Is a double disaster brewing in our backyard? Ghazipur residents

oppose an incineration plant fearing harmful emissions; waste-pickers fear loss of livelihood

Janani Ganesan
Ghazipur

A landfill in Delhi Photo: Vijay Pandey

Over 300 people defied police pressure and participated in a public hearing organised to condemn the waste-to-energy plant expected to start operations soon in Ghazipur. The Ghazipur Dairy Farm, the venue of the public hearing, experienced a few tense moments on Saturday 24 March, when around 20 police personnel entered the premises. The hearing was organised by the Ghazipur Anti-Incinerator Committee, a voluntary forum of local residents. Following a refusal of permission by the Ghazipur police station Station House Officer (SHO) Sunil Kumar for the meeting, the residents wrote an application to the Commissioner of Police. Since they did not get a rejection letter in response, they went ahead with the meeting as planned.

Ghazipur residents at the public meeting Photo: Dharmesh Shah ALSO READ From rags to ditches Remove The Poor Ragpickers’ Dream

“The SHO told us not to hold the meeting. He claimed he hadn’t received any communication from the Commissioner,” said Sant Ram, president of Ghazipur Residents Welfare Association. “They did not allow us to put up a tent and only allowed ten chairs. Later they removed everything and snatched the microphone away as well.” The waste-pickers from the nearby Ghazipur Kabadi basti, about 50 meters from the Ghazipur landfill were also not allowed to join the hearing. The organisers claim that they would have had an attendance of thousands, had it not been for the police posted at the basti stopping the waste-pickers from joining the meeting.

When TEHELKA spoke to the waste-pickers later in the day, they said they had been threatened by the policemen. “The policemen warned us not to go to the meeting. Even though we are in thousands, we dare not go against the police because we live in the area. What will we do if they arrest us?” said waste-picker and the basti resident who does not wish to be named. This controversial 1300 tonne capacity waste-to-energy plant was developed by New Delhi Waste Processing Company Private Ltd., (NDWPCL), a joint venture of Government of Delhi and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) Ltd. It is a municipal solid waste power project that is expected to generate 12 MW power from waste through the process of incineration. The plant, whose construction was started three months ago, is expected to become operational in six months.

The residents of Ghazipur oppose an incineration plant being set up in an area populated with 36 lakh inhabitants as they fear the harmful emissions that may be generated from it, while the waste-pickers fear loss of livelihood because of the plant. Present at the public hearing was Dunu Roy of Hazards Centre, a not-for-profit institution, who highlighted that the Inter-Ministerial Task Force on Integrated Plant Nutrient Management (May, 2005) discouraged the concept of waste-to-energy policy. It has instead recommended setting up of 1000 compost plants all over the country to manage waste. There are currently three waste-to-energy incineration plants in Delhi – in Ghazipur, Okhla and Bhavana. Out of the three only the Okhla plant, also constructed by IL&FS Ltd is operational and is on its trial run. These are the first set of waste-to-energy plants to come up in India. The technology of the Okhla plant is already contested in the Delhi High Court by the residents of Okhla.

Janani Ganesan is a Correspondent with Tehelka.
janani@tehelka.com

The uncounted people: waste-pickers of India

Despite the chilly winter air, Chinnamma’s day begins at 5am. Wrapping a length of her sari over her head and hugging her shawl around her shoulders, the 48-year-old makes her way to Jawaharnagar municipal dump on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The smell from the mountains of rotting refuse is overpowering but Chinnamma hurries in. A delay could mean a day of no earnings as the gates are locked after 7am and she must get in and out before that time.

An hour later, Chinnamma has filled a plastic bag filled with her precious collection: empty bottles, empty cans, rags, torn shoes, scraps of plastic and pieces of metal. Sorted neatly in separate bundles, she will later sell this collection to a scrap dealer for around Rs 5 (6p) a kilo. On a lucky day, she will make about Rs 150 – a little under £2.

Chinnamma is an unofficial or “free-roaming” waste-picker, one of an estimated 8,000 men and women in Hyderabad who scrape a livelihood by sifting through garbage, looking for items to recycle and sell on.

Sorting through the rubbish in the semi-darkness is fraught with risk. Infection and illness aside, Chinnamma’s worst fear is getting buried under a sudden avalanche of refuse. In the past year alone, six waste-pickers – three of them women – have been buried in this way in this dumping ground. Of those six, the body of only one was recovered – the rest are still untraced. After this the city authorities started to lock the gates of the dumping site to stop the waste-pickers from getting inside.

A further 7,000 recognised waste-pickers work for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). They each collect rubbish from around 200 homes and get paid Rs 30 each month by each of the families, bringing in a total of Rs 6,000 (£77) a month.

