Rosário: Macau without land for recycling industry

Macau has no available land for the recycling industry, the Secretary for Transports and Public Works, Raimundo do Rosário said yesterday at the Legislative Assembly Q&A session with lawmakers on various topics.

In response to questions from lawmakers on the need to find land for the local recycling industry, Rosário said, “We have never incentivized the creation of this industry in Macau and we do not have land available for recycling activities. We need land resources for other purposes and industries.” He added that the government’s approach is to “treat recyclable residues and send them outside Macau for recycling.”

Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA) director Raymond Tam concurred, noting, “Macau is very small and can hardly sustain recycling industries. We will need to rely on regional cooperation for this.”

He explained that glass bottles collected in Macau are sent to Hong Kong for recycling, while batteries are exported to either South Korea or Japan. Other recyclable items such as plastic materials, metals, paper, and cardboard are exported to the mainland.

In response to an inquiry from lawmaker Leong Hong Sai and further follow-up questions from lawmakers about increasing the use of renewable energy sources like solar, Rosário said that calls to place solar panels in local reservoirs were unrealistic.

“Our reservoirs are too small and unprepared for this. It will not be of any utility,” he said. His view was supported by the DSPA director, who said the government had already implemented solar panels in places where this was feasible. He mentioned several locations where solar panels had been installed, noting that there were further plans to install more at public facilities in Zone A of the new landfills.

Focus on construction waste landfill

Regarding environmental protection, Tam highlighted that the government’s efforts have increasingly focused on improving incineration capacity rather than recycling. Such capacities will soon increase when the new incineration unit in Pac On becomes operational.

Tam noted that since the establishment of the Organic Waste Recovery Center – a unit to process food residue – is already ongoing, the government’s current priority is to find new solutions to deal with construction waste.

As the Times previously reported, the new food processing unit will cost MOP1.15 billion and must completed in 38 months.

Once it commences operation, the recovery center will be able to produce electricity from biogas generated from the fermentation of food waste.

Yesterday, Tam reaffirmed that the center will be able to process approximately 150 tons of food waste per day.

“We hope that this volume will meet our needs and that the center will be able to handle these volumes,” he said.

When asked about cooperation with the six gaming concessionaires, Tam said, “The integrated resorts are already using glass bottles instead of plastic to provide drinking water to guests in hotel rooms.”