Wan Po Road, or at least its English rendering - Environmental Protection Road - seems like a contradiction in terms to those living and working in the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate to which the road leads.
Neither will the irony of the name be lost on commuters who have to suffer intermittent whiffs from nearby landfills as they travel to and from the estate.
But the same road also leads to a genuine environmental protection industry player hoping to open for business in the estate - a company that has undertaken to turn used cooking oil into biodiesel, which is far cleaner than petroleum diesel.
Unfortunately, the plant's construction has been suspended, with no official indication of when it will resume.
Hong Kong's biodiesel producers, who use waste cooking oil as feedstock, say it is difficult to make a profit because of the lack of active government support for such initiatives. The Hong Kong government has set a goal to cut the city's carbon emission intensity by up to 60 per cent by 2020, but is relying on the greater use of nuclear power to cut its carbon footprint - despite safety concerns raised in Japan after the deadly March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
According to a subcontractor for the project and security guards who declined to be identified, ASB Biodiesel (Hong Kong) has stopped work on a partially-built plant capable of churning out 100,000 tonnes of biodiesel annually.
It is not clear exactly when work stopped. A guard at the 18,000 square metre site said no work had been carried out for several months, while a guard at the entrance to a neighbouring building said it was more like a year since work ended.