Between them they help to collect, sift and process the city’s waste – an estimated 3,800 metric tons of waste every day, the equivalent of 322 double decker buses – providing an informal and environmentally friendly recycling service.

It would be hard to call it a “living” but waste-picking allows Chinnamma to pay the Rs 1,500 monthly rent on her hut in a nearby slum. Without it she would be evicted. However, her means of survival is now under threat.

This month GHMC is handing over management of the city’s rubbish to Ramky Enviro Engineers, a waste management company which already runs 14 waste management facilities across India. The city’s refuse will be used to fuel a gas-based power plant, while the rest of the waste will be supplied to two similar government-owned plants that are currently under construction.

As a result there will be nothing left for the waste-pickers to collect or sell. Some will find temporary work at construction sites, while the women will look for work as domestic maids. However, without a reference letter they are unlikely to be hired. The only other option is illegal sex work.

The future of the recognised waste-pickers is also uncertain as Ramky has no legal obligation towards them. Satya Adamala, project director in Ramky’s solid waste management division, says that the company will try to retain GHMC’s current waste-picker force.

However, Susheela, a GHMC waste-picker, says:

“Currently most of us earn Rs 2,000 every month from selling recyclables which is outside of our salary (Rs 6,000). But we have been told that from next month, our salary will be Rs 3000 and we should not take any recyclable material. If that happens, our earnings will be less than half of what we make now.”

GHMC’s move to privatise waste-management in Hyderabad is opposed by the Association for Promoting Social Action (APSA), a Hyderabad-based NGO that works to protect the rights of waste-pickers. APSA has appealed to both the state and the National Human Rights Commission to review the Ramky contract.

S Srinivasa Reddy, APSA director, says:

“The waste-pickers have been segregating and recycling over 12 per cent of the city’s total waste on their own. If better trained and given financial and technical support, the percentage can grow manifold.”

There are several successful examples of this across India. In Ahmedabad, in the western state of Gujarat, 200 women waste-pickers run a small business producing diaries, notepads and pens made from recycled waste. The Gitanjali Mahila Sewa Industrial Stationery Producers Cooperative Mandli is supported by We-Connect, a private sector forum, and the global consultancy firm Accenture, and customers include the World Bank. Similar recycling units are being run by waste-pickers’ co-operatives in Valod, also in Gujarat, and Pune in Maharashtra.

APSA has been lobbying the GHMC to count and recognise all the free-roaming waste-pickers in the city, providing them with a safer, more regular income.

“We were also in talks with GHMC to provide health insurance to the waste-pickers,” says Reddy. “But the privatisation move has derailed this entire process.”

Supporting APSA in its fight to protect the livelihood of free-roaming waste-pickers is the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), a worldwide alliance of more than 600 non-profit organisations that opposes waste disposal by incineration and campaigns for increased recycling by waste-pickers.

According to Dharmesh Shah, GAIA’s India Coordinator, landfill gas-to-energy projects are simply a modern method of incinerating waste and give no environmental benefits. In contrast, the waste-pickers help build an informal but environmentally-friendly economy through low-cost sorting and recycling.

“There are about 15 million people in India who earn a living from the collection and recycling of solid waste,” says Mr Shah.

“They are not just keeping the cities clean but also contributing towards saving the environment. The government should provide them every facility that it provides to employees in other sectors such as guarantee of work, housing, subsidised food, free medical care and pension. But in reality, the waste collectors are deprived of even the basic amenities.”

The number of unofficial waste-pickers in Hyderabad is on the rise and campaigners warn that banning them will not make them go away. Driven by lack of employment in their villages, these men and women arrive in the city looking for work. They are one of the most marginalised groups in India. The majority are Dalit (previously known as Untouchables) and landless, with almost no education or skills. Litter-picking is one of the only options open to them for survival.

Once in the city, waste-pickers work in deplorable conditions. They have no protective gear, handling the waste with bare hands and living close to the dumping grounds which are rotting, stinking mass of waste. Rates of tuberculosis, cancer and renal failure are high, as are alcoholism and substance abuse. “The smell at the dump yard is stomach-churning. You can work and live here only if you are out of your senses,” Chinnamma explains.

Sivarani, a slum development coordinator with APSA who has been working with the city’s waste-pickers for more than 15 years, says they should have been given a chance to contribute to the debate.

“Nobody should decide the fate of the waste-pickers on their behalf,” she says.

“Currently, the entire deal is happening between the municipality and private companies. The waste-pickers, whose lives revolve around the issue, should be the central party to this deal, but they are nowhere in the picture.”

With support from APSA, 500 free-roaming waste-pickers have recently united under a banner called the Federation of Waste Collectors of Hyderabad. In November last year, ten of them visited a recycling co-operative run by waste-pickers in Pune. “Like them, we can also make compost, diaries, cups and calendars. The government, we hear, has banned plastic bags. We can make and supply paper bags to stores instead,” says Chinnamma.

