Waste produced in India has a huge potential to generate clean and sustainable energy if it is recycled in a proper manner. The Government must spread awareness on the issue
Burgeoning population and overburdened municipal infrastructure are ensuring that the top cities of India are very productive in one area — waste generation in epic proportions. A miserable waste management strategy and clueless Government translates to overflowing landfill sites with more unsorted waste getting added every hour. The total municipal solid waste generated in urban India is 68.8 million tonnes per year or 188,500 tonnes per day. If the trend continues, urban India will generate 160.5 million tpy (440,000 tpd) by 2041. This calls for an evolved waste management discipline and sustainable waste-to-energy generation technology.
Delhi alone generates 8,500 tonnes of waste daily and has three major landfill sites that are overflowing. But before a fourth landfill is created to shoulder the need, we need to contemplate as to why we are converting our cities into garbage dumps when projects world over are ensuring successful waste to energy conversion and doing away with the need to add more landfill sites.
In 1999, Singapore was sending 0.76 million tonnes of waste to its landfill site in a year and incinerating 2.04 million tonnes. In 2011, only 0.2 million tonnes was sent to the site while 2.66 million tonnes was sent for incineration to its four waste-to-energy plants. The plants process around 7,600 tonnes of waste daily and produce more than 40 MW of power. With about 50 per cent of the waste recycled, waste management becomes easier for the authorities.
The problem in India lies in the lack of research and insensitive project implementation that does not account for social impact. The waste-to-energy plant at Okhla, in Delhi is an apt example with the local residents having filed various court cases, citing pollution being caused and toxins released into the atmosphere due to waste incineration to generate electricity. How and why the local residents were not consulted prior to project implementation is a mystery, and all of this for generation of 16 MW of power. With two more WTE plants coming up, the total waste that can be incinerated per day will be 7,500 tonnes.
Another problem with waste-to-energy technology currently is due to the low calorific value, as Indian waste is never segregated, it is wet and often mixed with hazardous material and as a result this waste does not burn well at all. The technology may be of cutting edge but if the raw waste feed is unsorted, the desired output is never achieved. Government and partnering NGOs can promote informal recycling and attempt waste segregation at the point of origin by training and employing waste pickers to conduct door-to-door collection of wastes, and then allowing them to sell the recyclables they collected.
Waste pickers should also be employed at material recovery facilities to increase the percentage of recycling. The recyclables so harvested can be processed for a longer lifespan. As a part of this effort the Government can also encourage and incentivise single households, restaurants, food courts and other sources of separated organic waste to employ small scale bio-methanation and use the biogas for cooking purposes.
The remaining solid waste post segregation can be sent for incineration. Incineration reduces the volume of solid waste by about 90 per cent and produces steam that runs turbine generators to generate electricity. The incinerated ash and other non-incinerable wastes can be forwarded to landfill sites or ash from WTE facilities can be used to make bricks as well.
For the success of any public initiative, the Government should ensure that proper awareness is generated pertaining to the project and the technology behind it. In many Indian cities a municipal truck openly carrying waste that is spilling over and foul smell emanating is a common sight, this despite specific orders to keep the vehicles covered.
The Government should provide advanced waste collection and transport vehicles that deliver incinerable solid waste to the plants and to prevent odours from escaping into the environment, the air in the waste chamber can be kept below atmospheric pressure. An effective waste management strategy will go a long way in reducing diseases and improvement in the quality of life for urban Indians, and avoid environmental pollution. The Government and local authorities should work with their partners to promote source separation and achieve higher percentage of recycling.
In addition, the waste-to-energy industry should exhibit self-responsibility in emissions control with constant emissions’ monitoring, reporting, and feedback the results into a loop of self-improvement. This will redefine how clean energy is produced from waste in India in a sustainable and socially responsible manner.