BANGALORE: The budget
doesn’t hold any hope for Bangalore which has been reeling under a
garbage crisis. Finance minister P Chidambaram’s proposal to back
municipal waste-to-energy endeavours may only take the city back to its
old practice of dumping unsegregated waste.

Moreover, the two big landfills at Mavallipura and Mandur are a result of failed waste-to-energy endeavours.

Member of the Supreme Court-appointed committee Almitra H Patel says
industrial solutions and waste-to-energy projects are not viable in
India. Environmentally, they’re hazardous as they release fly-ash. The
best way to handle urban waste is composting and recycling through
segregation at source.

“It’s horrible if the finance minister
has declared that the Centre would support waste-to-energy projects.
There are no proven technologies in India to start such projects on the
PPP model. Among such projects, only anaerobic bio-methanation projects
like installation of gobar-gas projects are viable,” says Patel.

Patel says Indian urban waste is not viable for such projects, either
by quality or quantity. “About 25%-30% of our waste contains inert
material like debris, drain silt and road dust which are impossible to
convert to energy. For these projects to succeed, 1kg of waste must have
5,000 kilo calories and Indian urban waste has only 2,000 kilo
calories/kg. It’s not economically and financially viable,” she said.

According to Patel, Indian waste contains a considerable amount of
polyvinyl chloride (PVC) which produces dioxins when burnt. These
projects do not encourage the ideal solid waste management of
segregation at source, she said.

Two months ago, in order to
find solutions to the garbage crisis, the cabinet approved BBMP’s
proposal to establish a waste-to-energy plant at Subbaramanapalya
vullage near Ramohalli. A private company got 10 acres on lease for 20
years to establish a fully automated segregation plant and produce
energy.