The will is there among the waste-pickers. But so far the government has not been listening.

Indian waste workers fear loss of income from trash-to-electricity projects

--By Rama Lakshmi

The Washington Post, Monday 21 November

In New Delhi — For five hours every day, Ranjit Kumar and his 10-year-old son rummage through a giant pile of rotting trash with their bare hands, filling bags with pieces of metal, plastic and glass to take by cart to the recyclers market nearby.

But an incinerator under construction not far away may mean that he and other waste workers will lose access to the trash, he said, which fetches his family a little over $5 a day.

The incinerator is one of two projects in New Delhi aimed at turning the city’s trash into electricity and earning carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol, the global climate pact designed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Local politicians have hailed the projects for addressing the city’s chronic problems of excess untreated waste and a shortage of electric power.

But for almost 300,000 workers in the city engaged in waste collection, sorting and recycling, the plants mean the loss of their livelihood.

“If all the trash goes to the plants to be processed, how do we feed our stomachs?” said Kumar, as foul-smelling fumes rose from the trash and dark brown water trickled past him. “My work may look dirty, but it keeps my family alive.”

Waste-worker communities have mobilized in Brazil, Colombia, South Africa and India to campaign on behalf of trash dumps and the livelihoods they provide, and against the idea of burning waste. The United Nations, however, has been encouraging incinerator projects that burn waste — rotting trash produces the potent greenhouse-gas methane — to produce energy.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, nations can earn carbon credits for such projects that can be used to offset the emissions of coal-fired power plants elsewhere.

Earlier this month, hundreds of waste workers gathered outside the United Nations office in New Delhi to protest 21 municipal waste projects for which India has applied for carbon credit. The projects, not all completed, use biodegradable, combustible and inert waste. They include trash-to-compost, incinerators, refuse-derived-fuel.

Waste-worker groups appealed to climate negotiators when they met in Mexico, Germany and China in the past year, and they are now preparing to protest at the climate meeting in Durban, South Africa, set to begin next week.

Waste workers want access to the United Nations’ $30 billion Green Climate Fund — the effort by developed countries to help the developing world prepare for climate change — for their role in mitigating climate change by recovering recyclable materials from waste.

But advocates of the trash-to-energy projects say that India’s growing population, changing consumption patterns and urban boom has created a waste problem that must be addressed in a scientific manner.

“It is not an us-versus-them situation. We must frame the debate differently. Do we want the ragpickers to continue working in inhuman, hell-on-earth, unhygienic conditions at these untreated dump sites? Should their sons and daughters do the same, too?” asked Mahesh Babu, chief executive of IL&FS Ecosmart, which heads several trash-to-energy projects across India, including the incinerator near Kumar’s neighborhood. “The solution lies in integrating some of the waste-workers into the processing activities of the plants.”

But India has a staggering 1.7 million waste workers, and any effort to mainstream them is often just a drop. Babu’s project in the central city of Nagpur has given jobs to 70 people to collect trash, out of a total of 1,700 waste workers in the city.

“The waste pickers are at the lowest rung of the occupational ladder and often the most marginalized, hence they do not have alternative livelihood options to which they can move,” said Prema Gera, assistant country director of the United Nations Development Program, in an e-mail, referring to a study.

Bhojahari Paramni, 41, has worked with waste for 25 years. He removes dirt and twigs from balls of human hair in his home in a large slum of waste workers.

“You cannot take away my job and expect me to become a successful electrician, plumber or mason overnight,” he said. There is no regulatory protection for waste workers in India.

Waste workers say that 80 percent of Indian trash is wet, organic waste, and that 30 percent contains recyclable material.

“To run an incinerator they will burn everything, including the recyclables like plastics. Is that good for the environment?” asked Shashi Bhushan Pandit, secretary of All India Waste Workers Union. This year, New Delhi residents protested another new incinerator because they feared toxic emissions like dioxin and other gases.

Two Indian waste workers will represent their country at next week’s protest in Durban, which will demand that poor people be included in climate policies.

Although the Kyoto Protocol, which the United States has not signed, is facing an uncertain future when it comes up for renewal in 2012, analysts say that its key component, carbon-trading for emissions reductions, may survive in some form. Countries such as China, Japan and New Zealand are developing carbon markets. California recently announced the nation’s first state-run cap-and-trade program. This year, India launched an exchange program for renewable-energy certificates.

“We are hoping that the carbon trading market will continue in some [form] — both within India and bilaterally with other countries, even if the multilateral arrangements under the Kyoto Protocol are not renewed,” Babu said.

He said carbon credit prices have fallen more than 50 percent in the past year because of the eurozone economic crisis.

