills and

expertise than the government does in construction waste management in addition to

being more well informed with the latest news on waste technologies and management

concepts (Chan, 2008a; Ng, 2008).

Supporting the Creation of Markets for Recycled Materials

The government is also very hesitant in supporting the recycling industry in Hong

Kong since this might trigger discontentment from other industries who are not

granted any support by the government. Moreover, the government could not support

the local recycling industry by procuring recycled products made in Hong Kong due to

the high respect the government pays to the spirit of the World Trade Organization

(Ibid.). Other measures that could create markets for recycled materials include the

use of public fill and recycled aggregates in government projects. The government,

however, thinks it is sometimes difficult to coordinate the trading of public fill,

especially for projects with tight schedules. The supply of fill is also not promising;

therefore, sourcing sometimes is a problem (Ibid.). The government, therefore, needs

to ensure the constant and sufficient supply of these materials in the market before

implementing this action. The application of recycled materials in the construction

industry is very limited since they are considered low-grade materials. In addition, the

production of these recycled aggregates is expensive since a number of tests are

required to ensure good quality control (Ibid.).

118

Fostering Communication and Co-operation among Stakeholders and Supporting

Technological Innovations

Fostering communication and co-operation among stakeholders and supporting

technological innovations in the construction waste industry are not regarded by the

government as part of its responsibility. No funding is provided by the government to

encourage technological innovations. The importance of building connections within

the industry and technological innovations is ignored (Fong, 2008).

The fact that the government has no incentives to implement any supportive measures

and create more incentives to the private sectors by mandatory measures as discussed

above could explain why the development of the construction waste industry in Hong

Kong is slow and of limited variety with only a small number of businesses involved.

Large multi-national waste management companies would not be attracted to invest in

the market of Hong Kong.

The HKSAR Government, however, is trying to set itself up as a good model to

demonstrate waste reduction practices to the private sector. It makes good use of its

role as a client of construction projects and incorporates a series of waste reduction

initiatives to the project tender and specifications. Government projects, as

constructed strictly by contractors, who follow those stringent waste reduction

measures specified in the project tender and specifications, demonstrate examples of

good practices to the private sector. However, it is still voluntary for the private sector

to decide whether they would implement these waste reduction measures (ETWB,

2005).

119

4.2 Roles of Private Sector in Construction Waste Management

The involvement of the private sector in construction waste management in Hong

Kong is very limited. It is confined to waste collection and separation by construction

contractors on-site and transportation by haulers from construction sites to designated

facilities. After the waste charging, more variety of waste facilities has been observed

to be provided by the private sector, such as private sorting facilities which provide

cheaper options than the two sorting facilities provided by the government (i.e.

cheaper than $100 per tonne). More recyclables collection and recycling services have

been provided by small enterprises which could collect and sort out recyclables for

contractors at a rate lower than disposing them in government waste facilities (Fong,

2008; Tse, 2008). All government facilities for construction waste are, however, built

and operated by the private sector under the BOT contracts. Some businesses also

entered the market to provide waste equipment leasing services to contractors to sort,

contain and store waste on-site. Other businesses, including environmental training

agencies, large-scale waste management and solutions companies or consultants, well-

developed recyclers and large-scale recycling plants, exchange platforms providers,

research and development companies and industry associations particularly for

construction waste management, however, are hardly to be found in the industry in the

near future since the construction waste industry is not facilitated to grow and the

government does not have incentives to cultivate a construction waste market in Hong

Kong.

The coordination and linkages among the stakeholders in the construction waste

industry are still very weak. It is difficult to imagine the private sector would take a

proactive role in practicing waste reduction initiates when there are limited incentives

120

created to the private sector by the government. The primary objective of these

stakeholders to enter into businesses is to make profits. With regards to construction

waste management, the stakeholders are very responsive and are only motivated to

comply with legislations. Since there is no legislation particularly for construction

waste besides the charging scheme, there is no incentive to implement waste reduction

measures except for public projects where waste reduction practices are required by

project specifications and project tenders. Moreover, waste reduction is not yet

incorporated into the culture of the industry and it is not yet become a usual practice

or a norm in the industry. Unless particular waste reduction practices offered co-

benefits to the stakeholders that could benefit their businesses, such as cost-saving,

compliance to legislations and meeting safety requirements, the stakeholders would

have no incentives to implement them. Building a green company image through

waste reduction, is unfortuantely, not yet an attraction for many stakeholders since

waste reduction is only one of the small elements in green image building which is

usually weighted less than energy saving and other green construction features (Chan,

2008b; Kwan, 2008; Tse, 2008).

Table 4.11 Roles of HKSAR Government in Construction Waste Management

Roles of Government at the Early Stage of Construction Waste Industry Development

Roles of HKSAR Government in Construction Waste Management

Core Roles:

• Setting up Legislative Framework • Setting up Institutional and Administrative Frameworks

• Enforcement and Monitoring

• Provision of Waste Treatment and Disposal Facilities • Targets and Directions Setting

X

• Creating Incentives to the Private Market, e.g. financial (e.g. waste charging) and non-financial (i.e. voluntary and mandatory)

Supportive Roles:

X • Education on Waste Management Knowledge and Awareness Building

• Fostering communication, co-operation and information

sharing among stakeholders

X

X • Technological innovations and imports of technologies • Supporting the Creation of Markets for Recycled Materials

X

121

122

Table 4.12: Roles of Government and Roles of Private Sector in Construction Waste Industry in Hong Kong

Construction Waste Industry in Hong Kong

Core Roles of Government • Setting up Legislative Framework • Setting up Institutional and Administrative Frameworks • Enforcement and Monitoring • Provision of Waste Treatment and Disposal Facilities • Creating Financial Incentives to the Private Market (i.e. waste

charging)

Other Supportive or Optional Roles of Government

---------- ----------

Other Stakeholders Involved in the Industry

• Developers • Materials Suppliers • Machines Suppliers • Waste Handling Equipment Suppliers • Labour Training Institutions • Construction Contractors • Construction Labours • Haulers • Scavengers • Recycling Companies or Recyclers • Private Waste Facilities Providers, e.g. sorting and recycling • Property Companies • End Users • Other Businesses

Roles of the Private Sector • Waste Collection

• Waste Separation • Waste Transportation • Waste Sorting and Recycling • Provision of Waste Treatment Facilities, e.g. sorting and recycling

and Operating Government’s Facilities under BOT Contracts

Figure 4.11: Flow Chart Showing Construction Waste Industry in Hong Kong

• Legislative Framework • Institutional and

Administrative Frameworks • Enforcement and Monitoring • Waste Charging • Waste Reduction Initiatives

Developer Government

Waste Equipment Supplier

Machine Supplier

GovernmentContractor

Labour Training

Labour

Materials Supplier

Hauler Property Company

Scavenger

Recycler End User

Disposal Facilities Operated by Private Sector under BOT

Contracts

Sorting and Recycling Facilities

Provided by the Private Sector

123

Table 4.13 Reasons for the HKSAR Government Not Taking Particular Actions and Supportive Measures

Measures Not Taken by the HKSAR Government Reasons for Not Taking Actions

Core Roles:

• Creating Incentives to Private Market

- Mandatory Measures

It is the governance culture in Hong Kong that the government should try all possible measures, including administrative measures, before considering the proposal of a new legislation. The government explains that the legislative procedure in Hong Kong is very robust and it is difficult to balance the interests for all interest groups. Moreover, the government believes a package of associated and supportive measures should be in play so as to ensure efficient and effective execution, effective performance, monitoring and enforcement before the passing of a new legislation. Supportive Measures:

The government does not assume its responsibility in educating and training the stakeholders in the construction industry. The government thinks that the industry owns better knowledge, skills and expertise than the government does in construction waste management as well as the latest news on waste technologies and management concepts.

• Education on Waste Management Knowledge and Awareness Building

It does not assume its responsibility in facilitating the communications among stakeholders and leave it completely to the private sector.

• Fostering Communication, Co-operation and Information Sharing among Stakeholders

The importance is ignored. • Technological Innovations and Imports of Technologies

• Supporting the Creation of Markets for Recycled Materials

It is sometimes difficult to coordinate the trading of public fill, especially for projects with tight schedule. Moreover, the supply of fill is not promising; therefore, sourcing sometimes is a problem. The government, however, needs to ensure the constant and sufficient supply of these materials in the market before implementing this action. The application of recycled materials in construction industry is very limited since they are considered as low-grade materials. In addition, the production of these recycled aggregates is expensive since a number of tests are required to ensure good quality control.

