About 700 Tuen Mun residents and Greenpeace campaigners yesterday hit the streets to protest against a proposed incinerator aimed at reducing waste.
A motorcade comprising about 40 cars and 11 coaches drove from Tuen Mun to Central before the protesters marched to the Central Government Offices.
But a legislator attacked the demonstrators, saying their polluting protest contradicted their intention of showing concern for the environment.
Chanting slogans and carrying banners, the protesters presented a petition and a model of the incinerator to the government, urging it not to approve the project because it would threaten residents' health.
'Incineration would generate dioxins, which can cause cancers,' Greenpeace campaigner Miranda Yip Pui-wah said. 'We believe Hong Kong does not need an incinerator to handle the waste. The government should develop recycling businesses.'
Cheung Kong Infrastructure, through its subsidiary Green Island Cement, plans to turn its Tap Shek Kok cement plant in Tuen Mun into a waste-burning facility, using the heat and ash generated for cement production.