Power from waste: Vivekananda Kendra shows the way

M.J. Prabu, The Hindu Sept 8 2011

The town Panchayat is today powered by the biogas-generated electricity

Effective management: The bio-gas unit installed by VK-Nardep. - Photo: Special Arrangement

Mamallapuram in Tamil Nadu is an internationally renowned tourist destination.

Though the town itself houses a modest population of just 12,345 in about 400 households, it generates a huge volume of waste – mainly kitchen waste from various hotels and restaurants.

An NGO from Kanyakumari called Vivekananda Kendra (Vk- nardep) built a solid waste management shed at the town panchayat for collecting and processing the entire waste for feeding into a bio-gas plant.

“The Kendra constructed the biogas plant (of 100 cubic metre volume) — a floating drum like device attached to a designed biogas engines that are in turn connected to specially designed control panels.

Effective disposing

“The solid waste management shed of the Panchayat is today powered by the biogas-generated-electricity.

“Once the plant started functioning, the panchayat disposed a lot of waste in a constructive way using this plant. The hygiene of the surroundings also improved,” says the Kendra secretary G.Vasudeo.

Scientists from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore and officials from Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA) visited the project and recommended it for subsidy from the Government.

“Every kilowatt of energy produced through such renewable energy sources is eligible for subsidy. This village panchayat generates about 10 Kilowatts of electricity from its organic kitchen waste thereby becoming eligible for subsidy worth Rs 4 lakh,” says Mr. Vasudeo.

Once a small town or village becomes a popular tourist place, almost the entire livelihood of that place starts depending on its tourism industry.

“Increased waste generation and absence of effective solutions to tackle it affect the health of the people and also hits tourist flow. Sadly, today urban tourist centers as well as cities are becoming a hub of food waste being dumped in the kitchen backyards,” he adds.

Waste generation

A typical major tourist or pilgrimage centre generates 10-35 tonnes of waste per day, higher than the per capita in urban areas.

Such a problem needs to be tackled innovatively both technologically and socially, that too on a war footing.

“Disposing of waste, particularly kitchen waste, poses a big problem everywhere. Often the sight of accumulated garbage heaps at road corners and in open grounds and fields becomes a nuisance for the residents.

“These rubbish heaps become a breeding ground for many infections and are frequented by stray dogs,” he says.

Vicious cycle

Effectively tackling this problem becomes imperative as it remains a vicious cycle. The challenge of converting the waste into wealth at Mamallapuram is a joint effort of a Chennai based NGO, ‘Hand in Hand', which, along with Vivekananda Kendra set up a large Bio-methanation plant from their Natural resources development project.

The Kendra has been doing research and field work in this area for the last 10 years and is credited for developing low volume bio-methanation plants that are suitable for both urban and rural households.

In addition to this the Kendra also developed a bio-gas slurry based agro-inputs package and made the dissemination of this technology more efficient.

Collection

“We started collecting kitchen and vegetable wastes from the town Panchayat and collected more than 550 kg to 600 kg of kitchen wastes for feeding the plant,” adds Mr. Vasudeo.

Thus a unique combination of governmental agencies, voluntary organisations, and sustainable energy technologists made a tourist centre in the present globalised environment more ecologically healthy and economically vibrant.

For more details and visit readers can contact Mr. G.Vasudeo, Secretary, Vivekananda Kendra - NARDEP, Kanyakumari - 629 702, Tamil Nadu, e.mail : vknardep@gmail.com, website: vknardep.org, phone 04652- 246296 (office).

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sci-tech-and-agri/article2434036.ece?css=print

"Additionality" of CDM in India ? there is none, say officials (wikileaks)

“At a seminar on CDM in Mumbai, R K Sethi, Member Secretary of the National CDM Authority and the present Chairman of the CDM Executive Board, publicly admitted that the National CDM Authority takes the "project developer at his word" for clearing the "additionality" barriers. Mathsy Kutty of Det Norske Veritas (DNV), a CDM Executive Board-accredited validation and verification organization for CDM projects, told ConGenoff that the designated authorities of host countries approve projects in a cursory manner and do not check to see whether the project meets all the requirements laid down by the CDM Executive Board. CDM projects in India do not have to be validated or verified to get host country approval while both processes are mandatory to get the project registered with the UNFCCC, she continued. For this reason, she pointed out, Indian projects account for 44 percent of the total projects rejected by the CDM Executive Board.”

"The downside of initiating CDM projects without foreign backing is that the local project developer has to self-finance the project and bears the risk that the project does not qualify for carbon credits. For this reason, Santonu Kashyap of Asia Carbon maintains that Indian projects can never fulfill the additionality requirement as no developer will risk investing in a project unless he is certain of a revenue stream independent of the CDM incentive. In a separate discussion with GAO analysts and ConGenoff, Jamshed Irani, Director of Tata Sons and the Chairman of the Tata group's Steering Committee on Sustainability, agreed that no Indian company is brave enough to rely entirely on a CDM-driven revenue stream."