- The Use of Public Fill and Recycled Aggregates in Public Works

the government could not support the local recycling industry by procuring recycled products made in Hong Kong due to the high respect the government pays to the spirit of the World Trade Organization.

- Procuring Recycled Products Produced Locally in Public Projects

The government is hesitated since giving assistances to one industry might trigger the discontentment from other industries who are not granted any supports by the government.

- Assistances to Recycling Industry

Source: Chan, 2008a; Ng, 2008

124

125

4.3 Roles of Stakeholders in the Private Sector and Actions Taken to Reduce

and Manage Construction Waste

Stakeholders involved in the private sector of Hong Kong’s construction waste

industry include developers, project designers, materials suppliers, machine suppliers,

waste handling equipment suppliers, labour training institutions, construction labours,

construction contractors, haulers, scavengers, recyclers, private waste facility

providers, property companies and end users. All these stakeholders enter into the

market for profit making and, thus, their primary concern is to generate revenue,

except for labour training institutions which are also intended to provide qualified

labours to the industry with subsidies from the government. Figure 4.4 provides a

summary of the stakeholders involved in the construction waste industry and their

actions taken in construction waste management.

Given that the primary objective of these stakeholders is to earn profit, any incentives

which could affect the costs or profits of their businesses could shape their business

decisions, behavior and practices, depending on the magnitude of the influence.

Financial incentives affect the cost of production and therefore could change the

behaviour of stakeholders.

Non-financial incentives, such as voluntary schemes, green branding and green

awards could only work if the market has developed a culture that values

environmental commitments and credit is placed onto companies with good waste

management practices by end users. However, environmentally friendly construction

practices and waste reduction measures are not valued highly by end users when

making purchasing choices since it provides no direct benefits to the end users, unlike

126

other green building features such as energy saving which save cost from reducing

power consumption or green balconies which provide better living environment within

the apartments (Chan, 2008b). Waste reduction has also not yet become a common

norm or a usual practice in Hong Kong’s construction industry. It is valued low among

all other environmental elements which could earn companies a green image.

Therefore, environmental protection or waste reduction is simply a marketing

gimmick. Only when the waste reduction measures provide co-benefits which could

benefit businesses, will they be adopted by the stakeholders (Chan, 2008b; Tse, 2008).

Besides profits, if the measures could also provide benefits to stakeholders for

complying with laws and meeting project specifications, such as work safety on site

construction sites, they would be adopted by the stakeholders. Finally, one of the non-

financial incentives which could change the behavior of stakeholders is mandatory

measures (Chan, 2008b). Under this, stakeholders are required to implement waste

reduction measure by law. However, no such mandatory measures are currently

required of the private sector to carry out waste reduction practices at different stages

of construction. Only some waste reduction measures are required for public projects

by administrative measures.

The waste charging scheme on construction waste, however, targets primarily the

contractors at the operation of construction. The waste charge takes up only an

insignificant portion of the total cost of construction. Therefore, it has no effect on

developers. Developers are only concerned about whether the construction projects

comply with the laws (Ibid.). As shown in Table 4.31, only stakeholders who are

affected by the waste charging scheme and who are taking part in the construction for

public projects have incentives to take action on waste reduction. However, the efforts

127

spent on taking these actions are still low and, apparently, more actions could be taken

by every stakeholder in the industry, as listed out in Table 2.51, if stronger incentives

are provided to the private sector.

For example, waste reduction measures are practiced by construction contractors for

public projects as required by the government; since costs could possibly be reduced

and cost savings could be shared by both the client (i.e. government or developers)

and contractors, alternative project designs and construction methods which could

minimize waste generation would be suggested to the clients. Contractors would also

build linkages with contractors in other projects, haulers, recyclers and materials

suppliers so that the cost of disposing waste could be saved by transporting waste to

places where they could be utilized, for instance, recyclers collect recyclables,

contractors of other projects may receive the inert materials and use them at their sites

and arranging with materials suppliers to take back surplus materials. As well, haulers

would try to coordinate with other construction constructors and facility providers to

transport inert materials, recyclables and waste to places which could utilize the

construction waste for other purposes and so to save costs by transporting theses

materials to places located in a shorter distance from the construction site. Recently,

developers began to adopt low-waste construction methods, including component

construction method and replacing wooden panels with metal panels for formwork.

The switch to these construction methods are induced not because of waste reduction,

but the co-benefits these two methods provided on shortening the project schedule and

giving more control over the project time (Chan, 20081; Tse, 2008).

Table 4.31 Roles of Stakeholders Involved and Waste Reduction Measures Taken in Construction Waste Management in Hong Kong

Stakeholder Objective Roles in Construction Projects Actions Taken on Construction Waste Management Government Doing for the benefits of the society

and the general public - Setting up legislative, institutional and

administrative frameworks; - Enforcement and monitoring; - Targets and directions setting; - Providing waste treatment and disposal

facilities; - Being a client who initiates construction

projects and specify what, how and where the construction should be built

- Managing waste by legislative and administrative measures - Waste Charging - Providing waste treatment and disposal facilities; - Specifying waste reduction requirements in the project

specifications and project tenders for public projects

Developer Profit making; Primary concern is to build, sell and earn profits; prefer short project schedule and cost saving

- a client of construction contractors who initiates construction projects and specifies what, how and where the construction should be built

- Complying to laws; - Adopting component construction methods; - Replacing Wooden Panels with Metal Panels for Formwork

Project Designer Profit making; Meeting specifications required by clients (i.e. developers or government)

- Designing how construction project to be built and construction methods for developers

---------- ----------

Materials Supplier

Profit Making; Primary concern is to sell materials as many as possible for profits

- Selling construction materials to construction contractors

---------- ----------

Machine Supplier

Profit Making; Primary concern is to sell construction machines and equipments as many as possible for profits

- Selling construction machines and equipments to construction contractors

---------- ----------

Waste Handling Equipment Supplier

Profit Making; Primary concern is to sell and lease waste handling equipments as many as possible for profits

- Selling waste handling equipments or providing lending services of waste handling equipments, e.g. waste containers, to construction contractors

- Selling waste handling equipments or providing leasing services of waste handling equipments, e.g. waste containers, to construction contractors

Labour Training Institution

Could be driven by profit-making or voluntary to provide benefits to the industry and society; Primary concern is to train qualified labours for construction works

- Training labours for construction industry, including scaffolding, formwork, cement forming and etc.

- Granting certifications and qualifications to qualified labours

- Some courses are offered to train labours on proper waste management in construction site and low-waste construction methods

128

Stakeholder Objective Roles in Construction Projects Actions Taken on Construction Waste Management Construction Labour

Working for salary and job satisfaction; Prefer stable work schedule and no changing in the requirements for new skills and knowledge

- Carrying out construction works on-site, including scaffolding, formwork, cement forming and etc.

- Recyclables with high values, i.e. metals and cardboards are sorted out for extra earning by selling the recyclables to recyclers

Construction Contractor

Profit Making; Prefer short and well-scheduled project time and cost saving; Meeting the requirements as specified by the government or developers on project specifications and project tenders

- Managing and carrying out construction operations, including site layout planning, logistic planning and etc.

- Conducting and Managing waste reduction practices on-site during construction operations; Incorporating waste management plan and waste reduction measures in the site layout plan and logistic plan during the planning stage; Promoting awareness on waste reduction to construction staffs for public projects as required on project specifications and project tenders

- Suggesting to developers or government waste reduction construction methods and practices if there is cost saving and the saving is shared by both the client and the contractor;

- Building linkages to other stakeholders in the supply chain to maximize the chances for transporting inert materials to projects nearby which may want the inert materials and transporting recyclables to recyclers or scavengers so as to reduce the cost of disposal

Hauler Profit Making; Prefer to save costs

by traveling shorter distance than initially required by projects

- Transporting recyclables and construction waste to designated destinations

- Avoiding flytpping and transporting waste to designated sites by the trip ticket system for public projects;

- Coordinating with construction constructors to transport waste to places which could utilize the construction waste for other purposes for sharing the money saved from transporting the waste to destinations in a shorter distance

Scavenger Profit Making; Prefer to pick up

uncontaminated recyclables as many as possible for profits

- Picking up recyclables with good market and high value for reselling them to recyclers

- Picking up recyclables with good market and high value for reselling them to recyclers;

- Coordinating with construction contractors for sorting waste sand picking up recyclables

Recycler Profit Making; Prefer to recycle

materials at low cost and sell them at a price that could make a profit; Prefer to have a bigger market receiving recycled products

- Recycling collected construction waste into new products, e.g. rock pieces and concrete are recycled into aggregates for cement production

- Coordinating with construction contractors, scavengers and haulers to pick up waste from construction sites

129

Stakeholder Objective Roles in Construction Projects Actions Taken on Construction Waste Management Private Waste Facility Provider or Operator

Profit Making; Prefer to have constant supply of waste to utilize the facilities

- Providing or operating waste facilities such as sorting, recycling and disposal facilities

- Providing or operating waste facilities including sorting, recycling facilities;

- Operating government’s facilities under BOT Contracts

Property Company

Profit making; Primary concern is to sell property at high price

- Marketing the new construction to the market and selling them for profits ---------- ----------

End Users/ Consumers

Purchasing property with desired properties at low price; waste reduction in construction is, however, not a credit for most of the end users in making choices of purchasing property

- Purchasing desired properties ---------- ----------

Source: (Chan 2008a, 2008b; Fong, 2008; Kwan, 2008; Tse, 2008; Ng, 2008)

130

131

V. BARRIERS OF CONSTRUCTION WASTE MANAGEMENT IN HONG

KONG

Lack of Strong Government Will

The HKSAR Government lacks a strong will to reduce construction waste.

