Construction Waste Management Policies and Their Effectiveness in Hong Kong: A Longitudinal Review

Abstract

Solid waste arisen from construction activities is a grave concern in many economies. Given its negative impacts to the natural environment as a public good, construction waste is often heavily regulated by authorities including Hong Kong. Over the past decades, a series of construction waste management (CWM) policies have been introduced by the Government and her executive arms. It comes to an opportune time to retrospectively examine the effectiveness of these policies with a view to providing insights for further improvement. The aim of this paper is thus to examine CWM policies and their effectiveness in Hong Kong by conducting a longitudinal study. It is found that Hong Kong is actively trying new CWM policies, which have formed an interlocking, and relatively effective policy framework for CWM. However, new initiatives are desired if aiming to change the gloomy situation since 2006 after the construction waste disposal charging scheme was effectively implemented. This research provides insightful understanding of CWM policies and their effectiveness, which is often concerned policies makers, researchers, and the like.