3/5/2019 Do small cities need waste-to-energy plants?

Do small cities need waste-to-energy plants?

The fundamental issue with waste management in India is that it is always someone else’s problem

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By Sonia Henam
Last Updated: Wednesday 10 May 2017

On being asked as to why a waste-to-energy (WTE) plant is required for the city, an
official of an urban local body said, “It is a clean and productive way of getting rid of the
city garbage and companies will be financing from installation of the plant to segregation,
it will be their problem to tackle it for our city.”

This is the fundamental issue with waste management in India. It is someone else’s
problem. A number of WTE plants have either come up or proposed in India over the past
few years. There are currently five such plants with a cumulative installed capacity of 66.5
MW that are currently operational/under trial run in the country.

In addition, the Ministry of Urban Development has received 53 proposals from 22 states
with a potential to generate 405.3 MW of electricity under the Swachh Bharat Mission,
which are currently under various stages of construction or tendering. What is alarming is
the fact that WTE plants have been proposed in many cities that can easily adopt
decentralised solutions and need not invest in capital-intensive technologies.

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3/5/2019 Do small cities need waste-to-energy plants?
During a recent state committee meeting held to decide about the waste management
strategy for this small city with a population of 10,000-50,000 and waste generation of
about 20 tonnes per day (TPD), I was shaken by the interest and enthusiasm of the
authorities over getting a WTE plant. They thought it to be the only solution to curb the
issues of solid waste.

Rather than focusing on segregation at source, spreading awareness, preparing an action

plan for the city for waste management by adopting decentralised technologies, officials
emphasised on the need to have a WTE plant.

“We cannot handle the quantity. It is increasing. Moreover, people do not want to
segregate,” one of the officials said.

Composition of waste

For any city, to adopt a technology for processing waste, first an inventorisation on its
generation as well as composition of solid waste is required. Composition is critical. One
can only lay emphasis on a particular technology after having assessed the composition of
waste.

For this city, generating 20 TPD of solid waste per day, 50-55 per cent of the fraction is
organic, 11 percent is paper, 13.5 per cent plastic and packaging, 6 per cent glass and metal
and the remaining are inert materials.

While I constantly pointed out at this meeting that if your composition is as mentioned
above, you clearly do not need a WTE plant. You must focus on segregation at source,
generation of biogas out of your organic waste (this city being one of the prominent hill
stations) and channelisation of your recyclables. But it seems they had simply given up on
adopting any of these ideas.

What can small cities do?

Small cities, having population between 10,000 and 50,000 can easily tackle their waste
through better management and planning.

Urban local bodies (ULBs) should invest in preparing an action plan on waste
management in accordance with the Solid Waste Management (SWM) rules, 2016 within a
time-bound approach. The action plan should have the following components:

Segregation at source (household level) into wet, dry and domestic hazardous waste
User fee to be paid by generator
Revise draft bye-laws in accordance with SWM Rules, 2016
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Biodegradable waste should beDoprocessed, treated and disposed of through
small cities need waste-to-energy plants?

composting or bio-methanation on the premises as far as possible and the residual

waste will be given to the waste collectors or agency as directed by the local
authority
Spot fines on littering
Mapping and integration of concerned stakeholders in SWM management: urban
local bodies, residents, bulk generators, market associations, commercial centres,
hotels, NGOs and community-based organisations, academicians and the informal
sector
ULBs, in assistance with NGOs and residents, to conduct IEC and awareness
programmes. Ensure involvement of children in the process

Low-cost, local solutions is the need of the hour. The trick should be to promote and adopt
the key elements of waste hierarchy as refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and recover.

The cost of building and operating WTE plants or providing sanitary landfill sites is
enormous. If substantial parts of these funds are diverted towards waste minimisation and
recycling, the need for waste disposal will be enormously reduced, apart from reducing the
dangers which arise from both incineration and landfill.

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