Construction waste management and reduction was first initiated by the government in

the Waste Reduction Framework Plan (1998) and was revised in 2001. Since then, no

target and clear direction has been set out for managing construction waste. Among all

measures suggested in the Framework Plan, including a landfill charging scheme, on-

site/off-site sorting, reuse and recycling and avoiding and minimizing construction

materials through better design and construction management, only waste charging

was eventually implemented in 2006. This was the only effort made after the issue

was raised in 1998. Waste sorting is only required for public projects. Only one or two

pilot projects have been taken to adopt low-waste construction design and methods.

No effort has been made to promote and allow the reuse or recycling of construction

waste.

Besides waste charging, the government does not implement any supportive measures

or mandatory measures for managing construction waste. Based on the limitations of

waste charging as discussed in Chapter 2.7, mandatory measures and supportive

measures on education, technological innovations, facilitating cooperation among

stakeholders and support for the creation of markets for recycled products are crucial

and mandatory in supporting the development of a local industry as well as in the

success of reducing construction waste.

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The interview results for reasons the government is not taking these supportive and

mandatory measures are shown in Table 7.13.. It suggests that the primary barrier

hindering government’s efforts in construction waste management is the absence of

government will. All stakeholders interviewed by this study rejected the reasons

provided by the government for not taking action and regarded them as excuses for

hiding the true reason – the government’s lack in strong will. The will to reduce

construction waste is held back so often and motivation is lost whenever the

government has to overcome challenges. This is attributed to the governance culture in

Hong Kong. The government is trying to not make errors and is unwilling to accept

the iterative process of learning by making mistakes in policy formulation (Chung,

2008; Lai, 2008). This is further explored in the following section.

No-Error Mindset Embedded in Government Culture

The HKSAR Government is very cautious about its actions. It is characteristic of the

governance in Hong Kong that government departments try hard to avoid making

errors. Politically, they are unwilling to upset the interests of any social groups. They

would take actions and implement measures only if they are sure that all supporting

conditions are in play to allow high compliance and these actions would not trigger

any discontentment from any social groups. The government is also unwilling to take

risks where the actual results of the actions taken might deviate from what is expected.

As a result, few aggressive and rigorous measures have adopted by the government

(Chan, 2008a; Chung, 2008; Fong, 2008; Lai, 2008). This also explains why limited

efforts have been observed to be taken by the government thus far and reasons

explaing why they are reluctant in taking any mandatory measures to deal with

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construction waste even though they are commonly adopted in many overseas

countries with good performances achieved in managing their construction waste.

This is, however, a wrong belief as the government wants a no mistakes when

implementing new policy. As seen from the experiences in numerous countries, many

successful environmental policies have continuously been amended and evolved by

learning from making errors over time. It is impractical to delay the implementation of

policies which could benefit our society as a whole and devote efforts only to plan for

a perfect policy that contains no error. The HKSAR government does not possess the

courage to face errors and take critical feedback from society (Chung, 2008; Fong,

2008; Lai, 2008).

Inefficient Legislative Procedure and Administrative System

Dr. Shan-shan Chung (2008) commented that the Legislative Council is the biggest

barrier hindering the implementation of environmental management in Hong Kong.

Council members elected for representing voices from very different sectors have their

own vested interests. These council members are serving the interest not necessarily

for environmental protection and environment protection could be undervalued in the

decision making process. Therefore, legislative measures which are beneficial to the

environment could be prohibited by reasons other than the interests for the

environment. It is, however, impossible to please everyone’s interests when

formulating new regulations and policies. It is, in other words, also impossible to

improve our environment without accepting any tradeoffs from other interests. For

example, the interest of commercial loggers for logging more trees would have to be

forgone for protecting a forest.

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The administrative system in Hong Kong is inefficient in managing environmental

issues. Administrative officers, who are supposed to make decisions on the

implementation of environmental measures and formulate policies on environmental

management, are not well trained with environmental knowledge and lack training to

have strong awareness regarding environmental protection. Moreover, they are posted

to different bureaus and departments at a regular interval, usually every two to three

years. Under this arrangement, it is difficult for these administrative officers to build

up a long-sighted perspective in making decisions on environmental issues and this

may encourage the culture of not making mistakes during their terms of service

(Chung, 2008; Lai, 2008). This, therefore, results in the deficiency of the HKSAR

Government to make decisions in managing environmental issues independently and

properly. Instead, it needs to rely on private consultants for advice.

Insufficient Incentives to Stakeholders

The HKSAR Government has not provided sufficient incentives to the industry. Only

waste charging has been implemented and waste reduction measures are required only

for public projects by administrative measures. No mandatory incentives are provided

to require stakeholders to carry out waste reduction practices at different stages of

construction.

As discussed in Chapter 7, waste charging on construction waste, however, targets

primarily the contractors for the operation of construction projects; it has no effect on

developers since the waste charge takes up an insignificant portion of the total cost of

the construction. As shown in Table 7.31, the efforts taken for waste reduction by

stakeholders in the private sector are still very limited.

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Insufficient Incentives for Private Projects to Implement Waste Reduction Measures

Presently only limited financial incentives induced by the waste charging scheme are

provided for private projects to implement waste reduction measures. Besides this, no

mandatory measure or administrative measure is providing more incentives for private

projects to implement waste reduction measures. No waste management and reduction

measures would be implemented unless they are required by developers in the project

specifications or they are required by law. Without creating sufficient incentives for

developers to incorporate the concept of low-waste construction in their project

specifications, there would be no incentives for stakeholders in the later stage of the

supply chain, such as project designers and contractors, to reduce waste unless there is

a reasonable cost saving generated through waste reduction.

No Attention on Waste Reduction at the Planning and Design Stage

Although all public projects are required to implement a series of waste management

and reduction measures by project specifications and project tenders, waste avoidance

and minimization alternatives on project designs and construction methods and

decisions regarding whether the new construction or the demolition of existing

structures are needed, are not strictly required. The attempts on incorporating waste

reduction at the planning and design stage through adopting waste avoidance and

minimization designs and construction methods as well as the use of recycled

materials into new constructions have only been made in one or two pilot projects

undertaken by the Hong Kong Housing Department (EPD, 2008f).

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Lacking of a Well-Developed Recycling Industry and a Market for Recycled Products

Currently, only metals, cardboard and hard inert materials including rock pieces and

concrete from construction waste can be recycled into new products. Although almost

all materials in construction waste (i.e. plastics, glass, timber, paper, cardboard, metals,

organic matters and inert materials) can be recycled technically by today’s

technologies, they are not sorted out and collected for recycling.

The first reason is that there is a lack of markets for recycled products. Market values

of recycled products are low and these materials could not be recycled into new

products at a cost economically competitive to virgin materials. According to a

Legislative Council (2007)’s paper, LC Paper No. CB(1) 1182/06-07(03), on

“Updated Background Brief on Management of Construction and Demolition

Materials”, the construction industry tended not to use recycled materials in building

projects owing to the abundant supply of natural rock materials which were of better

quality and less expensive. The provisions in the Buildings Ordinance (Cap. 123),

moreover, limited the application of recycled materials in the construction industry

and prevented the use of recycled materials in building works. Recycled materials of

good quality could only be used for road works rather than large-scale building

projects. Without a market for recycled products, construction materials are not given

good value to be sorted out and collected for recycling.

