CHENNAI: A number of city-based environment experts and activists on Friday made a strong case against a proposal made by the Chennai Corporation to set up waste-to-energy plants in Perungudi and Kodungaiyur, arguing that such plants would sabotage attempts to promote recycling of waste and lead to a number of environment and health hazards for the communities living close by.Speaking at a discussion on waste management, activists said that waste-to-energy plants, an evolved terminology for incinerators, were being phased out in a number of countries across the world. The concept of disposing waste through incinerators, they said, would only increase the amount of waste generated as it competes with the idea of recycling waste, the energy savings of which were much higher than incineration.Focusing on Chennai’s waste scenario, Dharmesh Shah, an environment activist, said that the private firm that had recently taken over garbage collection was expected to clear a total 1,500 tonnes of municipal solid waste every day in three zones. Though such firms come out with measures that aim at promoting waste segregation at source, they are never implemented properly as segregation would reduce waste generation, thereby having a detrimental effect on the business interests of the firms.He said that the proposed waste-to-energy plants were of the on-site Reduce Derived Fuel types, where segregated waste is bricked together and burnt for power production. World over, such plants have been documented for releasing dioxins which have grave effects on health and environment.Listing out a number of such incinerator projects that have failed in the country, he said that a large amount of public money was being spent on running the incinerators when there were other forms of cost-effective waste management systems. Further, such projects proposed by the previous DMK government were challenged, he said.Speaking on Skype from the United States, Neil Tangri, member of GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives) Foundation, said that incinerators were considered the primary source of pollutants. Studies in the US, he said, have shown that the amount of mercury that comes out of such incinerators was higher than that from mega thermal power plants. This apart, incinerators have also been documented for releasing over 100 different types of toxins, which no country has ever been able to curtail owing to the cost factor. Also, the unit cost of producing electricity from waste-to-power plants was higher than even nuclear energy.This figure would be higher in a country like India where, compared to the US, the calorific value of the waste generated, which is pivotal in generating heat for conversion to electricity, was much lower owing to higher organic content.Pointing out that all wastes cannot be treated as one, environment activist Nityanand Jayaram said that a more progressive method of waste management has to be evolved by the government which should involve de-centralised methods of collection. For example, waste such as used batteries and tube lights, which release toxins, cannot be treated on a par with organic waste and must be sent back to the factories for recycling, he said.
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