EPD’s reaction to media queries on high liquid material waste
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In action to media queries on the treatment of high liquid material waste (HLCW), the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) today (June 26) offered the list below action:
The overall amount of HLCW dealt with at land fills in 2025 had to do with 1 500 tonnes, comparable to about 100 double-deck buses. The waste will end up being leachate and might impact garbage dump stability. The EPD is dealing with the market to check out waste decrease at source by correct treatment and recycling, and stop getting rid of HLCW at garbage dumps.
HLCW consists of liquid food (such as drinks, sauces and ice-cream), individual care items (such as shower gels and moisturising creams) and other liquids (such as paint and cleaning representatives). If the market requires to get rid of HLCW at garbage dumps, they should use to the EPD for a Disposal of Special Waste at Landfills Admission Ticket. In 2025, there were an overall of 27 ticket holders who got rid of HLCW at land fills in the area, all of whom were makers, retail business, and logistics business.
The EPD called pertinent admission ticket holders, regional recyclers, and some producers and retail business previously this year to go over methods of slowly minimizing the disposal of HLCW at garbage dumps, with a view to considerably decreasing the quantity of HLCW winding up there. The EPD has actually proposed a variety of practical alternative options, consisting of reducing the generation of ended products at source through improved stock management, and thinking about contributing appropriately packaged and functional products to social well-being organisations or charities. For products inappropriate for contribution, they can install their own processing devices or turn over the products to recyclers with pertinent handling capability for treatment.
At present, HLCW is normally gotten rid of in undamaged product packaging and in big amounts. Because the product packaging products of such waste (such as paper boxes, aluminium cans and glass bottles) are recyclable, and the liquid contents can likewise be appropriately dealt with by suitable treatment systems, such waste is beneficial for recycling. In the previous 3 months, a drink maker had actually managed about 300 000 bottles of disposed of drinks through recyclers, with the product packaging products recycled. In addition, a dairy manufacturer prepares to manage about 50 000 containers of disposed of milk monthly through recyclers. This shows that the instructions proposed by the Department has actually gotten favorable reactions and concrete action from parts of the market.
The EPD has actually communicated with the regional recycling market to help in boosting its capability to manage the waste worried. The Recycling Fund is likewise evaluating appropriate applications to support recyclers in buying devices to manage different type of HLCW. The food waste treatment centers under the EPD, particularly Organic Resources Recovery Centres (O.PARKs), are capable of processing liquid food, assisting to turn waste into energy and foster resource recycling; while the Chemical Waste Treatment Centre can process waste liquids consisting of chemicals. When it comes to other waste liquids, after being appropriately dealt with and if in compliance with the requirements of the pertinent licence for the discharge of wastewater, they can be released into the common sewage system and communicated to sewage treatment centers for additional treatment.
The EPD representative mentioned that the abovementioned step under conversation is an administrative plan under the land fill admission ticket system, which does not include any changes to the pertinent legislation or subsidiary legislation. It covers just admission ticket holders of producers, retail business and logistics business, while community strong waste from families and industrial and commercial sources is not impacted.
The EPD will continue to go over the handling of HLCW with the market before selecting the complete application information and last schedule. If the market experiences technical problems while changing to alternative options, they can look for support from the EPD.