By Teddy Ng (HK Edition)
Updated: 2007-10-17 06:34

Secretary for the Environment Edward Yau yesterday said that Hong Kong manufacturers, who participated in a pilot scheme launched last November to help factories in Guangdong Province adopt cleaner production processes, have done better than what is required of them.

Hong Kong factories have been facing a trying time in complying with the tightening environment rules in the Pearl River Delta region.

To help these troubled manufacturers, the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) launched a clean production technical support pilot scheme in November 2006 with 15 Hong Kong-owned factories.

They manufactured textiles, metal, chemical, printing, paper, food and drinks products, and some belong to non-mineral metal industries.

One of the participating factories, C and C Joint Printing Company, said its volatile organic compounds (VOC) emission had been reduced by 30 percent after the technique of filtering by active carbon was used. This cost the firm HK$300,000.

The company deputy general manager, Chau Chi-keung said it aimed at reducing VOC emission by up to 90 percent.

Chau said the company would also spend HK$600,000 in re-using the hot water during the printing process to replace water heaters in dormitories, which would save electricity tariff by up to HK$100,000 a year.

It would also spend HK$400,000 on using energy-efficient lighting, which would save HK$20,000 electricity fares a year, he said.

Chau said environmentally-friendly inks were used, and the company also saved about 500,000 metal ink cans a year by adopting centralized ink supplying system.

He also said the company had spent more than HK$10 million in protecting environment over the years.

"I think factories need more professional support not to waste their investment," he said.

Yau said some factories had actually performed better than they were required by the regulations of the province.

"If all factories move towards such direction, the PRD region's air quality would significantly improve," he said.

The Economic and Trade Commission of Guangdong Province deputy head, Yang Jianchu said they would continue demanding industries with high energy consumption to start clean production and cooperate with Hong Kong to improve the environment.

He added that training and information centre on the topic would be established.

At the same seminar, HKPC said it would sustain the development of environmental industry with the HK$93 million allocated by the government for promoting clean industrial manufacturing.

The HK$93 million five-year scheme commissioned to the council was announced by Chief Executive Donald Tsang in his policy address last week to tackle environmental pollution.

The council's executive director, Wilson Fung said yesterday that the scheme was aimed at helping manufacturers to look for environment-friendly production. Eight industries, including textiles, printing and chemical, were the main target.

Apart from raising environmental awareness among manufacturers, Fung said they also wanted to promote environment industry.

"We hope that such industry in both Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta region can benefit from the scheme," he said.

"There are many factories on the mainland. Certainly, we will need environment consultants who will advise them on clean production. We hope we can help introducing and verifying the techniques of these experts to the manufacturers," he said.

(HK Edition 10/17/2007 page4)