The water quality at 15 beaches is rated ‘good’, while 21 were rated ‘fair’ and one was rated ‘poor’, the Environmental Protection Department said today.

Trio Beach has been upgraded from ‘fair’ to ‘good’, and Stanley Main Beach has been upgraded from ‘very poor’ to ‘fair’ since last week.

Hap Mun Bay Beach and Middle Bay Beach have been downgraded from ‘good’ to ‘fair’, while Pui O Beach has changed from ‘fair’ to ‘poor’.

The department said the temporary deterioration of water quality for Stanley Main Beach was due to heavy rain, and the beach water quality had returned to normal.

Its investigation did not show any specific pollution sources, and it will continue to monitor this beach regularly.

Beaches are classified into four grades according to the level of E. coli in the water.

Click here for the latest grading.

Secretary for the Environment KS Wong led a delegation to attend an inter-city forum today, on the second day of their visit to Taipei.

Mr Wong spoke at the forum on Hong Kong's blueprint for sustainable use of resources, and discussed the challenges and opportunities for waste management in Hong Kong. He also delivered a keynote speech on a panel discussion of "Greening the City, Protecting the Environment".

While there, the Hong Kong delegation of around 50 members exchanged views with environmental experts in Taipei on resource recovery and environmental issues. They also learned about the city's waste management and sustainable use of resources.

The group visited the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration and shared experiences on implementing environmental policies.

They also toured Taipei 101 to see its waste separation and collection facilities.

They will return to Hong Kong tonight.

Secretary for the Environment KS Wong and a Hong Kong delegation today visited a refuse incinerator plant and a residential area in Taipei to learn about waste management and community recycling there.

Mr Wong said Hong Kong and Taipei share similarities in terms of climate, culture and urban context, and the experience gained from the visit can help in implementing environmental policies in Hong Kong.

They visited the Beitou Refuse Incinerator Plant in Taipei to see the collection of municipal solid waste and recyclable resources.

The group also toured the residential area at Duen Hwa North Green Court to see its community recycling facilities. The area provides separation and collection of waste and recyclables facilities.

Speaking to the media, Mr Wong said Taiwan and South Korea have adopted the volume-based waste charging method to change people’s culture, and he hopes to use a system which suits Hong Kong’s unique environment.

The Council for Sustainable Development will consult the public on the method this summer and table its report to the Government at the end of this year, he said.

Mr Wong will speak on "Greening the City, Protecting the Environment" at a Hong Kong-Taipei inter-city forum tomorrow before returning to Hong Kong.

The Government today launched a pair of charters aimed at cutting electricity consumption, the Energy Saving Charter on Indoor Temperature, and the Energy Saving Charter on No Incandescent Light Bulbs.

Officiating at the launch ceremony today, Secretary for the Environment KS Wong pointed out that to combat climate change, we cannot afford to delay conserving energy or reducing our carbon footprint. He hoped Hong Kong would become an energy-efficient and low carbon city with better collaboration between Government, businesses and society.

Buildings account for more than 90% of total electricity consumption in Hong Kong and contribute more than 60% of greenhouse gas emissions, one third of which are caused by air conditioning. Shopping malls, shops, office premises and offices are invited to sign the Energy Saving Charter on Indoor Temperature.

So far, 32 developers and property-management companies have pledged to maintain an average indoor temperature at 120 shopping malls of between 24 and 26 degrees Celsius from June to September. In addition more than 550 retail shops, 170 office buildings and 440 organisations have signed up to the charter.

The Government also launched the Energy Saving Charter on No Incandescent Light Bulbs to expedite the retirement of energy-inefficient incandescent light bulbs. As they work by heating up a tungsten filament, only 10% of electricity consumption is used for lighting. Signatories pledged not to replenish their stocks of incandescent light bulbs and not to sell incandescent light bulbs from December 31.

The launch of energy-saving charters is one of the signature events under the "Hong Kong: Our Home" Campaign's Fresh Hong Kong theme, and aims to encourage the community to save energy and protect the environment.

May was much gloomier and wetter than usual, with 509.3mm of rainfall - about 67% above the normal figure of 304.7mm.

There were 90.7 hours of bright sunshine during the month - only about 65% of the usual amount. 

A rainstorm on May 22 attributed about 45% of the rainfall in the month.

The accumulated rainfall since January 1 was 898.5mm, about 40% above the normal figure of 640.7mm.

Temperatures were significantly below normal during the first week of May while the anomaly was offset by the second half of the month. The mean temperature in May was 25.7 degrees.

The Civil Engineering & Development Department today awarded the contract to develop a bathing beach at Lung Mei.

The Chief Executive in Council decided yesterday not to invoke the power to suspend, vary or cancel the environmental permit issued for the project, allowing it to remain valid.

A petition was earlier launched against the project under the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance, and the petitioners have been informed of the decision in writing.

Speaking to reporters today, Secretary for the Environment KS Wong said the Government had conducted a survey on Lung Mei's ecological conditions.

"We found that in comparison with three other sites in Tolo Harbour, the ecological conditions remain similar as before when we were doing the environmental permit issuance."

Mr Wong said the Government’s overall concern is to strike a balance. Sustainable development is about caring for the environment and taking into account socio-economic needs. The environmental permit has reviewed the application in terms of the project's ecological value.

