Environment | DSPA wants to reduce waste per capita 30 percent by 2026

The Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA) has released the 10-year plan for Solid Waste Management in Macau. The bureau aims to reduce the amount of waste produced per capita each day by 30 percent, a reduction from 2.11kg (recorded in 2016) to 1.48kg by 2026, the DSPA informed in a statement.

The “Solid Waste Management Plan of Macau (2017-2026)”, published on December 29, sets out the government’s policies on solid waste as well as the action plans to reduce waste in the next decade through the promotion of “environmentally friendly gestures for ‘reducing waste from the source,’ in order to contribute towards Macau’s sustainable development.”

In general terms, the plan divides the works in this field into three broad areas. These include: the implementation of a “polluter liability regime”, which is a tax regime for waste collection; improvements to the recycling industry and other measures to support the sector; and encouraging and assisting citizens to reduce waste and practice selective waste recycling.

This first action plan is complemented by a second plan that aims to encourage participation in specific activities, in particular, in the “Green Points Program” that aims to boost waste separation as well as reducing food and plastic waste by encouraging consumers to use reusable shopping bags, and recycle glass bottles, in particular of beverage products and other recyclable materials.

The government also proposes to invest in resources to build and optimize facilities and infrastructure for waste collection. It has made plans to expand the Solid Waste Incineration Plant by constructing facilities to receive and sort inert materials derived from civil construction works (including building demolitions), as well as the construction of a Centralized Food Waste Processing Center. It will also build a special quay to facilitate the transportation of waste materials for further processing.

According to data provided by DSPA, Macau is currently ahead of all the major cities and regions of the world in terms of waste production per capita. Waste production is currently at 1kg per person in Beijing, 1.39kg per person in Hong Kong, and 1.49kg per person in Singapore, significantly lower than the per capita production of daily waste in Macau. The source document for these statistics is available for download in Chinese and Portuguese on the DSPA website.

From a worldwide perspective, Macau exceeds the average daily per capita production of the European Union, currently at 1.3kg, as well as the U.S., where waste production reaches 2kg per person per day.

DSPA cites several statistics to demonstrate the exponential growth of the amount of waste received and treated by the Solid Waste Incineration Plant, increasing from around 329,000 tons (in 2011) to over 504,000 tons (in 2016). This amount of waste is “significantly high” when compared to other countries and regions, according to the environmental bureau.  RM