ENERGY RECOVERY FROM MUNICIPAL WASTE: MAKING CITIES MORE

PRODUCTIVE AND CLEANER; CONVERTING AN ENVIRONMENTAL AND PUBLIC

HEALTH LIABILITY INTO A SOCIAL-ECONOMIC AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION
ASSET

M.A. Kishimba
Chemistry Department, University of Dar es Salaam,
P.O. Box 35061, DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania
E-mail: Kishimba@chem..udsm.ac.tz

Abstract:
Poor management of urban waste represents the most serious urban
environmental and public health problem in Africa. Public health-wise, the
presence of waste in residential areas, at markets, roadsides, etc. poses grave
health hazards to people in general and children in particular. At the same time poor
urban waste management is primarily due to the lack of sufficient resources to
collect and properly dispose of municipal waste. Energy (and other resource)
recovery from wastes has the potential of greatly altering the situation – turning
an environmental liability into a socio-economic and poverty alleviation asset.
Municipal wastes, which are always a function of population, increase
proportionally, thus providing more feedstock for the energy and other resource
production. Studies have shown that exploitation of energy from wastes not only
greatly reduces (by over 60%) the amounts of urban wastes that need to be
disposed of, but also greatly alleviates urban environmental pollution,
communicable disease incidences and urban poverty; concurrently creating
employment. A case study of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania has shown the techno-
socio-economic viability of the municipal waste to energy conversion (EMW)
option not only as a sustainable waste management tool but also as a poverty
alleviation one. Estimates show that in the year 2000, Tanzania could have
generated about 60 MW of electricity from municipal solid waste alone,
substituting about a million tons of fossil (petroleum and coal) fuels. However the
policy and institutional frameworks have to be moulded to incorporate EMW
options into urban waste management strategies. The lessons of experience
gained in Dar es Salaam can easily be adopted by other urban centres, not only in
Africa, but also the rest of the developing world. A proposal for an African
programme on energy recovery from municipal waste is given.

1. Introduction
Poor management of urban waste represents the most serious urban environmental and
public health problem in Africa. Poor urban waste management has dire environmental
and public health consequences. Public health-wise, the presence of waste in residential
areas, at markets, roadsides, etc. poses grave health hazards to people in general and
children in particular. Much urban waste in developing countries contains animal and
human excreta, which play a major role in the transmission of communicable diseases like
cholera, plague, tetanus, salmonellosis, etc. Pathogens are known to survive for long
periods of time in urban garbage. In India it was found that intestinal worms (round and
whip worms) survive in urban refuse for as long as several months. Bacteria have been
found to survive in this environment for years and one study found faecal-indicator bacteria
in a urban waste landfill nine years after its closure. It has also been found that during the
rainy seasons, uncollected urban waste washed by storm-water, causing not only pollution

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of surface and ground water sources but also blocking the storm water drains, a situation
which causes flooding. During the dry seasons, improperly managed urban waste
decomposes and causes serious air pollution, just as burning of solid waste does. In a
nutshell, poor urban waste management has a lot of deleterious environmental and public
health effects especially in high-density areas which are the typically characteristic of most
major urban centres in Africa.

At the same time poor urban waste management is primarily due to the lack of sufficient
resources to collect and properly dispose of municipal waste. Generation of energy from
this waste has the potential of greatly altering the situation. The income generated from
the sale of energy produced from municipal waste would lead to a reduction in the net
financial costs of waste disposal in Africa. It may actually make the whole venture
economically self sustaining. Thus municipal wastes which are always a function of the
size of the urban population will increase proportionally, thereby providing more raw
material for the energy production processes. On the other hand the exploitation of
energy from wastes will greatly reduce (by over 60%) the amounts of urban wastes
which will need to be disposed of. Needless to say, as a bonus, this will greatly alleviate
urban environmental pollution.

2. Municipal Waste Generation and Management in Africa

With the steady increase in urban population (Figure 1) and the decline in municipal
services, urban waste has become a major problem in Africa with an estimated 30-50%
of it remaining uncollected. The World Bank estimates the per capita daily refuse
production to be between 0.7 and 1.8 kg for urban centres in industrialised countries and
between 0.4 and 0.9 for those in developing countries. This translates to a rate of about
400 -900 metric tonnes of waste each day for a city on one million inhabitants.

Urban waste is a fast growing problem driven by rapid urban population growth, which is
generally, at least twice the respective national population growth rates. This is
evidenced by the increasing illegal dumpsites, irregular collection of garbage, and rising
garbage piles and dumps in city alleys, streets and residential areas. Most cities and
municipalities have failed to cope with the increasing growth of waste production. Both
the World Resources Institute and USAID estimate that many urban centres in the
developing world have to spend over 30% of their budgets on refuse collection and
disposal. The urban authorities typically collect, at most, only 50 to 70% of the solid
waste and do not attain environmentally safe waste disposal levels. For instance, in Dar
es Salaam, about 15% of the waste was collected in 1988. The recent situation is
summarised in Chart 1. Generally, in African countries where data is available the
amount of uncollected garbage is appallingly low (Figure 2).

