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Considering the mounting uncollected and unprocessed municipal solid waste in India’s urban areas, creating an ecosystem for waste to energy plants holds significance. In this regard, highlight the extent of waste to energy plants in India and also the issues associated with the system in general and give your suggestions to fix them.
Considering the mounting uncollected and unprocessed municipal solid waste in India’s urban areas, creating an ecosystem for waste to energy plants holds significance. In this regard, highlight the extent of waste to energy plants in India and also the issues associated with the system in general and give your suggestions to fix them.
Importance of Waste to Energy plants:
- To extract the energy hidden in the unprocessed and treated solid waste.
- WtE plants are capable of providing 24x7 renewable electric power.
- The emission of toxic chemicals into the environment can be prevented.
- They reduce the possible emission of greenhouse gases particularly the methane (from landfills)
- The metals left in the municipal solid waste can also be extracted.
- The air pollution emanating from untreated wastes can also be reduced to a great extent.
WtE plants in India:
- Since 1987 there are 15 WtE plants in India. However only seven are functioning.
- They are located at Delhi, Kanpur, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Vijayawada and Karimnagar.
- Currently, there are 40-odd WTE plants at various stages of construction.
Issues:
- Country's inability to segregate waste resulted in low inputs for these plants.
- The Calorific Value of the municipal waste is low (which is unattractive to the plants)
- High cost of electricity produced in these plants. (Rs.7/kWh)
- Incinerators produce toxic waste (heavy metals and gas pollutants)which pollute underwater.
- Lack of finance for Urban Local bodies (which is needed for investments in these plants)
- Non marketability of waste processed products including electricity.
What needs to be done?
- MSW collection system should be improved by proper segregation of the waste.
- Private Partnership should be encouraged to invest in WtE plants.
- State Electricity city Discoms should be made to mandatorily purchase some electricity from these plants.
- Urban Local Bodies should be financially empowered to carry out improved segregation of waste.
- Ragpickers and Kabadiwalas should be integrated into the formal system.
- A monitoring committee should be set up to oversee the entire process.
- Community participation should be encouraged at all possible levels.
- Community awareness about 5Rreduce, reuse, recover, recycle and remanufacture should be done.
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