--Oscar ReyesCarbon Trade Watchhttp://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/07/08MUMBAI340.html

Kodungaiyur residents ask state govt to shut down dumpyard

Times of India, Sept 3 2011

CHENNAI: Pressure is mounting on the state to shut down the dumpyard at Kodungaiyur. On Friday, CPM legislator from Perambur A Soundararajan joined environmentalists and members of residents' welfare associations to seek the intervention of the state government in shifting the yard to a no man's zone to safeguard six lakh people in north Chennai.

Though the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) marked the area for a government institute, it was turned into a dumpyard 16 years after the residential colonies were formed.

If CMDA approved layouts near the dumpsites in 1971, such as Mahakavi Bharathi Nagar, Kaviarasu Kannadasan Nagar, Raja Rathinam Nagar, the Directorate of Town and Country Planning approved colonies such as Krishnamurthy Nagar, Vivekananda Nagar, Ezhil Nagar, Parvathy Nagar, Eveready Colony, Thiruvalluvar Nagar.

Soundararajan said the constant burning of garbage poses serious health hazards to the local community. "The state has to shift the yard permanently. As a temporary measure, we want the government to stop burning of waste, raise a compound wall and prevent outsiders from gaining entry." He said the existing unsegregated waste had to be leveled through scientific means.

An air sample tested at Columbia Analytical Services in Simi Valley in California during 2006 detected the presence of nine chemicals – Carbon Disulphide, Chloromethane, Acrolein, Acetone, Methyl Ethyl Ketone, Benzene, Toluene, 1,2-Dichlorobenzene and d-Limonene, which target the eyes, skin, central nervous system, kidneys, liver, reproductive system, cardio-vascular system, bone marrow and peripheral nervous system.

Ever Vigilant Citizens Welfare Association president N S Ramachandra Rao says Tondiarpet zone, in which Kodungaiyur falls, generates only 320 tonnes of garbage a day, but 4,000 tonnes of waste from seven zones is disposed here. The mounds of garbage, including plastic waste, results in mosquito menace. "Let the government decentralize the solid waste disposal in each of the 10 zones and segregate plastic waste," said Rao.

AIADMK government in its previous tenure had recommended zone-wise collection, segregation and disposal of garbage, said A Pandurangan of Kaviarasu Kannadasan Nagar.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-09-03/chennai/30109607_1_plastic-waste-unsegregated-waste-dumpyard

No more free plastic bags at supermarkets

THE HINDU, August 18, 2011

Plastic bags now come at a price ranging from Re.1 to Rs.7, depending on the size. If you did not know that, there is no point avoiding some retail chains that have started charging for the carry bag as many more are set to follow suit.

This follows the Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2011 of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest. It says plastic bags below 40 microns should not be used and shops should charge customers for carry bags above 40 microns.

Following this retail chains such as More, Big Bazaar, Reliance Fresh and Westside have started levying a charge on customers who ask for a carry bag. Some of them have pasted notices near the cash counter and make announcements informing the customers about the decision and on plastic waste management.

According to members of the Retailers Association of India, the response to the initiative has been mixed since it was first introduced in Mumbai last month and to be extended to other cities.

Reduction in usage

In Mumbai, for instance, in a month, as per surveys conducted by RAI, there is a drastic reduction in the consumption of plastic carry bags – as much as 30 per cent, says Varghese Thomas, Chairman of CII National Council on Retail.

“As far as plastic bags are less consumed, it will have a great impact on the environment. In that regard, there are many conscious customers taking this effort,” Mr. Thomas said.

In the city, while some customers argued when told that a few more rupees have been added to their bill towards the carry bags, some took the contents out and left behind the plastic carry bag in the store.

“It is a good initiative but I am not sure how often I would remember to carry my own bag every time I go shopping. Usually it is after we leave home or after work that we realise that we need to buy things,” says Reine V., a resident of Valsarvakkam, who was charged at two retail outlets.

Koyambedu market

At the Koyambedu fruit and vegetable market, the traders have started issuing biodegradable plastic bags with various public awareness messages.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/article2367593.ece?css=print

Pune civic chief hails biogas kits for waste disposal

Pune

Saturday, July 2, 2011 17:43 IST

Pune municipal commissioner Mahesh Pathak on Friday stressed the need to dispose of garbage at local level and urged the citizens to allow biogas projects, like the one in Model Colony, to serve the purpose.