In most African urban centres, urban waste management increasingly involves the
private sector, which include both the informal sector and formal private companies. In
most city suburbs in Africa where the various dumpsites are found, there are
scavengers/informal sector who come to recover or salvage what they can from the
waste and sell it to make their living. The scavengers do this at a great health risk as
they expose themselves to pathogens and other pollutants characteristic of urban waste.
The informal sector has mainly been involved in the sorting of waste at dumping sites
into plastics, glass, paper, metal, tins and cans that are either sold to interested parties,
or recycled. The remaining organic waste is currently not utilised; however, it could be
used to generate energy using well-tested technologies, among them biogas from
landfills or anaerobic digesters. Alternatively, the organic waste can be used in the

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making of waste briquettes for direct combustion. Energy generation from urban waste
will result, therefore, in the reduction of methane, which is a serious green house gas.
The methane generated during the decomposition process of organic waste can be
tapped and utilised directly for combustion to produce electricity.

3. Municipal Waste to Energy Option: Classic Environment Opportunity Allowing

the Conversion of an Environmental and Public Health Liability Into a Social-
Economic and Poverty Alleviation Asset

The municipal waste to energy option not only protect the environment but also generate
jobs, income and energy services that would otherwise not be available. Energy from
urban waste is a classic environment opportunity because it mitigates the negative
environmental impact of urban waste management (e.g. breeding ground for infectious
parasites, human exposure to toxic waste, ground water contamination) while providing
a relatively clean energy resources in the form of either methane for direct combustion or
electricity which in turn can provide additional income and jobs that would otherwise not
be available. If the energy recovered is used to replace fossil fuels or coal (or electricity
generated from these sources) it can also yield significant greenhouse gases savings.
This effectively converts a serious environmental and public health liability into a socio
economic and poverty alleviation asset. Preliminary studies in Tanzania have shown that
the amount of energy, which can be generated from urban waste, is significant (Tables 1
and 2).

FIGURE 1: % OF URBAN POPULATION IN SOME AFRICAN COUNTRIES 1993

90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Kenya
Botswana

Ethiopia

Siera leone
Senegal

Zambia

Zimbabwe

1980 2000 2020

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 Chart 1: DAR ES SALAAM WASTE STREAM MODEL, 1997

Recycling
214

Discharge Collection Final Disposal

299 297 167

Illegal Dumping
Total Waste Generation
834
1816

Proper Self Disposal

399

Self Disposal
662
Improper Self Disposal
263

FIGURE 2: % OF UNCOLLECTED GARBAGE IN SOME AFRICAN URBAN CENTRES, 1993

Ethiopia

Sudan

Uganda

Tanzania

CAR

Kenya

Angola

Egypt

Botswana

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

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 TABLE 1: TOTAL POTENTIAL METHANE GENERATION FROM URBAN WASTE LANDFILLS IN
TANZANIA 2000 - 2020

Year Total Annual Dry Organic (Matter Methane Effective Power Fossil Fuel
Waste
(tons/year) generated Generation (MW) Substitution (103
(tons/year) tons of
(106 m3/year) diesel/year)

Dry Wet Dry Wet Dry Wet

site site site site site site

2000 2105932 631780 158 210 52 70 895 1193

2005 2741495 822448 205 274 68 91 1161 1548

2010 3576300 1072890 268 357 88 118 1519 2025

2015 4680274 1404082 350 467 116 154 1983 2644

2020 6084624 1825387 456 607 151 201 2584 3445

Table 2: TOTAL POTENTIAL ENERGY GENERATION FROM URBAN WASTE DIGESTION IN

TANZANIA 1993 – 2020

Year Total Annual Waste Annual Energy Effective Power % of 1993 Installed
Production (tons) Generation (GWh) Generation (MW) Country Capacity

2000 2105932 546.6 62.3 15.5

2005 27414495 711.5 81.1 20.2
2010 3576300 928.2 105.8 26.4

2015 4680274 1214.7 138.5 34.6

2020 6084624 1579.2 180.1 44.9

4. Findings, Lessons and Recommendations from A Case Study of Dar es Salaam,

Tanzania

§ Waste recycling of any sort is not institutionalised as part and parcel of MSW
management strategies in Tanzania. Such a move is long overdue and waste
recycling should be institutionalised and made part and parcel of MW
management process. A massive campaign to educate urbanites on the
advantages and economics of waste recycling should be launched. Waste
sorting can offer massive employment opportunities to women, the traditional
African family environmental and public health personnel.
§ It has been found out that although there are various technological options of
converting municipal waste into energy, not all can be taken to be appropriate for
the types of municipal wastes and the techno-socio-economic conditions
currently prevailing in Tanzania. Incineration with energy recovery and
gasification are deemed not appropriate for valid socio-techno-economic
reasons. Methane recovery from landfills and anaerobic digestion for the
production of biogas were found to be the most appropriate technological options
for Tanzania