The second reason is that there are no such recycling facilities available in Hong Kong

to recycle many of the recyclable materials produced at construction sites. This is, in

fact, a consequence of the first reason. No business will invest in recycling these

materials if they could be not recycled into new products economically competitively.

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Currently, almost all collected materials are shipped and recycled overseas. They are

only processed mechanically into the right shape or packaged for easy transportation

in Hong Kong. Without a well-developed recycling industry in Hong Kong as a

backbone to provide facilities to receive and process the construction materials, only a

very small portion of construction waste and only few types of materials are recovered

for recycling.

Conflicting Objectives and Confusion of Jurisdictions across Government

Departments

As discussed in Chapter 3.3, construction waste management is under the jurisdiction

of a number of different departments and construction waste is thus jointly managed

and enforced. These departments, however, serve for very different objectives. Only

the EPD is working for the protection of the environment, while other departments are

not.

In addition, the administration of construction waste management is confusing

because the division of duties between the EPD and the CEDD on construction waste

management is complicated. Both departments are involved in the implementation of

most measures such as the provision of waste facilities and the implementation of the

charging scheme and the trip-ticket system.

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VI. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS AND POSSIBLE ROLES OF HKSAR

GOVERNMENT

There exists a challenge in dealing with the increasing stockpiling of inert materials in

fill banks whose contracts might be expired very soon and to divert construction waste

at landfills. To address this obstacle, the HKSAR Government needs to take more

proactive actions to reduce the overall generation of construction waste; for inert

materials, recyclables and mixed construction waste that can not be reused or recycled.

The Government should also provide and maximize the possibilities to reuse and

recycle construction materials. One method of achieving this would be to transport

the material to places that will use this material appropriately and in turn, this will

attract more investment to open up more channels to collect and recycle wider ranges

of recyclables, .Here below are some policy recommendations that the HKSAR

government should consider seriously for providing more long-term solutions to the

construction waste challenge.

Strong Government Will and Proactive Role

The government shall prepare to take risks and learn from making errors through

continuous effort. It is impractical to spend too much time and effort on the planning

stage to try to develop a plan with no errors. It would be much more useful to put this

time into the use test trials of the actual implementation to spot any inefficiencies that

may be present. The recent successful stories of Japan, Taiwan and Singapore also

underwent a nurturing period for about a decade (Chung, 2008).

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It is impractical for the government to take actions only if all enabling and supportive

conditions are in play. It is really a chicken-and-egg syndrome for the fact that these

conditions would not take place in the market unless the government sets out

definitive directions and creates incentives to allow the market to take responses. For

example, it is impractical to make sure there is sufficient supply of recycled products

in the market before it promotes the industry to use recycled materials. Since no

businesses would invest in supplying recycled materials unless they could anticipate a

growing demand from the strong targets and market directions set out by the

government (Fong, 2008). Therefore, the enabling environment for construction waste

management needs to be cultivated slowly with the interplaying actions between the

government and the private sector.

The government should prepare to accept higher costs and slower efficiency during

the learning period. It takes time for the market to react and restructure before

economic efficiency is reached. It takes time for the private sector to invest and

develop private waste management facilities and services and even more time for the

market to accept the uses of recycled material in high-value applications (Ibid.).

The government should also mandate good waste management practices for all

projects since this bring significant benefits to the society. The implementation of

actions which are beneficial to the society as a whole should not be hindered by the

vested interests of others, as they may be conflicting to the interests of the society.

Hong Kong is unlike many developed countries where the management of

construction waste is under the jurisdiction of the state and city governments. Hong

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Kong should still hold strong political views and set out overriding goals for bureaus

and departments to follow and achieve.

Revising the Waste Charging Scheme

The construction waste charging scheme is successful in encouraging the trading of

fill materials across projects although it does not create sufficient incentive to

encourage contractors to adopt most of the waste reduction measures unless they are

required by-laws or under project specifications. Transporting the fill materials to

projects nearby could reduce transportation cost. Moreover, the fill supplying

contractor could also save the fee of $27 per tonne for disposing the inert materials to

the fill banks.

This creates a win-win situation that benefits four stakeholders: the government, the

fill-supplying contractor, the fill-receiving project and the hauler. When inert

materials are diverted from the fill banks; contractors could dispose its fill materials at

a cost cheaper than disposing them into the fill banks; the fill-receiving sites could

obtain inert materials that they need in addition to extra earnings by charging fill-

supplying contractors with a fee lower than that of disposing the materials into the fill

banks; and haulers benefit from transporting the fill materials to a fill-receiving site at

a shorter distance than to the fill banks (Tse, 2008).

The HKSAR Government could regularly revise the prices set for the charging

scheme. This may allow the internalization of the full costs of construction waste

management to the polluters as well as create stronger incentives for them to adopt

other waste reduction practices.

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The Need for Mandatory and Supportive Measures

It is a very valid move of the government to implement waste charging and to create

incentives to the private sector and allow opportunities for more businesses entering

the market. The next step is to implement supportive and mandatory measures.

As discussed in chapter 2.7, the effectiveness of the current waste charging scheme is

limited to the level of waste reduction at the optimal economically efficient level for

its best achievement. It is not allied with the level of waste control politically

demanded by the government. Currently there is an increased urgency in Hong Kong

as landfill spaces for construction waste would be totally exhausted in six-year time

and the provision of spaces for stockpiling the inert materials might be terminated by

2009 (Chan, 2008a; EPD, 2008a). The HKSAR Government needs an absolute

reduction target far more aggressive than the level that could be possibly achieved by

simply introducing the waste charging scheme. Mandatory measures are greatly

required to ensure all projects, including the private projects implement waste

reduction practices as listed out in Table 2.51.

Moreover, supportive measures on education, technological innovations, facilitating

cooperation among stakeholders and support for the creation of markets for recycled

products are needed to facilitate the development of a local construction waste

industry. This is important due to the fact that uncertainty and risk are still high at the

early stage of industry development which leads businesses with a lack of incentives

to invest. Government plays a very important role as a facilitator to assist stakeholders

to get involved in the industry and develop linkages amongst themselves.

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Create Bigger Incentives to Stakeholders

To create effective incentives to stakeholders, measures have to be targeted towards

the objectives of these stakeholders as listed out in Table 2.71. The primary concerns

in the construction industry are always profit making, cost saving (i.e. building and

transportation) and project time. Image building is a less important motive which

would be considered only if it could bring significant benefits to the businesses and

the implementation of these waste reduction measures do not pose tradeoffs with

higher cost and longer construction periods. Therefore, the primary motive for

implementing waste management measures is very often not environmental protection.

To attract the stakeholders to incorporate waste management and reduction into the

construction practices, the waste management measures have to provide co-benefits

which could create sufficient attraction to stakeholders (Chan, 2008b; Tse, 2008). For

example, developers and contractors may be attracted to the co-benefits of the

provisions of conditions to comply with laws such as providing a safe working

environment to meet the safety requirements in construction sites, lower construction

costs and shortening of construction periods. Haulers may be attracted to any

opportunities that reduce transportation cost especially when oil price remain high.

Moreover, the many benefits of waste reduction measures should also be

communicated to the developers so that they could require their project designers and

contractors to adopt waste avoidance designs and construction methods at the planning

stage as well as to implement waste reduction practices during construction. It is

important to correct the misunderstanding within the construction industry that the

implementation of waste reduction practices require higher costs and longer project

times. In fact, the implementation of waste management measures would not delay the

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project schedule or increase the cost. Having good pre-construction planning and by

building co-operation among stakeholders in the supply chain, these actions generate a

lot of cost savings and other co-benefits (i.e. improved safety, lower project cost,

reduction of construction period and better control over labours and project schedule)

(Fong, 2008; Tse, 2008). For example, the use of reusable metal formwork can allow

contractors more flexibility in controlling the project schedule by adjusting the

number of labour teams employed for the project and the modular building designs

provide promising quality and reduce the construction period.

Fostering Communications, Connections and Co-operations among Stakeholders

Construction waste exists because materials are not placed at the right places and used

for appropriate applications. Waste produced at one construction site could be inputs

for other productions. Communications, linkages and co-operation among

stakeholders in the supply chain could maximize the chances for reusing surplus

materials and recycling recyclables by transporting materials to places where they can

be utilized (Tse, 2008).

