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There once was a concern about incineration of medical waste because it was the major source of air-borne dioxin and mercury in Hong Kong. With the intervention of the Environmental Protection Department, 10 hospital incinerators in Hong Kong ceased operation from 1^st January 1999.

At present, 3 hospital incinerators are granted permission to incinerate only body parts and human organs to minimise the pollution. The rest of the medical waste is disposed of at landfills.

The same department who stopped the burning is now re-igniting more toxic flames. After the failure to solicit funding to build a centralised incineration facility for medical waste, the Environmental Protection Department of Hong Kong has now proposed to utilise the spare incineration capacity at the Chemical Waste Treatment Centre to burn medical waste.

The problem with burning medical waste is mainly the nature of the materials involved. Medical waste contains plastic including PVC which can contribute to dioxin formation. Mercury is also found to be in medical waste when devices such as thermometers are thrown away. Burning medical waste no doubt can kill all the bacteria and germs, but will also unnecessarily create toxic materials like dioxin, mercury, acidic gases and other hazardous chemicals which will be released into the atmosphere. The release of toxic gases is just one of the problems, we are also left with tonnes of even more toxic ashes to deal with.

Presently, according to the Environmental Protection Department, the disposal of medical waste in the landfill is costing taxpayers HK$200 per ton. In addition to the initial cost of HK$100 million, making the Chemical Waste Treatment Centre "suitable" to burn medical waste, there is a price tag of HK$8000 per ton attached. When the initial "investment" is made, Hong Kong is likely to be locked into this costly way of producing avoidable toxic gases and waste for the next 10–20 years.

Considering the fact that Hong Kong is producing around 7 tonnes of medical waste per day, if the Legislative Council decides to have it burned, then Hong Kong will be spending HK$20 million a year, for a period of 10 to 20 years. This huge proportion of taxpayers’ money can be much better spent on a safer, cheaper and more environmentally friendly technology. "Non-burn" technologies are available and widely used in thousands of hospitals in the United States.

No one benefits from the burning of medical waste, nor the health care system and definitely not the environment. The only one gaining from it is perhaps Enviropace Ltd, the operating company of the Chemical Waste Treatment Centre, which would have more of its incineration capacity utilised and profit increased.

If the Environmental Protection Department wants is to have the waste disinfected before it is disposed of at landfills, there are safer, cheaper options available. Best solution is to reduce, segregate and reuse the waste at its source, then carefully consider potential alternative treatments, which are autoclaves, microwave and chemical disinfecting systems.

Various technologies have been developed to sterilise and reduce the volume of medical waste without incineration. Autoclaves are the most commonly used medical waste treatment alternatives in the United States. They destroy infectious agents through the use of steam heat. Unlike incineration, the materials are not burned, which reduces the risk of dioxin production. Another alternative is microwave, which uses radiant energy to heat water that is sprayed onto the waste. Once the water reached its boiling stage, it boils the microbes, rendering most of them harmless.

In 1997 alone, 1,500 non-incineration medical waste treatment facilities were installed in the United States.

Greenpeace demands that the Hong Kong Legislature stop any proposals for incineration, specifically:

• Stop the proposal to incinerate medical waste at the Chemical Waste Treatment Centre.
• Demand the Hospital Authority and the Health Department to do their utmost to minimise the generation of medical waste and develop the use of existing non-incineration facilities to treat medical waste on-site before disposal.
• Demand the Environmental Protection Department to come up with cheaper, safer and the least polluting alternatives.