by Dharmesh Shah (Published in Times Property, Chennai June 4 2011)
Climate Change, rainforest destruction, oil spills, financial crisis, inflation – these are some issues that bother us the most about the state of our civilization and also concern us about our collective fate on the planet. But these issues evade our interventions because they are distant and often out of our control. However, there are things each one of us can do everyday that can lead to larger changes and impact things that seem way out of our league.
One such thing is waste; yes waste. Waste connects all aspects of modern life; and its collective mismanagement is now leading to a crisis on several fronts. Nature makes no waste; it is solely a product of our civilization, a result of resource mismanagement that is connected to all that is now wrong with the planet. Our society currently runs within a linear framework where resources are extracted from the earth, processed in factories and disposed into landfills or incinerated. This clearly causes a huge burden on natural resources and environment but also on the economy.
According to the World Bank, the urban areas of
That is indeed a mammoth problem. How can I change anything, the skeptic in you might ask? Waste is a social issue demanding social fixes but our policy makers are desperately seeking technological fixes. For instance, the Chennai Corporation has proposed two “Refuse Derived Fuel” (RDF) facilities at the city’s two largest waste landfills at Kodungaiyur and Perungudi. These facilities propose to covert the waste into bricks that can be used as co-fuel (along with coal) at cement kilns/industrial boilers or like in
Why is this bad? It takes care of our waste and resolves our energy security issues. Proposals like these not only undermine the need for recycling and our transition towards a low waste future but also further compounds the social and environmental challenges currently posed by the waste sector.
The gravest concern about incineration is its environmental fallouts. Waste incinerators are a major source of toxic emissions that include volatile organic gases and heavy metals. They are also among the top 5 sources of dioxin emissions worldwide. According to WHO Dioxins are environmental pollutants that have the dubious distinction of belonging to the “dirty dozen” - a group of dangerous chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Dioxins are of concern because of their highly toxic potential known to cause cancers even in low doses among exposed populations.
Both RDF and WTE are technologies that burn waste that can otherwise be recycled and brought back into use. When discarded materials are recycled, they provide industry with an alternative source of raw materials from which to make new products. This results in less demand for virgin materials whose extraction, transport and processing are a major source of Greenhouse Gas emissions. While WTE incinerators capture some of the energy embodied in materials that they burn, recycling the same materials conserves three to five times as much energy.
Further, in countries like
Clearly, our waste woes need psychological analysis not technology, a compete overhaul of the way we think about waste. Each one of us needs to partake in the process starting with segregation of the waste at home. Then locate the local waste picker/Kabariwala and hand your waste to him directly. Finally, if possible, start your own compost.
And if you still need perspective about the magnitude of the problem take a tour to Kodungaiyur (north Chennai) or Perungudi (south Chennai).
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