Barriers to effective Waste Management in Macao SAR: Towards Policy Development and Implementation

Statistical data exists that confirm the increasing trends of average monthly income and household consumption expenditure of the Macao people due to economic development, following the liberalization of the gaming industry from 2002.

Solid wastes management refers to the “system of collecting, treatment and disposal of solid wastes generated by all urban population groups in an environmentally and socially satisfactory manner using the most economical means available (World Bank, 2008). It involves the planning, design, financing, construction, and operations of facilities for the collection, transportation, processing, recycling, and final disposal of residual solid wastes materials (Shah 2000).

The major objective of solid wastes management is to ensure that discarded materials are evacuated from the environment just in time to minimize the likelihood of the spread of diseases (Davis and Cornwell, 1998). The major driving forces of environmental change, leading to increasing volume of solid wastes generation in Macau are as a result of factors, such as tourism, population growth, and change in the consumption pattern of indigenous citizens and visitors in the teritory. Empirical studies have shown that the economy of Macau is heavily reliant on the tourism, and gambling sector, both representing more than 40% of the territory’s GNP(Ambiente, 2005). The booming of the tourism industry has been a positive turning-point to the local economy and socioeconomic condition of the Macau people.

Over the last two decades, the region has been generating an increasing volume of solid wastes as the local population increases, via tourism and economic development (due to a change in consumption and in income levels) of the local citizens as reiterated. International economic organizations, such as the World Bank has classified Macau, as a high income economy following the GDP per capita of the region in 2007 at USD 30,000 4 . Infact, this economic boom has been a result of the rising expenditure of mainland visitors, and other tourists visiting Macau.

Source: Statistics based on macau statistics and census services 5

At the moment, Macau has attained the status of the “Far East Monte Carlo”, due to its well established gaming industry 6 . In recent years, the industry has become one of the most prominent feature of Macau, which is the number one gambling center in the Asia – Pacific region.

6 Macau Foundation, 2006

Little wonder, Macau ranked 21st & 24th respectively in the increasing number of tourist, and tourism receipt by the World Tourism Organization report of international tourism for 2006 7 . With

9.1 million visitors in 2000, arrivals to Macau has signficantly increased to 18.7 million visitors in

2005 and 22 million visitors in 2006 8 . It is noted that over 50% of the arrivals into Macau, are predominantly from mainland China. Macau received around 26 million visitors in the year 2007. The figure below shows the trends of visitors/ tourists and non-residents coming to macau for different purposes.

Due to the issue land constraint in Macau, the government began making efforts to analyze the most cost effective approach for handling, and disposing off solid wastes in the region. This consequently led the government to adopt waste incineration and sanitary landfilling as the principal methods for treating wastes management in Macau 9 .

Retrieved 2008-01-16.

8 Visitor arrivals by place of residence". Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) of the Macau Government. Retrieved 2006-09-05. 9 9 Development Policy of Environmental Protection Industry in Macao and Prioritized Fields of Cooperation with the Mainland.

(Macao Foundation, 2005, p.11-13, 110).