He added under the current permit, the project proponent must take care of wildlife concerns.

"There is a balance to protect the wildlife and also to meet social needs. I think we are meeting the needs for the whole benefit of Hong Kong."

Secretary for the Environment KS Wong today continued his visit to Korea to learn more about its environmental facilities and policies and the local development of green social enterprises.

Mr Wong visited the Gangbuk waste recycling and treatment centre, which is located in a cave and treats 60 tonnes of recyclables per day. Mr Wong toured the plants in the centre to see the processes for treating different types of recyclables which are turned into usable resources for local use or export.

He then visited the country's first and leading green social enterprise, the Beautiful Store, to learn more about its success in promoting recycling.

The Beautiful Store runs more than 100 shops across the nation, selling donated products to promote resource circulation and recycling. It also helps provide opportunities for the public and the commercial sector to get involved in recycling and other environmentally friendly activities, and to care for the grass-root communities. Mr Wong looked forward to this type of business in Hong Kong to mobilise community support for resource circulation.

In the afternoon, Mr Wong called on Vice-Minister of the Environment Jeong Yeon-man. He was briefed on Korea's vision, mission and strategies for waste management.

Mr Wong will inspect other waste-treatment projects and facilities tomorrow before returning to Hong Kong.

Hours after the rowdy bar crawlers have downed their last drinks, you will find Hui Yuk-po and his team carefully, quietly plucking up empty glass bottles and setting them into large recycling bins. Diverted from the overflowing landfills, the bottles will instead be used to pave the way to a greener Hong Kong.

About 250 tonnes of empty glass bottles are disposed of at landfills every day in Hong Kong - roughly equivalent to half a million 750ml bottles. Glass does not naturally decompose, and our landfills are almost at capacity. So the Government has urgently been looking for ways to reduce, re-use and recycle glass waste.

It now supports five glass-recycling programmes, with financial support through the Environmental & Conservation Fund and technical advice from the Environmental Protection Department. The Hong Chi Association, a non-profit organisation serving those with intellectual disabilities, operates the recycling programme that employs Mr Hui and about 100 other trainees.

At 8am on a recent Monday morning, news.gov.hk spoke with Mr Hui as he began work at the bar zone on Minden Avenue in Tsim Sha Tsui, wearing a reflective vest and a pair of safety gloves. He is in his third year of working for the recycling team, and was promoted to team leader.

Empty beer bottles filled dozens of cartons along the street. Instead of pouring them from the cartons into the recycling bins, Mr Hui and his teammates pick them up and set them in one by one to avoid making too much noise and disturbing the residents nearby.

When they finish at Minden Avenue, the team will move on to other collection points. Hong Chi’s programme covers about 160 such points, including private housing estates, commercial organisations, non-governmental organisations, government departments and Hong Chi’s own service centres.

The job demands intensive manual labour, from 8am to 5pm, Mondays to Saturdays. Still, Mr Hui is enthusiastic about his work, which he considers a labour of love.

“Because I can help protect the environment. I didn’t release that I could do that before,” he said.

In its first three years of operating the programme, Hong Chi has collected more than 1,000 tonnes of glass bottles for recycling. It now hopes to double this quantity.

Environmentally friendly path

Most of the recycled glass bottles in the city are supplied to two local paving block manufacturers. A machine crushes the glass into glass sand, which can be used as a river-sand substitute, then mixed with cement and construction waste to produce so-called eco-pavers.

To make one square metre of eco-paver takes 20kg of waste glass bottles and 50kg of construction waste. This greatly reduces the burden on local landfills and the demand for other construction materials, such as river sand. The dredging work required to extract river sand damages the river bed and its ecological system.

Unlike the production of regular pavement, the eco-paver manufacturing process does not require treatment at high temperature as the eco-pavers are cured through natural air drying. This helps reduce carbon emissions.

Compared with conventional paving blocks, eco-pavers weigh less and absorb less water. Titanium dioxide can be added to the top layer to help remove nitrogen oxide air pollutants.

The Highways Department, Civil Engineering & Development Department, Architectural Services Department, Hong Kong Housing Authority, Environmental Protection Department and local tertiary institutes have all used such eco-paving blocks in construction projects.

Dixon Chan, managing director for a local eco-paver manufacturer, said now that the Government is actively promoting glass-bottle recycling and the industry needs to explore more feasible waste-glass applications.

“Besides eco-pavers, we can also use waste glass to make partition blocks and road kerbs,” he said.

Trash to treasure

Outside the construction industry, recycled glass is also attracting attention from the creative industry. For local artist Fiona Wong, a used glass bottle is akin to a sculptor’s clay or a painter’s canvas.

“I do not see these glass bottles as trash. Glass itself is a very interesting material,” Miss Wong said.

She has mastered the skills of hand-cutting glass bottles and using high temperature to melt and reform them into different shapes to craft items such as candle holders, business-card stands, food trays, and an innovative table stand for smartphones and tablets.

She collects waste glass bottles from hotels, restaurants and friends, and takes her own empty bottles home when she dines out. 

To promote glass-bottle recycling, the Environment Bureau has launched a public consultation on implementing a producer-responsibility scheme. It ends on May 6. The Government believes that 70% of glass bottles could be recovered under the scheme, alleviating pressure on landfills.