For example, with better coordination arranged among contractors, haulers, materials

suppliers, recyclers, scavengers and project contractors for other projects, recyclers

and scavengers could help sort and collect recyclables from construction sites

efficiently, contractors of other projects may receive the inert materials and use them

at their sites, arrangements could be made between materials suppliers and

contractors to take back surplus materials. Finally, haulers could try to coordinate

with other construction constructors and facility providers to transport inert materials,

recyclables and waste to places which could utilize the construction waste for other

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purposes and accrue savings in disposal costs. Benefits of these cost savings could be

shared among these stakeholders and this creates more incentive for them to reduce

waste through collective efforts (Tse, 2008).

The HKSAR Government, therefore, shall provide a database of stakeholders involved

in the construction industry and create platforms for the exchange of information, such

as workshops and online platforms, in cooperation with the two industry associations

in Hong Kong, the Real Estate Developers Association of Hong Kong (REDA) and

the Hong Kong Construction Association (HKCA).

Technological Innovations and Creativity in Reducing, Sorting, Reuse and Recycling

of Construction Materials

To support the initiatives of reduction, reuse and recycling of construction materials,

technological innovations and research are needed to explore new ways for waste

reduction, waste sorting and materials reuse and recycling. Some examples include:

low-waste construction methods and waste avoiding designs to minimize the

generation of waste, technologies with better capability to sort out construction waste

into wider range by type and by size for reuse and recycling, new construction

materials and construction methods which could optimize the uses of unwanted

construction materials in materials production and new constructions, technologies

which are capable to recycle wider range of recyclables, and innovative new waste

management concepts.

According to the view of Mr. Winston Fong (2008), senior engineer for the CEDD,

who is in charge of the government’s recycling facility for hard inert materials, Hong

Kong is currently under a threat of impeding supply of aggregates and sands for

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construction due to the shortage of supply in the global market. Hong Kong has been

relying on the import from China and the prices of construction materials have been

increasing significantly in the recent years. To reduce the reliance on foreign import

and to achieve local sustainability, the government should start searching for and

developing technologies to produce some of these construction materials locally

before Hong Kong is impeded from importing these materials due to the global

shortage.

Innovations and creativity are required to create breakthrough and new insights to our

conservative ways of construction and the use of materials. We should try to explore

new construction methods and new materials for construction depending on what we

could obtain locally or could be sustainably supplied in the global market. It has been

seen that very different materials have been used for construction in many foreign

places depending on what they could obtain.

In support of the above efforts, the HKSAR Government needs to provide funding and

establish research institutions for research and development on technologies for

construction waste management.

Creation of Markets for Recycled Products

Construction materials would not be sorted out at the first place if there is no recycling

facility available to accept them. Supporting a recycling industry by creating markets

for recyclables, therefore, is crucial in maximizing the opportunities of material

recovery. Acceptance to the use of recycled materials is not yet developed in the

construction industry in Hong Kong. It is not a common practice for contractors to use

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construction materials with recycled content in buildings and for material

manufacturers to use recycled materials in producing new products, such as the use of

aggregates in producing cement (Fong, 2008).

The HKSAR Government should reveal the true message to the industry and correct

the misunderstanding that some of the recycled materials, such as aggregates, could

actually be produced at a competitive cost with the quality comparable to that of

virgin materials. The government should also provide guidelines to inform developers,

contractors and materials suppliers the uses of recycled materials in the construction

industry or other stakeholders in other industries of the applications of recycled

construction materials in other areas. Qualification labels and certifications could be

issued to recycled materials as to raise the confidence of using recycled materials in

the industry. The government could also consider making amendments to the Building

Ordinance to allow wider applications of recycled materials in building works for

high-value uses with tests conducted to ensure the quality of recycled materials.

Moreover, government as one of the biggest clients in the construction industry should

require the use of recycled materials in government’s projects in both departmental

specifications for projects and project tenders. This could set an example to showcase

the applications of recycled materials in construction to the private sector.

Understanding that the Managing Construction Waste is Expensive

Many possibilities to reduce and recover waste are, very often, thought to be

economically ineffective. This perception is in play because waste is considered to be

low-value materials; reusing and recycling waste, however, are costly and associated

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with extra labour, administrative and transportation costs as well as processing cost for

turning waste into useful products. This is a reason which is commonly used by the

government for not taking most of the waste reduction measures when the extra cost

needed compared to the estimated achievement in waste reduction is regarded as high.

This concept prohibits the implementation of many effective measures in controlling

construction waste as they are considered as economically ineffective. However, if the

cost of stockpiling waste at fill banks, the cost of disposal, the cost of shipping the

inert to China and the risk of over-reliance of imports for virgin materials are taken

into account in calculating the benefits of these waste reduction measures, the

implementation of these measures would make economical sense.

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VII. CONCLUSION

Construction waste has captured the attention of the HKSAR Government since the

last decade. The waste charging scheme was, however, only introduced very recently

in 2006. Without the government’s attention and disposal charge on construction

waste, the construction waste industry was not developed until very recently when the

opportunities to grow was created by waste charging. The industry is still at its very

early stage of development. The participation of the government in managing

construction waste is very crucial and the involvement of the private sector is still very

limited.

The HKSAR Government should take a proactive role in facilitating the development

of a local construction waste industry and encourage new businesses to enter the

market. In addition to acting on the government’s core roles of setting up legislative,

institutional and administrative frameworks for managing construction waste, setting

out targets and directions, enforcement and monitoring, providing waste treatment and

disposal and creating financial incentives to the private market, a number of

supportive measures should also be implemented by the government. These measures

include providing education regarding waste management knowledge and awareness

building, fostering communication, co-operation and information sharing among

stakeholders, encouraging technological innovations and the import of technologies

and supporting the creation of markets for recycled materials.

To solve the existing challenge in dealing with the increasing stockpiling of inert

materials in fill banks and to divert construction waste disposed of at landfills (not

only by diverting inert materials to the fill reception facilities), the HKSAR

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Government needs to take more proactive actions to reduce the overall generation of

construction waste including both inert materials, recyclables and mixed construction

waste which could not be reused or recycled. The HKSAR Government should

exercise strong political will and take proactive actions to manage and reduce

construction waste, revise the waste charging scheme to adjust fees and create stronger

incentives to the private sector to reduce waste by providing them with co-benefits,

implement mandatory and supportive measures, foster communications and

cooperation among stakeholders, support technological innovations and creativity in

the reduction, sorting, reuse and recycling of construction materials, create markets for

recycled products and incorporate the understanding that managing construction waste

is expensive into decision making for construction waste management.

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APPENDIX I Shun Tak Development Limited Director Mr. Fred C.C. Chan Senior Project Manager Mr. Patrick Kwan May 20, 2008 - The priority concerns of developers are to “build, sell and make profit”. - Regarding environmental protection, they would just try to comply with the

legislations and the specifications set out by their clients. Therefore, they would just require the contractors to comply with the legislations.

- And waste management is not an attractive area for developers to pay attention

since good waste management practice does not promise a good market and it is not a good marketing feature to the end consumers when compared with energy saving and green structures which provide more direct benefits to the end users.

- There are some motives other than environmental awareness which attract the

developers and construction contractors to implement waste reduction measures. They are the shortening of project schedule, more assured project schedule, cost saving, promising quality and better control over the construction. Relatively less important is the building of green image.

- A number of waste reduction measures are currently welcomed and relatively

widely adopted by developers and contractors for the facts that these measures provide direct benefits in terms of the project cost and schedule. It is the co-benefits that attract developers and contractors to implement waste reduction strategy. 1) Off-site, Material Fabrication – By using this construction method,

construction components and materials parts are manufactured and prepared off-site at factories. These pre-manufactured parts are then sent to the construction site and put together on site. This technology is well developed and the quality of these materials parts is very promising. Most importantly, this method allows better control over the project schedule and, at the same time, shortens the construction schedule.

2) The use of steel panels for formwork and controlling the use of timber (i.e.

formwork plywood) – steel panels could be reused more times than wooden boards which could only be used once before disposal. By training the right number of workers in teams and trimming the right number of metal boards in sets, contractors could have a good control of the construction schedule for formwork, scaffolding and concrete forming.

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- Below are the difficulties that developers are facing. These are also the reasons that developers think adopting waste management strategy is still not practical in Hong Kong for the time being.

1) No incentive since the benefits gained from practicing waste reduction

measures is low. 2) The end market does not value and appreciate the efforts on waste

management in the construction industry. Therefore, developers have no incentive to adopt waste management strategy besides complying with the legislation.

3) Hard to co-operate with contractors and suppliers – there are no sufficient conditions to encourage contractors to practise waste reduction.

