The total volume of solid waste generated in Macau continued to rise last year, an increase of 5.1 percent from 2023, “nearly” returning to the level recorded in pre-pandemic 2019, according to the Environmental Protection Bureau’s (DSPA) report on Macau’s environmental state for 2024 published yesterday.
The bureau customarily publishes its annual report on Macau’s environmental state for the previous year on June 5, World Environment Day.
Macau was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic for three years from early 2020 through 2022.
According to data listed in previous annual reports, after the annual volume of solid waste generated in Macau dropped by 19.8 percent in 2020, it increased by 3.6 percent in 2021. The annual volume decreased by 3.6 percent in 2022, while it rose by 14.8 percent in 2023, the first post-pandemic year.
According to the report for 2024 published yesterday, Macau generated 526,979 tonnes of solid waste last year, an increase of 5.1 percent from 2023 when 501,512 tonnes were dumped.
In pre-pandemic 2019, according to previous DSPA data, Macau generated 545,725 tonnes of solid waste, because of which, last year’s volume of solid waste represented 96.6 percent of the 2019 level.
Last year, according to the report published yesterday, each person generated an average of 2.10 kilogrammes of solid waste per day in Macau, an increase of 4.0 percent from 2.02 kilogrammes in 2023.
The report published yesterday also compares Macau’s average daily volume of solid waste generated per capita in 2023 with several neighbouring cities. According to the report, while each person disposed of 2.02 kilogrammes of solid waste per day on average in Macau in 2023, the figures in the same year were 1.53 kg in Singapore, 1.44 kg in Hong Kong, 1.07 kg in Shanghai, 0.95 kg in Beijing, and 0.89 kg in Guangzhou.
Solid waste generated in Macau is treated in its incinerator in Pac On district in Taipa.
Moreover, according to the report published yesterday, the total volume of construction waste generated in Macau increased by 13.5 percent to 1.803 million cubic metres last year from 2023.
Construction waste generated in Macau is disposed of in its only construction waste landfill in east Cotai.
Meanwhile, according to the report, Macau’s electricity consumption increased by 5.1 percent last year from 2023, while billed water consumption and domestic water consumption rose by 5.6 percent and 0.9 percent respectively from 2023.
The report also said that the bureau estimated that the amount of greenhouse gases generated in Macau increased by around 10 percent last year from 2023.
The report noted that the emissions of greenhouse gases reached the highest level in 2017, after which they began to drop in 2018, before reaching the lowest level during the three-year pandemic between 2020 and 2022. The amount of greenhouse gases generated in the city increased again in 2023, the report noted.
A woman walks past an enclosed waste chamber on Travessa de S. Domingos, an alley running between Largo do Senado, the city’s main square, and Largo da Sé, where the city’s Catholic Cathedral is located. – Photo: Tony Wong
