He was being briefed that Europe and Japan have invested in incineration to dispose of their increasing hazardous and non-hazardous wastes. A consultancy was commissioned to study the incineration option. The green groups expressed serious doubts about the wisdom of jumping onto the incineration bandwagon without fully exploring territory wide recycling which could save landfill space and create jobs. The health risk of dioxin pollution was also raised. Ms Lily Yam, the Secretary for Environment and Food Bureau went on a fact-finding trip to North America during September.
Major expenditure includes infrastructural projects.
In spite of the astronomical budget for the clean up, the environment is still in a mess. Air pollution is causing 2000 premature deaths a year, and scaring away tourists, conference organizers and business executives. Stage I capacity and as a result, a majority of the daily 1.5 million tons of sewage goes through preliminary screening only and is then dumped into Victoria Harbour. Every day over 17,200 tonnes of municipal and construction wastes are filling up landfills whose life-spans are being shortened to last about 15 years.