4) Lack of trained staffs and environmental officers to monitor whether these waste reduction practices are in play.

5) Think that these practices may prolong the project schedule. 6) Lack of technological supports from the industry. 7) Lack of a well established recycling industry to support waste separation and

recycling of construction waste. That does not make sense for waste separation if waste separated could not be reused or recycled.

8) Waste reduction has not yet earned strong attention in the industry. - Some developers in Hong Kong have incorporated some waste reduction practices

into their codes of practices, such as the submission of a waste management plan. Most of these practices are required by the public works contracts.

- There is no incentive for developers to specify on the project specification waste

management strategy. - Developers think it is the government’s responsibilities to initiate waste

management practices and create incentives to the industry, i.e. co-benefits to implement waste management strategy such as giving bonus GFA, supporting the recycling industry and providing supports to the construction industry such as training, experience sharing and technological transfer. The construction industry associations including the Real Estate Developers Association of Hong Kong (REDA) and the Hong Kong Construction Association (HKCA) who play significant roles in initiating this change.

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Council for Sustainable Development First Engagement Process on Solid Waste Management Convener Ir. Albert K.T. Lai May 21, 2008 - The HKSAR Government plays a special and significant role in managing

construction waste. It is because construction waste is an outcome of market failure (i.e. negative externality) and the participation of government, therefore, is needed to deal with the problem.

- The government could play three roles in construction waste management – 1)

market creation, 2) regulator, and 3) users (i.e. the government shall use the recycled materials in public projects and set itself as examples of best practices.

- The government, therefore, shall 1) implement waste charging to internalize the

cost of creating construction waste which was implemented by the government years ago, 2) to prevent leakages, i.e. to avoid fly-tipping, and 3) provide incentives to create a market for construction waste. The stakeholders in the market would take responses and everything would be in play then in the free market.

- The government in Hong Kong is lacking of a strong political view to implement

waste reduction strategy for the culture of “not-in-my-term-of-office” featuring the governance in Hong Kong.

- Since the governance of Hong Kong is not driven by regulation which is the case

in the United States and many foreign countries, the governance in Hong Kong is very much market driven. This partly explains the relatively slow progress in dealing with the construction waste issue in Hong Kong.

- Innovation is much needed in dealing with the construction waste issue in Hong

Kong.

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Environmental Protection Department, HKSAR Assistant Director Dr. Ellen Y.L. Chan Environmental Protection Officer (Waste Facilities) Miss Janet N. Y. Ng May 22, 2008 - Specific waste management practices are required in public projects. Detailed are

contained in the technical circulars provided by the Works Bureau. - Waste reduction practices, for example the using of public fill materials, are

difficult to be implemented in government projects with very tight schedule, such as the construction of the Disneyland and Hong Kong International Airport in Chap Lap Kok.

- Most expertise and knowledge are owned by the construction industry; however,

there is a lacking of incentives for the stakeholders in the industry to implement waste management measures. Since most stakeholders, including the developers, contractors and haulers, are profit making. The prioritized concerns of developers and contractors are the project cost and project schedule. Therefore, there is no incentive for them shall the implementation of waste management practices are thought to involve higher cost and longer project time for extra tasks on administration and coordination.

- To incorporate waste management into the construction practices, the waste

management measures have to provide co-benefits which could attract developers and contractors. These co-benefits include the provision of safe working environment to meet to safety requirements specified for construction sites, cost saving and shortening of project schedule.

- Materials with high recycled content might be considered as low-grade materials

which might create problems meeting the safety requirements on building structure. Therefore, materials with lower recycled content are used more often than materials with high recycled content and in wider applications.

- Production of materials with recycled content is expensive since a number of tests

are needed to ensure good quality control to meet the safety standard. The supply of qualified recycled materials is still uncertain.

- The stockpiling of inert materials is a major concern of the construction problem

in Hong Kong. Hard inert has higher market value and it could be reused or recycled into products yet it only takes up small portion of the inert materials. Most inert materials are soft inert which could not be easily reused or recycled into new products besides being used as fill materials in reclamation and earth filling projects. Currently, public fills are shipped to Tai Shan for reclamation.

- Besides the construction waste charging scheme, the government does not have

any plan yet for the next action.

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- In dealing with construction waste, the government takes a relatively reactive approach. Although the government assumes it leading role in construction waste management, it would not take actions which may intervene the economy. The government would only take actions to promote waste management practices to the industry and encourage the industry to implement these practices.

- Communication and lobbying with the stakeholders in the industry are welcomed

by the government and the government thinks the better management of construction waste could be achieved through these actions.

- Difficulties in implementing some of the waste management practices:

a) The use of public fills in government works

It is sometimes difficult to coordinate the trading of public fill, especially for projects with tight schedule. Moreover, the supply of fill is not promising; therefore, sourcing sometimes is a problem.

b) Requiring the of use materials with recycled content with a specific percentage

for all projects

It is difficult since the government needs to ensure the constant and sufficient supply for these materials in the market before implementing this action.

c) The use of legislation to require waste management practices for all projects

It is the governance culture in Hong Kong that the government should try all possible measures, including administrative measures, before considering the proposal of a new legislation. Part of the reason is that the legislative procedure in Hong Kong is very robust and it is difficult to balance the interests for all interest groups. Moreover, a package of associated and supportive measures should also be in play before the passing of a new legislation so as to ensure efficient and effective execution, monitoring and enforcement.

d) Cooperation with the PRD region to deal with the construction waste problem

A regional perspective to deal with the construction waste problem might be needed. However, it is a common international ruling principle that the waste problem should not be solved across the border and shall be treated locally according to the Basel Treaty, the waste treatment proximity principle and the concept of a self-sustain city.

e) Support for local recycling industry

The government could not specify the use of local recycled products in the construction works since the government places high respect to the treaties with the World Trade Organization. The government would not on purposely support the local recycling market which might be risked for offending the spirit of the WTO. Moreover, the support for the recycling industry may trigger the feeling of unfairness to other industries for not giving them the support from the government.

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f) On-Site Separation

Only recyclables with high market value would be sorted out. However, only limited number of materials has a market in Hong Kong currently. Materials that are commonly recycled now in Hong Kong include only aggregates and concrete, metal and cardboard. Aggregates and concrete from inert materials are recycled at the fill bank in TKO Area 138. Metal and cardboard have good market value and they are collected by scavengers and waste recyclers at source. Only if the construction waste have a good market value, scavengers would pick up materials for recycling even when the waste is not properly sorted by the contractor on-site. However, other materials which could be recycled technological yet without good market value are not collected or recycled currently. They include glass, plastic, packaging materials, wood and bamboo. Part of the reason that these materials are not collected for recycling since some of them might be contaminated during the construction process. For example, the plywood panels used for formwork and the container bags of the cement. Moreover, most of the construction sites in Hong Kong are small and have limited space for on-site sorting. Labour is also expensive in Hong Kong. Sorting may require extra labour force.

- Other sources of construction waste come from commercial renovation for shipping malls, shops and restaurants. There is commercial element in the construction waste problem that constant renovation is a commercial decision to re-brand commercial images.

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Civil Engineering and Development Department Fill Management Division Senior Engineer Mr. Winston F.K. Fong May 22, 2008 - Demolition materials and waste from construction such as aggregates, rock pieces

and concrete could be crushed and sorted out, and they could then be returned to their natural stage, i.e. rock pieces, aggregates and sand. The manufacturing process of these construction materials in the first place and the crushing procedure to sort out these materials do not involve any chemical reaction and so these materials could be mechanically sorted out and returned back t their initial stage. These construction waste could be reused as aggregates and could be used to manufacture new products. The quality of these aggregates could be compared to the quality of virgin materials. Disposing these materials, therefore, means disposing all the energy that goes into the manufacturing process involved in producing these construction materials in the first place.

- The quality of the recycled aggregates would be compared to the quality of virgin

materials. They are just simply returned to their original forms mechanically. The only difference might be that they are usually crushed into small sizes.

- The recycling of aggregates is not expensive to produce and does not require high-

level technology, besides tests and strict quality control are required at the beginning.

- Hong Kong is currently under a threat of impeding supply of rock pieces including

aggregates and sand. Currently, more than 50% rock pieces for construction is imported from China and almost 100% of sand is imported from Siu Hing, China. China has banned the export of sand, except for Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau. And the price of construction materials in general has been increasing significantly in the recent years. China has been developing rapidly and China itself also needs enormous amount of both rock pieces and sand. Countries such as Singapore and Malaysia have run out of supply of sand locally and they need to import sand for construction. Therefore, we could expect the reliance for sand from China will increase and the price for these construction materials will continue to increase since there is a shortage in the world market.

