Hong Kong has seven ordinances to control pollution. These are the Waste Disposal Ordinance, the Water Pollution Control Ordinance, the Air Pollution Control Ordinance, the Noise Control Ordinance, the Ozone Layer Protection Ordinance, the Dumping at Sea Ordinance and the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance. Most of these ordinances have subsidiary regulations and other statutory provisions, such as technical memoranda, to give effect to the principal legislation.

The Government adopts a system of environmental quality objectives as a general principle in its pollution control law. The objectives are set at levels that will meet environmental goals, such as the protection of public health or the preservation of a natural ecosystem. The system aims to achieve the required environmental benefits in the most cost-effective and economically sustainable manner. Limits imposed on polluting emissions are no more stringent or costly than is necessary to achieve the conservation goal, which also makes the maximum safe use of the environment's natural capacity to absorb and recycle waste.

In 2005, EPD inspectors made nearly 52 500 inspections to enforce control on air, noise, waste and water pollution. These included regular checks on environmental compliance and investigations of pollution complaints from the community. The enforcement work resulted in 300 prosecutions and nearly $2.7 million in fines. To streamline enforcement from a customer-oriented perspective and to enhance efficiency, the EPD has implemented integrated enforcement operations and uses multi-skilled teams in each district to look at all types of pollution in any single site inspection and enforce anti-pollution laws.

Apart from law enforcement, the EPD has developed partnership programmes with various trades such as the construction industry, the catering industry, the vehicle repair trade and the property management sector to promote good environmental practices and compliance with pollution control regulations.