He was speaking at the felicitation ceremony organised for labourers who have been operating the biomethenation-cum-power generation plant set up by the PMC in Model Colony. The project has been awarded ISO 9001: 2008 certification for standard management system.

Local corporator Jyotsna Sardeshpande, who was instrumental in the project’s development, had organised a felicitation ceremony for employees who are contributing to the success of the project.

Acting additional municipal commissioner Naresh Zurmure, city president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Vikas Mathkari, former chairman of Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada), Vijay Kale, and zonal commissioner Vijay Dahibhate were also present.

Pathak said that the biogas project in Model Colony should be replicated in the city in large numbers so that there are less garbage carrying vehicles in the city. He would request citizens to allow such projects and dispose of garbage at local level.

He said that these projects do not put pressure on the environment, but instead the civic authority would earn carbon credits for them

The biogas projects help in reducing transportation of garbage as garbage is processed at these plants. Such facilities also help in generating electricity and manufacturing manure.

Sardeshpande said that the project has been running continuously for 13 months since it started, disposing of 2,400 tonnes of garbage.

Electricity to light up 240 street lamps was also generated during this period. Employees Ashok Gunjal, Manik Bhosale, Bhimabai Dharnale and Surekha Chavan were felicitated on the occasion.

URL of the article: http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_pune-civic-chief-hails-biogas-kits-for-waste-disposal_1561539-all

Waste Management Shake up for Delhi's Industrial Neighbour

Image credit: Wen-Yan King

Waste Management World

30 June 2011

With residents of a new industrial city near Delhi, India worried by the increasing proliferation of illegal dump sites, the New Oklha Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) claims that it is now reassessing sanitation arrangements, according to a report in The Times of India.

The Authority is responsible for collection of waste from residential, commercial and industrial areas. However, up until now with responsibility has mostly been shouldered by rag pickers.

NOIDA claims it has already developed a detailed garbage 'collection, segregation and treatment' plan, but according to the report, it does not have a single designated landfill site for the 300 tonnes of municipal waste that the city produces each day.

The result is a proliferation of illegal waste dumps can be spotted all over the city. However, NOIDA claims it is in the process of designating land for three new landfill sites "on a priority basis."

Of the three stages of dealing with waste - segregation, collection and disposal, NOIDA has initially chosen to focus on disposal. To begin it has invited a Request For Proposal for the development of an integrated solid waste management plant.

Senior project engineer Ved Pal told The Times of India: "We have invited RFPs from interested parties for a plant that will have a capacity of treating around 300 to 500 metric tonnes of waste including bio-medical and industrial waste. The site for the plant has already been identified in Sector 123. As soon as technical formalities are completed, work will begin."

Pal went on to explain that sanitation is one of the most pressing issues faced by the city today.

"We are also hoping to sensitize residents about the importance of proper waste management and recycling, requesting them to cooperate with the Authority at least till the complete waste management infrastructure is developed," he added.

Punjab to Replace Dump Sites with Waste to Energy Facilities

20 June 2011

The Punjab state government has outlined plans to develop a programme for the scientific disposal of solid waste, according to a report in The Indian Express.

The plans were unveiled by Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal in Jalalabad, where he said that private companies would set up solid waste processing plants in which power, manure and plastic would be produced.

In addition engineered landfills are to be built for the final disposal of residual waste of the 4300 tonnes of MSW that is generated in each day in the 137 urban local bodies that make up the state.

The state's waste management infrastructure is divided into eight zones.
The facilities are to be built under 25 year public private partnership contracts, with the government expected to investRs5.6 billion ($124 million).

Under the proposals, waste management companies in Punjab will manage the door to door collection of solid waste, which will then be transported to centralised processing plants.

The project is also aimed at freeing the state's cities of the all too common open dumping grounds were much of the waste currently generated in the region ends up for final disposal.

http://www.waste-management-world.com/index/display/article-display/0885440621/articles/waste-management-world/waste-to-energy/2011/06/Punjab_to_Replace_Dump_Sites_with_Waste_to_Energy_Facilities.html

CDM Misadventures In Waste Management

by Neil Tangri and Dharmesh Shah

Third World Network Info Service on Climate Change (Jun11/02) 9 June 2011

The Clean Development Mechanism’s flagship waste management project in India is turning into a multi-faceted disaster, revealing flaws in both the carbon credit mechanism as well as the corporate-driven, technology-focused approached to climate change mitigation.