- To reduce the reliance on foreign import and to achieve local sustainability, the

government should start researching and developing technologies to produce some of these construction materials locally before Hong Kong is impeded from importing these materials overseas due to the global shortage.

- Innovations and creativity are required to create breakthrough our conservative

ways of construction and the use of materials. We should try to explore new construction methods and new materials for construction depending on what we could obtain locally or could be sustainably supplied in the global market . It is the fact that very different materials have been used for construction in many foreign places depending on what they could obtain. For example, some places in china have been using the excavated mud obtained locally to produce bricks.

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- Currently, there is no funding provided by the government to encourage the

research and development on construction waste treatment and recycling technologies.

- There are comments from the pubic that recycling construction waste is not cost

effective,; however, if the cost of stockpiling waste at the fill banks, the cost of disposing of the construction waste, the cost of shipping the inert to China and the risk of over-reliance of import for virgin materials are taken into account, the development of recycling construction materials locally makes economical sense.

- The government is lacking of strong political view to carry out waste management

practices which is beneficial to the society as a whole. Moreover, the government does not have the gut to take risk and learn from making errors. This explains why the government is always hesitated to set out targets and directions on construction waste management and mandate the appropriate measures which would be beneficial to the society.

- The public fill stockpiling at the two fill banks now are used only in some public

projects. - What government shall do:

1) The government shall prepare to take risks and learn from making errors by

continuous trying. It is impractical to plan perfectly before real trying out and taking actions. Therefore, it is not efficient to spend too much effort just on the planning stage but without real trying and taking actions.

2) The government should hold strong political views and set overriding goals

and targets for the departments to follow through and to achieve these targets. It is the fact that the management of construction waste is under the jurisdiction of the state government and cities under which should follow through and take actions to achieve these targets.

3) The government should also mandate good waste management practices for all

projects since this bring significant benefits to the society. It is impractical to consider the interest of all parties before taking actions which is good for the society since the vested interest of these parties is allied with the vested interest of the society. They do not intended to bring benefits to the society as a whole and some of their vested interest may be conflicting to the society’s benefit.

4) The government plays a special and significant role in initiating and

developing the waste management and recycling market in Hong Kong at the beginning before the market is established. It is because the private sector would not have the incentives to invest the industry before the government sets out strong will and take part in developing the market. Once the market is established, the market would respond and begin to participate in it. For examples, the risk of investing in recycling technologies and facilities is high before the market has developed confidence and has accumulated experiences using the recycled materials to produce new materials products or in new

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construction and the linkages among stakeholders, such as the recycled products manufacturers and contractors, have developed.

5) The government need to take trials and begin to cultivate the market before

waste management practices such as waste reduction design, source separation, the use of recycled materials and etc. have accepted by the market and practiced them as usual practices.

6) The government shall prepare to accept high cost and slow efficiency during

the learning period. It also takes time for the market to react, such as developing private waste management facilities and services and shifting the use of recycled materials from low-value applications to applications with high values.

7) It is impractical for the government to take actions only if the corresponding

services and supports are in play. The government needs to put in efforts to create these conditions and cultivate the environment. For example, it is impractical to make sure there is sufficient supply of recycled products in the market before it promotes the industry to use recycled materials. Since no businesses would invest in supplying recycled materials unless there is sufficient demand created in the market. Therefore, the government shall set definite directions and create incentives, such as mandating the use of recycled materials, to allow the market to take respond.

8) The government should also develop communication and cooperation among

the stakeholders and promote these waste management practices to the industry. Improving transparency also facilities the growth of market by allowing information flows.

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Gammon Construction Limited Assistant Project Manager – Environment and Sustainability Mr. Eddie C.H. Tse May 23, 2008 - Waste is created when materials are not placed at the right places. Therefore, there

will not be waste if we could transport waste from where it could not be utilized to places where it is demanded.

- The primary motive for implementing waste management measures is very often

not environmental protection. It is the co-benefits that attract the stakeholders to implement waste reduction measures. The primary concerns are always cost saving and control over the project schedule. Image building is a less important motive. It is considered only if the associated measures do not trade for the better waste management with high cost and longer project schedule.

- Transportation cost is one of the main components of the project cost and both the

contractors and haulers place high weight on transportation cost for consideration. It becomes more significant when the oil price remains high currently.

- The construction waste charging scheme has a positive effect to encourage the

trading of fill materials across projects for the reason that transporting the fill materials to projects nearby may constitute lower transportation cost. The fill supplying contractor could also save the fee of $27 per tonne for disposing the inert materials to the fill banks. As long as the distance to the fill-receiving project site is shorter than the distance to the fill banks, it makes economical sense to trade the fill across projects.

- This is a win-win situation which benefits to four stakeholders: the government,

the fill-supplying contractor, the fill-receiving project and the hauler.

Government: inert materials are diverted from the fill banks to projects where these inert materials could be utilized.

Fill-supplying contractor: the contractor could dispose its fill materials at a cost

cheaper than disposing them into the fill banks ($27/ tonne + transportation cost).

Fill-receiving site: The site could contain inert materials that it needs. The

receiving site could also charge the fill-supplying contractor with a price lower than the cost of disposing the materials into the fill banks. Therefore, the fill-receiving project is not only benefited from obtaining the fill materials, it could obtain extra income from receiving the fill materials from other projects.

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Hauler: The hauler is benefited since the distance for transporting the fill materials to the fill-receiving site is shorter than the distance to the fill banks. Therefore, there is cost saving from traveling a shorter distance.

- While the government shall consider the benefits of the society, commercial

consider cost and profit although firms begin to realize their social responsibility. This fundamental difference gives rise the difference in decision and corresponding behavior. The government, therefore, plays an important and special role in construction waste management.

- The government shall provide policies and administrative measures to specify

actions for better waste management. Government could also set out the requirements in the project specifications or provide some technical guidelines for contractors to follow. The government shall also mandate the contractors to transport the recycled materials to the Ecopark or to other recycling plant in Hong Kong instead of disposing them into the landfills. If the distance to the recycling plants is shorter then the distance to the landfill, it would make economical sense for contractors to sort out the recyclables for recycling.

- Therefore, any measures which could generate cost saving or reduction in project

schedule would attract the stakeholders in the supply chain to implement these waste management measures for cost saving.

- The Role of Different Stakeholders in the Supply Chain:

Government: [Responsibility] The government has a special role in initiating the implementation of waste management strategy and it gives directions to the stakeholders in the supply chain by providing regulations and economic incentives. The government is also a client of the contractors. It decides what to build and employ project designers to come up the project design at the planning stage. The government could set out requirements on the project specifications for contractors to follow.

[What Could be Done] o Understanding the decision and behavior of the stakeholders in

the supply chain are driven by economic factors (i.e. cost and profit). They would change their behaviour accordingly to gain the cost saving and maximize profit. The government shall provide economic incentives for the stakeholders in the supply chain to implement waste management measures. Waste charging is one of the right moves to provide economic incentives to the industry.

o The government shall also mandate the contractors to sort out and transport the recyclables to recycling plants for reuse or recycling. This could be achieved if the cost of transporting the recyclables to the recycling plant (i.e. including the cost of sorting, transportation cost and fee for disposing the recyclables at recycling plants) is lower than the cost of disposing the

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recyclables at the landfills (i.e. including the transportation cost and the fee for disposing the recyclables to landfills, i.e. $127 per tonne). Moreover, this is only practical if the separation of waste would not prolong the project schedule by adding too much extra efforts on site operation and administrative works.

Developers: [Responsibility]

Developers are also the client of the contractors. They decide what to build and employ project designers to come up the project design at the planning stage. They set out requirements on the project specifications for contractors to follow. Their motive of their businesses is to build, sell and earn profit. Developers also have to make sure the contractors and so the project to comply with all the statutory legislation.

[What Could be Done] o Developers could specify in the project specifications to require

contractors to implement waste management practices. o Developers could incorporate the waste reduction

considerations in the design of the project and involve the contractors in the planning of the project.

Contractors: [Responsibility]

Contractors are responsible for preparing site plan and construction plan during the construction stage. Contractors basically do their works according to the specifications required by the developers for private projects or the government for public projects. Contractors take charge of site operation works on site and coordinate with materials suppliers for ordering construction materials and haulers for transporting the waste.

