I.PARK1 stopped accepting waste on 27 October, the day after a fire at the facility. Waste normally sent there was diverted to the expanded part of the West New Territories landfill.
The Environmental Protection Department rejected online claims that a furnace-unit design defect or the collapse of a module under construction caused the fire, calling them baseless and fabricated.
The department’s preliminary information placed the fire on the roof within the incineration building’s third module, where finishing work was under way. It said construction materials were suspected of catching fire, rather than the incinerator operating or stored waste being the cause.
The department is investigating the cause with the police, Fire Services Department and Labour Department, while assessing damage and the effect on the facility’s processing capacity. It said waste intake would resume as soon as possible after the structure and major systems had been fully inspected and confirmed safe to operate.