EPD responds to media enquiries on food waste collection trial scheme in public rental housing estates
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In response to media enquiries on allegations made by a local company in relation to odour problem and exceedance of air quality level caused by the smart recycling bins installed under the food waste collection trial scheme in public rental housing (PRH) estates, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) today (April 20) responded as follows:
The EPD launched the trial scheme last October to install smart recycling bins in the participating PRH estates to collect food waste. Currently, six PRH estates have participated in the trial scheme, including Shek Pai Wan Estate in Aberdeen, Choi Tak Estate in Ngau Tau Kok, Sheung Tak Estate in Tseung Kwan O, Lin Tsui Estate in Chai Wan, Kwun Lung Lau in Kennedy Town and Tin Heng Estate in Tin Shui Wai.
The smart recycling bins used in the trial scheme are equipped with odour abatement devices and adopt an impermeable and enclosed design, so they will not “generate strong odour” when the lids open as claimed by the company concerned. Moreover, odour will be dispersed in the air as the bins are usually installed in outdoor and fully ventilated places. It is therefore inappropriate for the company concerned to use indoor air quality objectives for comparison with the smart recycling bins placed outdoors, and claim that air pollutants generated from the bins “exceed the prescribed threshold by 10 times”. In fact, residents responded positively to the design and operation of smart food waste recycling bins. They actively participated in smart food waste recycling with an increasing quantity of food waste collected.
To further enhance the trial scheme, the EPD has been working with different local scientific research companies to explore the enhancement of smart food waste recycling technology. Recently, a local technology enterprise claimed to the EPD that it could adopt other methods to improve the performance of smart food waste recycling bins by further reducing the food waste odour. The EPD then lent one of the smart food waste recycling bins located outdoors in Sheung Tak Estate to the enterprise for installing its device to abate odour using physical method for a short-term academic research. The move aims to provide support to local enterprise for environmental research and development. The EPD has not commissioned any enterprise to provide other odour abatement devices installed in the smart food waste recycling bins.
The EPD understood that the relevant academic research has just been finished in mid-April and it only lasted for a week or so, which may need more data support to come up with a conclusion. The EPD has not received any research details, analytics results or reports provided by the enterprise so far, and there is no information showing that the device concerned can further reduce odour from food waste.
The EPD has all along been committed to examining various technologies with a view to further enhancing the efficiency of the smart food waste recycling system, and is open to exchange ideas with the trade to promote the local development of scientific environmental researches.