[What Could be Done] o Contractors could order the right amount of construction

materials to avoid surplus. If there is surplus, contractors should communicate with the suppliers to take back the surplus.

o Waste should be separated at the point closer to the waste generated. Through better schedule on tasks and selective demolition. Waste could be separated with very insignificant extra cost on labour force with less contamination and this would not affect the project schedule. As long as there is a good value in the market, these recycled materials would be sorted out by the labours for economic return by selling them to the recyclers or scavengers even without specific orders from the contractors. A good example is the metal bars created during demolition and construction.

o Contractors could also employ an environmental staff to take care of and monitor the implementation of waste management during the construction.

o Contractors could also place the recycling bins at a right place closer to where waste is generated. For example, the three-color recycling bins could be place near the office in the construction site.

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o Contractors could develop linkages with other stakeholders in the supply chain, including the project designers, materials suppliers, other project contractors, haulers and scavengers and cooperate with them in waste management. For examples, contractors could advise and propose to the project designers, the government and the developers on designs and construction steps which would generate less waste; contractors could negotiate with the materials suppliers to take back the materials surplus which could not be used in the construction, contactors would trade the inert materials with other contractors so to divert fill materials from fill banks; and contractors could coordinate with the haulers and scavengers to pick up the recyclables for recycling. The cooperation could be achieved if they could share the cost saving among them and everyone are benefited from implementing these actions.

Haulers: [Responsibility] Haulers are responsible for transporting the waste and recyclables to the designated facilities, i.e. waste to sorting facilities or landfills, inert materials to fill banks and recyclables to recycling facilities. The major concern of the haulers is the reduction of transportation cost, especially when the oil price remains high recently. Thus, shorter distance would reduce the transportation cost. When the distance between the construction site and the destination is shorter than the distance originally planned in the project planning, there is cost saving from the reduction of the transportation cost.

[What Could be Done] o Haulers shall transport the waste, inert materials and recyclables

to the designated destinations and avoid fly-tipping. o Haulers could also develop linkages with some private recyclers

and waste sorting companies. They could suggest these alternative options to contractors so to divert waste from government waste facilities and to maximize the chances to reuse and recycle the waste.

- With good pre-construction planning and cooperation among stakeholders in the

supply chain, the implementation of waste management measures would not prolong the project schedule; on the other hand, there are significant cost saving and other co-benefits (i.e. improved safety, lower project cost, reduction of project time and better control over labours and project schedule) that could be generated by implementing proper waste management measures. For example, the use of metal formwork can allow contractors more flexibility in controlling the project schedule by changing the number of labour teams employed for the project since the trimmed set of metal panels could be reused.

- However, benefits are not shared equally among stakeholder. Labours are losers

since they need to be trained to use these new construction methods. The reliance on labours in a project is reduced and so the bargaining power of the labours is

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reduced too. There are three major groups of labours required in a construction site – formwork, scaffolding for reinforcement and concrete forming.

- There is a clause in the project specification for public projects: contractors could

suggest to the government alternatives in the construction and the treatment of waste.

- The materials which are commonly collected for reuse or recycling include

aggregate, metals and cardboard. - Better cooperation among stakeholders in the supply chain is needed for better

waste management in the industry. - The difference in the jurisdiction between CEDD and EPD in construction waste

management making the administrative procedure of managing construction waste confusing to the stakeholders.

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Hong Kong Baptist University Croucher Institute for Environmental Sciences, Department of Biology Assistant Professor Dr. Shan-shan Chung May 23, 2008 - The government in Hong Kong is lacking of strong political will to carry out

environmental policy.

- The government is very reluctant in implementing new policies which could possibly affect the interests of some interest groups in Hong Kong.

- There were cases in other policy areas that the government intervened the economy; therefore, it is the excuse of the government for not doing anything more to ensure construction waste are managed properly.

- There is a wrong belief with the government that it wants to have no mistake in implementing a new policy. However, we could see may successful environmental policies have learnt and been evolved from errors over time. Therefore, the government should not be reluctant and delay the implementation of policies which could benefit our society as a whole. It is just impractical to plan for a perfect policy with no error before we could implement it. And the government should have the guts to face errors and take feedbacks from the society.

- The administrative system in Hong Kong is inefficient to manage environmental issues. Since all administrative officers, who are supposed to be the decision makers, are not well trained with environmental knowledge and they do not trained to have the awareness on environmental protection. Moreover, they are rotated to different departments every three years and so this may encourage the development of the culture of not making mistake in their terms of service.

- The Legislative Council is one of the big barriers in hindering the implementation of environmental policies for the fact that the legislative members represent voices from very different sectors and they have their own vested interests. These council members are serving the interest not for environmental protection and environment could be undervalued in the decision making process.

- The spitting up of responsibilities and jurisdictions on construction waste issue across different bureaus and departments make the construction waste management inefficient. Every department has its own objectives and jurisdiction and sometimes, their priorities are conflicting to each other. Besides the Environmental Protection Department, environmental protection and waste reduction are not the objectives of any other departments. For examples, CEDD is only responsible for managing some of the waste facilities and take care of the licensing system; Enforcing proper waste treatment to prosecute illegal dumping of construction waste is under the jurisdictions of the police force while catching environmental crimes is a primary objective of the police force; and the Lands department has its primary object to maximize the land premium while it has no interest to use the land for waste management which generates no economic value to the land price.

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- It is impractical to equip the transfer stations with capacity to accept construction

waste. Moreover, it is very difficult to locate new receiving points to accept construction waste since it is hard to find land for waste handling. Therefore, although increasing the number of receiving points and decrease the travel distance between the construction and the designated destinations could reduce the incentives for fly-tipping, it is difficult to implement.

- Government departments do want to take up too many responsibilities even though

they are authorized with power to carry out these responsibilities for the culture that they do not want to increase the chance of making mistakes.

APPENDIX II

TSENG KWAN O AREA FILL BANK AND RECYCLING FACILITY

SITE VISIT REPORT

May 22, 2008 Site Observations:

Trucks are clean before they leave the fill bank to avoid roadside air pollution caused by dusts carried away from the fill bank.

The lady is implementing the CHIT system that the weight of materials entering the fill bank is recorded and the payment invoice would be sent to the billing account once at a month. 166

Inert Materials Stockpiled at the Fill Bank. It covers a huge piece of land. The site is formed and all roads are paved by the inert materials too.

A barging point is set up at the fill bank and some of the inert materials are shipped to Toi Shan, China for reclamation under a contract between the HKSAR Government and the Government of Toi Shan.

Rock pieces and concrete are crushed into smaller pieces for recycling. 167

Metal bars are sorted out. They have high market value and would be sold to recyclers for profit. These earnings are belonged to the contractor of the fill bank under its contract with the HKSAR Government.

Crushed rock pieces and concrete would be recycled by this recycling facility to further crush them into aggregates with the right size. The product is called Grade 200 Rockfill which could be used for the production of cement and used as road base and other base filling works. Grade 200 Rockfill is supplied to public project only upon request and it could be obtained free of charge.

Grade 200 Rockfill is stockpiled at the fill bank and it is waiting for new applications.

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APPENDIX III

Construction Waste

Inert Materials:

Pictures 1 and 2: Concrete, rubbles and Rock Pieces which could be recycled into

aggregates for construction

Non-Inert Materials:

Pictures 3 and 4: Timber demolished from building structure and wooden form boards for new construction

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Picture 5: Packaging materials for construction Picture 6: Bathtubs demolished from

materials old buildings

Picture 7: Metal bars sorted out for recycling Picture 8: Construction waste sorted

on-site

Pictures 9 and 10: Construction waste without sorting: timber, concrete, rock pieces, tiles,

plastics, glass, etc.

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171

Sources Pictures are retrieved from the following websites accordingly Picture1: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/archi/programmes/cost8/case/waste/constructionwaste.html picture 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/79306692@N00/1963407850/ picture 3: http://www.americanrecycler.com/0107/b/construction.html picture 4: http://www.flickr.com/photos/18767293@N00/1482230598/ picture 5: http://www.co.cass.mn.us/esd/solid_waste/images/pile%20of%20pallets.jpg picture 6: http://www.flickr.com/photos/incolorvision/521918635/ picture 7: Photo taken by site visit to Tseng Kwan O Area 138 on May 22, 2008 picture 8: http://www.flickr.com/photos/incolorvision/521848028/ picture 9: http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/envir_education/envir_explorer/explorer_3_03.html picture 10: http://www.archinect.com/schoolblog/blog.php?id=C0_398_39

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