‘WtE not an acceptable waste disposal method or energy producing unit’

It converts the waste into invisible particulate and gaseous pollutants leading to heightened inhalation hazards, says activist

The proposal to set up a waste-to-energy plant at Bandhwari landfill off Gurugram-Faridabad road was strongly opposed by civil society groups, NGOs and individuals at a public hearing by the Haryana State Pollution Control Board a fortnight ago. N.B. Nair, Scientific Officer (Retd.), Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, also the member of Citizens’ for Clean Air, one of the civil society groups at the forefront of the opposition to the project, speaks to The Hindu on his objections, the alternatives and measures to tackle air pollution in the NCR. Excerpts:

The very nomenclature, waste-to-energy plant, is wrong. It implies a false notion that a WtE unit solves the bothersome waste disposal problem and at the same time produces the ever-needed energy. In reality, it involves neither an acceptable waste disposal method nor an acceptable energy production process. A WtE unit actually converts the waste into invisible particulate and gaseous pollutants in the atmosphere leading to heightened inhalation hazards. The pollutants produced from the waste on the ground can enter the body through water and food and this pollution is limited to some specific areas. However, air pollution created by WtE plant can spread across many kilometres, depending on the prevailing wind patterns. It is a fact that pollution gets diluted as it spreads away from the plant. But, even after dilution, many of these pollutants, including many carcinogens, remain potentially dangerous. Also, their effects are cumulative, as the life of many of these pollutants are a few decades. The breathing in of pollutants is more than a thousand times harmful than their intake through water or food. The domestic and municipal waste is also the least efficient fuel-for-energy production, in terms of units of electricity produced per tonne of the fuel (in this case, the waste). The least efficient fuel means the most polluting process.

The WtE proponents quote rosy pictures of a few WtE plants still working in Japan, Sweden and Amsterdam, etc. These WtE proponents simply ignore the fact that thousands and perhaps millions of WtE plants around the world, specifically including, the U.S., China, the U.K., and many European countries, were closed down during the past three to four decades. However, a few hundred WtE units are still operating around the world due to compelling geopolitical reasons, spending huge amounts of tax money to maintain their strict operating standards. Their performance reports for the past many years are well published. Whereas the performance records, rather, performance history of our WtE plants are simply horrible on all environmental aspects. There are many WtE plants working in India, some of them for more than a decade, but why does no one quote their performance reports? Show me a single satisfactory performance report on any of our WtE plants, even for a period of one year, by the Central Pollution Control Board, under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.