SITA (originally ''Société Industrielle de Transport Automobile'') is the main brand representing

Suez Suez ( ar, السويس '; ) is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 ) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boun ...

's waste subsidiaries in Europe, North America, the Asia Pacific zone and Australia. Following the merger of the original Suez and

Gaz de France Gaz de France (GDF) was a French company which produced, transported and sold natural gas around the world, especially in France, its main market. The company was also particularly active in Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany, and other Europea ...

in 2008, Suez Environnement (now Suez) became a listed group on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

Brussels Stock Exchange The Brussels Stock Exchange (french: Bourse de Bruxelles, nl, Beurs van Brussel), abbreviated to BSE, was founded in Brussels, Belgium, by decree of Napoleon in 1801. In 2002, the BSE merged with the Amsterdam, Lisbon and Paris stock exchang ...

and the

Paris Stock Exchange Euronext Paris is France's securities market, formerly known as the Paris Bourse, which merged with the Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Brussels exchanges in September 2000 to form Euronext NV. As of 2022, the 795 companies listed had a combined market ...

. SITA is a significant part of the Suez business, which now as a

waste management Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring ...

and

water treatment Water treatment is any process that improves the Water quality, quality of water to make it appropriate for a specific end-use. The end use may be drinking water, drinking, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water recrea ...

specialist is fully focused on sustainable development. It owns, operates or has submitted planning applications for a number of

incineration Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of substances contained in waste materials. Industrial plants for waste incineration are commonly referred to as waste-to-energy facilities. Incineration and other high ...

and

In-vessel composting In-vessel composting generally describes a group of methods that confine the composting materials within a building, container, or vessel. In-vessel composting systems can consist of metal or plastic tanks or concrete bunkers in which air flow and ...

plants. Sita's services include business and residential waste disposal, street cleansing,

landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...

engineering,

civic amenity site A civic amenity site (CA site) or household waste recycling centre (HWRC) (both terms are used in the United Kingdom) is a facility where the public can dispose of household waste and also often containing recycling points. Civic amenity sites ...

management and

energy from waste Waste-to-energy (WtE) or energy-from-waste (EfW) is the process of generating energy in the form of electricity and/or heat from the primary treatment of waste, or the processing of waste into a fuel source. WtE is a form of energy recovery. Mo ...

History

SITA was created in 1918 to modernise domestic waste collection in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and to cope with the rapid rise in the volume of

domestic waste Municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage in the United States and rubbish in Britain, is a waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. "Garbage" can also refer specifically to food waste, a ...

generated by Parisians. SITA was taken over by Société Lyonnaise des Eaux et de l'Éclairage in 1971 and became a part of La Compagnie de SUEZ. The aim of the acquisition was to allow SITA to respond to the changes taking place in the market at the time. New facilities were built to better manage the landfill process and to allow SITA to incinerate domestic waste. New markets were developed with local authorities, such as selective glass collection schemes and the collection and treatment of

clinical waste Biomedical waste or hospital waste is any kind of waste containing infectious (or potentially infectious) materials. It may also include waste associated with the generation of biomedical waste that visually appears to be of medical or laboratory ...

from hospitals. In 1997, La Compagnie de Suez and Lyonnaise des Eaux merged to form the new group, Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux and later

Suez Environnement Suez SA (formerly Suez Environnement) is a French-based utility company which operates largely in the water and waste management sectors. The company has its head office in La Défense, Paris.renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

Hong Kong division

SITA Waste Services Limited holds the aftercare contracts for seven closed Hong Kong landfills, namely: Tseung Kwan O Phase I, Tseung Kwan O Phase II & III, Gin Drinkers' Bay, Ngau Tam Mei, Siu Lang Shui, Ma Tso Lung, and Pillar Point Valley. They also manage two operating landfills, the North East New Territories Landfill (NENT) and the West New Territories Landfill (WENT), as well as various refuse transfer stations around the territory. The company was formerly known as Swire SITA Waste Services Limited.

Swire Swire Group () is a Hong Kong- and London-based British conglomerate. Many of its core businesses can be found within the Asia Pacific region, where traditionally Swire's operations have centred on Hong Kong and mainland China. Within Asia ...

sold its interest in 2008 and the company name was changed to its present form in 2009. In 2012 two former directors of Swire SITA were jailed for bribing Macao's former secretary for transport and public works

Ao Man Long Ao Man Long (; born in December 1956) was the first Secretary for Transport and Public Works of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, from 20 December 1999 to 6 December 2006. On 8 December 2006, Ao was a ...

. The sentencing judge said that to some extent the pair were "victims" as it was Ao who initiated the bribe. A 2016 investigation by Hong Kong's

Environmental Protection Department Environmental Protection Department (EPD) is a department of Hong Kong Government concerning the issues of environmental protection in Hong Kong.The EPD is responsible for developing policies covering environmental protection, nature conserva ...

(EPD) found that SITA failed to meet their contractual obligation to maintain a minimum temperature of 1,000 °C for the flaring of

landfill gas Landfill gas is a mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill as they decompose organic waste, including for example, food waste and paper waste. Landfill gas is approximately forty to sixty percent methane, ...

in the leachate treatment plant at the closed Pillar Point Valley Landfill, in an attempt to save fuel expenditure. As a result, up to 800 tonnes of polluted water (landfill leachate) was discharged into the sea per day from November 2015 to January 2016. The EPD consequently deducted HK$200,000 from the monthly payment to SITA. The EPD also set up a special investigation team to look into alleged malpractice by SITA. By mid-November 2016, the department had deducted a total of $3.3 million from the contract payments to SITA on the grounds that the leachate treatment plant failed to meet standards. Late in 2016 the EPD once again prosecuted SITA under the Water Pollution Control Ordinance. The department found that, from May to June 2016, SITA repeatedly exceeded the polluted water discharge limit specified in the licence. The EPD prosecuted SITA under 16 offences of the Water Pollution Control (General) Regulations. In May 2017, SITA was convicted in the Fanling Magistrates’ Courts of 20 offences and fined $200,000. The EPD deducted $5.5 million in operation payments to SITA for the Pillar Point contract.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Societe Industrielle Des Transports Automobiles Waste management companies of Australia Waste management companies of France Waste management companies of the United Kingdom French companies established in 1919 Waste companies established in 1919

History

Hong Kong division

See also

References

External links