The Environmental Protection Bureau (known as the DSPA after its Portuguese abbreviation) has quashed rumours that recyclable items collected in Macao are simply incinerated.
Choi Seng Hong, the deputy convenor of the Taipa and Coloane Community Service Consultative Council, says he was told by DSPA officials in a private meeting yesterday that the bureau handled recyclable items “with care.”
In remarks that were reported by the Macau Post Daily, Choi said officials told him such items were properly recycled or “decomposed into resourceful pieces before moving on to the next stage of the process.” No further elaboration was given.
Officials have been making efforts to increase recycling in recent years. Macao now has more than 4,000 recycling stations, while a centre for organic waste is scheduled for completion in 2027, in a bid to tackle the city’s food waste mountain.
[See more: Recycling levels remain poor in Macao despite government efforts]
At the same time, Almost 40 percent of Macao residents rarely recycle or don’t recycle at all, according to a recent survey by the General Union of Neighbourhood Associations.
According to DSPA figures, the recycling level in Macao’s three-coloured recycling bin system – for paper, metal and plastic waste – has only remained between 18 to 20 percent in recent years.
The issue of waste management is a pressing one for Macao. Local residents each generated a daily average of 1.77 kilograms of solid waste in 2022 – higher than in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, where the figures are 1.53 kilograms and 0.98 kilograms respectively.
Pressure on the city’s landfill has forced authorities to consider the use of construction waste to build a controversial artificial island off Hac Sa Beach – one of Macao’s most scenic areas.
