But does this principle, even in Walzer’s modified and stringent form, justifies the Semakau Landfill and presumably is also relevant for other wicked problems? Insofar as the Semakau Landfill is concerned, it is uncertain if the ‘good intended’ has been achieved if by ‘good’ we are referring to satisfying Singapore’s waste disposal needs until ‘zero waste’ is attained. But if ‘good’ is defined plainly as solving Singapore’s immediate waste disposal needs for a time, then this principle could in part justify the decision to build this offshore landfill. In the same vein, painstaking environmental design efforts were taken to reduce as much harm as possible to the environment during the construction of the Semakau Landfill (see Burkard, 2000). Even so, the consequential but unknowable impacts imposed elsewhere from dredging and sand mining, and the ongoing pollution caused by marine vessels carrying waste all add up to the question if it is even coherent to think about minimizing negative impacts by design when it is also essential for this design to presuppose larger and lasting negative impacts elsewhere. For this reason, if the principle of double effect is instructive in clarifying the ethics of the Semakau Landfill, then in the same act, doubts are also cast on whether the landfill has met the necessary ethical criteria to be justified by this principle.