Delhi’s Waste Management Challenges

Municipal solid waste management is a challenge in most urban areas of the developing world: rapidly growing urban populations, increased consumerism, and a shift in consumption patterns are resulting in rapidly rising levels of waste generation. The nature of municipal waste is also changing, with increasing quantities of plastics and composite materials such as electronics. InIndia’s capital state of Delhi, which produces more than 7000 metric tons of waste per day,[i][i] investment in public infrastructure has not kept pace with the quantity or the increasingly complex nature of municipal waste, and significant quantities go uncollected. The situation would be far worse without the informal sector: Delhi’s waste supports a population of approximately 100,000 wastepickers,[ii][ii] who recover usable materials such as metal, paper, cardboard and plastic from the waste. These materials are cleaned, sorted, and sold back to industry as raw material for new products. Altogether, Delhi’s recycling economy recovers 1600 tons of waste per day, or approximately 15-20% of the total generation; and saves USD 14,000 per day in operational costs for the city municipality[iii][iii].

However, the informal recycling sector has little use for the largest part of the waste stream – food waste and other organic materials. These are usually collected by the municipality and taken to one of three open dumps (euphemistically called landfills). The presence of organic waste in landfills has long been associated with a variety of problems – odors, pests, landfill fires, and toxic leachate. Organic waste in landfills is also one of the primary global sources of methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide.[iv][iv] With the threat of a climate tipping point looming, measures such as the Clean Development Mechanism and the Global Methane Initiative are increasing efforts on eliminating methane emissions – but the experience of Delhi shows that corporate initiatives reliant on high technology can easily backfire.

The Timarpur-Okhla Waste-to-Energy Project[v][v]

In November 2007, the CDM Executive Board registered a project by the Timarpur-Okhla Waste Management Company to build two facilities to handle 2050 tons per day of municipal waste, or about a quarter of Delhi’s total. In Okhla, the waste would be dried and shredded into a fluff called “Refuse-Derived Fuel” (RDF), then burned in a boiler to produce electricity. The Timarpur facility would also produce the same RDF pellets but truck them to Okhla for incineration. The project immediately raised flags among local residents, wastepickers and environmentalists: this is not the first incineration project to be built in Timarpur.

In 1987, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) commissioned the Timarpur Refuse Incineration-cum-Power Generation Station at a capital cost of INR 25 crores[vi][vi] (USD 19.3 million[vii][vii]). The plant was built by the Danish firm Volund Miljotecknik and designed to incinerate 300 tons of municipal waste per day to generate 3.77 MW of electricity. The plant initiated trial operations and ran for 21 days, using auxiliary fuel, before shutting down due to the poor quality of incoming waste. Essentially, Indian waste contained too much organic material and insufficient paper, plastic and cardboard to sustain combustion. Unlike wealthier countries, Indians generate smaller quantities of these materials; and an efficient informal sector ensures that most of what is thrown away is recycled rather than left for disposal. However, these lessons appear not to have been learned by government officials.

Sustainable Development Does Not Apply to the Poor

According to its charter, the CDM is required to only support projects which contribute to sustainable development; but the responsibility for ensuring this – unlike the monitoring of additionality – is entrusted to national governments. With a single, pro-forma line, “This project contributes to sustainable development in India,”[viii][viii] the Ministry of Environment and Forests discharged its responsibility. However, no evidence or analysis has been made public to back this assertion.

On the contrary, if the project really burns a quarter of Delhi’s waste, it will directly threaten the livelihoods of a large part of the city’s informal recycling workers. Incinerators cannot burn only food waste, which is high in moisture and low in calorific value. A high proportion of plastics, paper and cardboard must be included for the incinerators to function; but these are precisely the materials which the informal sector recycles. Recognizing this threat to their livelihoods,Delhi’s wastepickers have begun agitating against the project, holding multiple rallies and demanding that local and national authorities halt the project. For the first time, several waste picker rights groups have joined forces with environmental groups to challenge the project.

On the other side, many of India’s corporate heavyweights have invested in the project, which stands to earn USD 37 million from the sale of carbon credits alone. The project proponent has a complex corporate structure enmeshing major Indian conglomerates such as IL&FS and Jindal with public bodies such as the Andhra Pradesh Technology Development Center. Clearly, these entities will profit from the waste pickers’ loss.

Carbon Credits to Increase Emissions

By its own calculations, the Timarpur-Okhla project will reduce emissions by an average of 262,791 tons of CO₂ equivalent (tCO₂e) per year. In comparison, Delhi’s wastepickers are responsible for annual emissions reductions of approximately 962,133 tCO₂e through recycling.[ix][ix] If the project burns even one-quarter of Delhi’s recyclables, it will effectively wipe out its own emissions savings, resulting in no net emissions reductions. But because the CDM has not calculated the project’s impact on recycling, it will continue to award the company hundreds of thousands of spurious carbon credits – credits which do not represent real emissions reductions. The primary market for these emissions credits is Europe, where companies meet their own greenhouse gas emissions targets by using such reductions. The Timarpur-Okhla will therefore contribute to an increase in European emissions. If the project captures a larger percentage of recyclables, or uses auxiliary fuel,[x][x] the situation will be even worse.

