Hong Kong needs to build a trash incinerator to take the pressure off its landfills. The question is who wants it in their neighbourhood?
People who live in the vicinity of the trash burner will obviously be concerned about how it affects their air and water - and the community in general. Almost every major metropolitan city in the world has citizens' groups protesting Locally Unwanted Land Use (Lulu).
The public backlash to developments everyone needs but nobody wants to live next to was termed Nimby by British Secretary of State for the Environment Nicholas Ridley in 1980. The term stands for 'Not in My Back Yard'
'Nimbyism' and opposition to Lulus have become more commonplace since the development of the internet, which makes organising protests against projects easier. The problem is especially acute in Hong Kong, where only 22 per cent of the region's 1,104 sq km of land is fit for development and there is rising demand for power plants, disposal sites and institutions for prisoners and the sick.
While an incinerator does not make for the best neighbour, the city as a whole needs one, so the debate is about how a civil society should decide where it is built.
Julia Tao Lai Po-wah, a professor at City University of Hong Kong's department of public and social administration, said: 'One of the main concerns in Hong Kong is 'why me all the time'. In Hong Kong, most of the Lulus are concentrated in certain areas and it seems the same communities are forced to accept projects they don't want.'