A vicious by-product of our consumerist society is the rapidly mounting piles of waste. Almost everything we consume has some or the other form of waste that is not recyclable. For instance, the apple that you eat tends to come in non-biodegradable packaging that ends up in the ever growing mounts of sanitary landfills.
An innovative technique to tackle the constant waste that is being generated are the waste-to-energy (WtE) plants. Energy is generated by burning segregated waste at very high temperatures. During the incineration of waste, no other fuel is necessary apart from the waste since the temperatures reach as high as 1000°C. The high temperatures generated are used to heat water running through furnace pipes. This water then gets converted into steam which is transferred to a turbine and generator to create electricity. Segregation of waste is imperative for the viable success of WtE plants since only Municipal Solid Waste can be used in the process. Municipal Solid Waste consists of
biomass or biogenic waste such as cardboard, paper, food waste, leaves, grass clippings
Non-biomass combustible waste such as plastic
Non-Biomass non-combustible waste such as glass and metal
At first glance, WtE plants appear to be a magical solution to tackle with the waste dumped in overflowing sanitary landfills of New Delhi. However, New Delhi’s rendezvous with WtE plants has turned out to be an utter failure. This is due to two major reasons: first, due to a lack of segregation of waste at the source of generation makes the incineration of waste toxic; second, careless handling of ash produced after incineration makes the WtE plants a major health hazard. Due to the burning of non-segregated waste, the three WtE plants in Delhi -Sukhdev Vihar-Okhla, Ghazipur and Bawana- have consistently exceeded the Suspended Particulate Matter count set by the National Green Tribunal and hence end up adding more to the problem than solving it.
Waste-to-energy plants have the potential to effectively tackle the problem of excessive waster generations. However, the model that is being followed in New Delhi currently is generating toxic by-products in the form of fly ash and bottom and in turn endangering the lives of people who live around the area and work in these plants. A prudent first step towards implementing the waste-to-energy technology in Delhi would be to first ensure complete waste segregation at source.
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