Climate Accounting Tricks

The emissions picture worsens when biogenic emissions are taken into account. Under the CDM, it has become standard practice for companies to claim that burning biomass[xi][xi] has no net effect on the climate. Scientists have pointed out that this rule does not reflect reality – all CO₂has the same effect on the atmosphere, regardless of source – and its widespread application would have disastrous consequences, including the complete deforestation of the planet.[xii][xii] Nevertheless, the CDM continues to allow companies to undercount their emissions, issuing carbon credits for emissions that were not in fact reduced. In the case of the Timarpur incinerator, only 16% of its CO₂ emissions from burning waste are reported, since the other 84% are assumed to be biogenic in origin.[xiii][xiii]

Toxic Emissions Not Appreciated by Neighbors

In its submission to the CDM, the company claimed, “the role of the local population will be as beneficiary of the project, (...)providing both direct and indirect employment opportunities to the local people. The project does not propose to displace any community, it does not have any direct conflict with the people of the region.”[xiv][xiv] In fact, the project will not only displace waste pickers, but is also facing stiff resistance from local communities which object to the siting of a waste incinerator in residential neighborhoods, within 100 meters of residences and close to 3 major hospitals.

Residents are right to be concerned; incinerators are a major source of toxic air emissions, including dioxins, mercury, heavy metals (such as lead, arsenic, etc.), particulates (including ultrafine particulates that escape filters), acid gases (hydrochloric acid and sulfur oxides) and others.[xv][xv] Even the best of modern incinerators struggle to keep emissions under control, as recent incidents in the UK, the US and Iceland indicate. In December 2010, a waste incinerator in Crymlyn Burrows in Wales, U.K., was shut down for repeatedly breaching dioxin emission limits.[xvi][xvi] Incinerator operators in the U.S. are currently paying millions of dollars in fines and court settlements for breaches of emissions law.[xvii][xvii] In Iceland, incinerators have been identified as the source of wide-spread contamination of meat and dairy products.[xviii][xviii]

In Delhi’s case, there is suspicion that the Okhla facility will not even have any modern emissions-control technology installed: its total price tag ofINR 200 crores (USD 45 million) is a fraction that of a RDF incinerator one-third as large in Rostock, Germany (USD 140 million).[xix][xix]

In 2009, local residents filed a lawsuit to stop the construction of the plants, based on numerous violations of national environmental laws. The public hearing was so poorly announced that not a single person attended; the Environmental Impact Assessment has been lost, or perhaps was never filed; and the project has grown from a 15 MW plant to 21 MW after approval. Perhaps most ominously, the company claimed in its Detailed Project Report (DPR) to generate RDF with a calorific value of 2000 kcal but later revised the figure to 800-1300 kcal in its bid documents. This is slightly above the value of the waste that was supplied to the old plant, which failed to burn. Based on this crucial revelation, the MNRE noted on 29 May 2008 that “this will necessitate that a fresh DPR is prepared as not only will the actual quantity of MSW required to be processed be different but also the basic parameters of all the equipment will change.” However, no new DPR has been released.

Gaming Two Systems

Despite these flagrant violations of national law, the project is moving forward with the full support of the state government. In a recent public meeting, the Chief Minster of Delhidismissed the environmental concerns raised by the residents of Okhla, citing assurances given by her bureaucrats and the project proponents. Finally, the national Ministry of Environment and Forests stepped in, flagging the project for review and appointing a special committee to investigate. But as the Minister himself observed, the company has already sunk too much money into the project to risk cancellation. In this manner, national laws are voided by the fait accompli of simply constructing a plant. Similarly, the CDM is on track to award carbon credits to a project that meets none of the requirements – because failing to do so would endanger “investor confidence” in the carbon market mechanism.[xx][xx] The Timarpur-Okhla RDF incinerator is an example of how major corporate firms are pushing technology-driven approaches to climate mitigation that harm the poor, increase emissions, and undermine the rule of law – but result in handsome profits for the private sector.

Alternatives

Fortunately, alternatives to waste sector privatization do exist. Wastepicker groups in other parts of India, notably Mumbai and Pune, have had success in establishing source-separation schemes for municipal waste with the cooperation and support of local government. The organics, which comprise 70% or more of the waste,[xxi][xxi] are composted or processed into biogas, avoiding the methane emissions problem while creating a second income stream, and the recyclables are returned to industry for re-manufacture. Such models are win-win situations for local residents, municipal authorities and the urban poor; but leave little room for participation by major multinational firms.

The authors work with the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives <www.no-burn.org>, a worldwide alliance of more than 500 grassroots groups, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in over 80 countries whose ultimate vision is a just, toxic-free world without incineration.