Green club sees red over garbage disposal rules

Draft rules formulated by the Centre for the disposal of municipal waste may lead to proliferation of potentially hazardous incineration plants all over the country, fear environmentalists, who have approached court seeking redressal.

They claim the draft municipal waste rules, 2013, in its present form, encourages burning of municipal solid waste in waste-to-energy plants instead of their segregation and recycling.

Environmentalists contend, once segregated, that a part of the waste may be turned into compost while the left out portion could either be recycled or dumped in a land-fill site.

In reality segregation rarely happens. Activists fear, ignoring recommendations of a Parliamentary Standing Committee and scientific wisdom, the government may take recourse to these rules to bring in more incineration plants for burning the garbage.
The Karnataka High Court, which had stayed implementation of the new rules,  asked the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest last week to accept comments on the draft rules and modify them accordingly, if there is a need.

“The High Court said it would have a final look at the modified rules before implementation,” noted Leo Saldanha of Environment Support Group, Bangalore.

There are five operational incineration plants in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Chandigarh, Rajkot and Pune. These plants are constructed on the assumption that companies running these waste-to-energy plants will separate the plastic waste to prevent burning of plastic, which releases harmful gases into the atmosphere.

Following the direction of National Green Tribunal, when the Central Pollution Control Board inspected the Okhla plant, it found the Delhi plant released substantially high level of dioxin and furan in excess of permissible limits, into the atmosphere. Both dioxin and furan are cancer causing substances.

“There is a push for incineration plants because of a subsidy of Rs 1.5 crore per megawatt, offered by the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy,” said Gopal Krishna, a Delhi-based green activist. India generates 69 million tonnes of municipal solid waste, 50 per cent of which are organic waste and 20 per cent are recyclable.

A 2008 report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on municipal garbage demonstrated how poorly equipped municipalities are to handle solid waste management.

The CAG surveyed 56 municipalities in 24 states to find only 10 per cent of them segregate waste and only 22 per cent municipalities lift waste regularly.

“But the draft rules are promoting incineration and discouraging recycling, completely unmindful of the damage caused,” said environment lawyer Ritwik Dutta.