Incinerators not an option to dispose Chennai’s waste: experts

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

As Chennai Corporation is working on a plan to burn waste to generate power from garbage, environmentalists warned the move could be dangerous and will affect the health of the residents.

Noted environmentalist Nityanand Jayaram told Express that the Chennai Corporation is studying ways to dispose waste at dumping yards in Kodangaiyur and Perungudi and has even sent a team to Singapore and China on how to dispose waste but any move to burn waste will harm the environment. But corporation officials allayed the fears of NGOs and residents stating that they will only go for the technology that is certified by pollution control board and satisfies Euro norms.  

Interestingly, the incinerator technology used to burn waste is being questioned after it was banned in the United Stated and Europe due to enormous pressure from environmentalist groups and residents over its harmful effects on health. Reports also suggest that there has been some opposition to incinerator technology in China.

Annie Leonard, noted environmentalist and critic of excessive consumerism, said that incinerator firms are targeting Asia after intense public opposition in the United States and Europe and residents from Chennai should oppose any such move to set up incinerators in the city.

She said as the incinerator market is shrinking in the West, incinerator industry is targeting Asia, Latin America, Africa and Pacific nations. “Chennaites should oppose any move to allow incinerators as US environmental protection agency has found medical and municipal waste incineration to be the top sources of severely toxic dioxin that can have effect on reproduction, nervous and immune system. There is no good technology to burn waste,” said Annie, who is renowned for her animated film The Story of Stuff about the life-cycle of material goods.

However, corporation officials say there are now new technologies which are safe to dispose waste. “The technologies used earlier were old. Now there are modern technologies which satisfy euro norms. We will decide on the technology only after it satisfies pollution control board norms,” the corporation official assures. But with the stiff opposition from the environmentalists and pressure groups, the city has yet to look for an alternative to dispose more than 4,500 metric tonnes of waste from the city.  

Interestingly, this has been the discussion at a symposium organized by Reclaim our Beaches (ROB) at the Loyola College here. Siddarth Hande of RoB told Express that the issue is not to dump waste from one place to another or to burn it but to work on a sustainable way to ensure zero waste. But even the environmentalists don’t have an idea of sustainable alternative as they blame the consumer culture. Annie says the focus is too much on economy no one thinks about the ecology which is key to our survival. “The need is for environmental indicators similar to the economic indicators prevalent across the globe,” she adds.