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 § Policy and decision makers in Tanzania do not fully realise the significance of the
potential of municipal waste as a source of energy, especially electricity which
was, between September 1993 and November 1997, in acute short supply in the
country due to the low levels of water in the hydro-electric dams in the country.
There should be a campaign to sensitise policy and decision makers on the
potential of municipal waste as a renewable source of energy. They should be
made to understand that whereas dams in hydroelectric power stations can dry
up and render millions of dollars investments obsolete in a few drought years, the
same cannot happen to EMW ventures.
§ The urban masses, like the decision and policy makers, are also largely
unappreciative of the EMW potentials. They should be made aware of the
potential benefits which can be gained by EMW ventures, not only economically,
but also environmentally and public health-wise.
§ So far, the appropriate energy policy is silent on the use of municipal wastes as a
source of energy in the country. To change this, appropriate energy policy
updating should be effected to incorporate EMW options as priorities in energy
generation measures in the country.
§ Due to lack of policy on EMW, there is no institution to deal with it. To address
EMW, an institution, most preferably a joint venture enterprise, between private
investors and the municipal authorities, should be formed to oversee the
incorporation of EMW options in the national energy institutional set-up.
§ Unless key stakeholders are fully involved and consistently consulted, projects
may fail to be implemented or deliver the desired outcome. This is exemplified
the delayed implementation and finally, cancellation of the The Takagas - Biogas
for Tanzania Project (estimated to cost, by then, US $ 4 million) was formulated
in 1993, with the urban power crisis and the problems of municipal waste
management in mind. The then Ministry of Water, Energy and Minerals, with the
aid of UNDP and GEF, commissioned the Danish Institute of Technology and the
University of Dar es Salaam to conduct a pre-investment study on the possibility
of using municipal waste for the production of biogas which would then used for
generation of electricity and liquefied for use in vehicles. The project, the only
one of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa outside South Africa, had the overall
objective of demonstrating and establishing the economic, environmental and
energy-producing benefits derived from using selected municipal and industrial
organic waste for large-scale biogas production in Africa. Integral to the project
was the development of Tanzanian and other African expertise and awareness,
with public sector, universities, general public and commercial sector
participation, required for the sustainability and replication of similar projects. The
eventual cancellation of the project was probably due to the failure to fully involve
one key stakeholder in the process – TANESCO – by then, the only de jure and
de facto power utility company not only in the City but also in the country. Instead
TANESCO was reduced to a middle-client for the purchase of electricity, the
would-be main product of the project, for re-sale to the end users.

5. Recommendation for an African Programme:

A programme whose overall objective should be to facilitate, through studies and

demonstration pilot projects involving public (urban authorities), private informal sectors
and all other key stakeholders, self-sustaining investments into the energy from urban

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waste ventures in Africa which is a sustainable global urban waste management and
GHG reduction strategy.

The specific objectives of the project should be the following:

(A) Research/Studies
i. To collect reliable and realistic information (production, collection, composition,
disposal, etc, in quantitative terms, based on field data) on urban waste in
selected African urban centres
ii. Review of current collection and disposal in place and how they can be
improved
iii. Comprehensive review of waste to energy technologies and identification of the
technological options which can be used under the existing techno-socio-
economic conditions in the respective African urban centres
iv. Demonstrate the potential of energy generation from urban waste and its public
health, environmental and socio-economic benefits
v. Thorough cost-benefit analysis of energy from urban waste ventures
vi. Quantification of global environmental benefits (fossil fuel substitutions, GHG
emission reductions, etc.).
vii. Formulation of executable pilot projects and selection of suitable respective
urban centres for various pilot project implementation, based on the findings of
items i – vi above.
viii. Identification of institutional, policy and legal factors that would enhance the role
of the informal sector in urban waste management in the respective urban
centres, focusing on the waste to energy conversion ventures.
(B) Capacity Building
(i) Sensitisation of key stake holders on sustainable and environment friendly
urban waste management, focusing on the energy generation from urban
waste and its public health, environmental and socio-economic benefits
(ii) Training of personnel required for the execution of pilot projects on waste
management, recycling, waste to energy conversion technologies, formulation
and execution of pilot projects, etc.
(iii) Mass awareness campaigns on the participatory approach by all stakeholders
in urban waste management practises and the advantages of the waste to
energy conversion option.

(C) Pilot Projects:

i. Execution of pilot projects based in selected African urban centres based on
technically proven options as documented in the studies in (A).
ii. Formulation of investment projects based on the experience gained from the
execution of pilot projects that demonstrate economic and technical viability.