From waste to energy

THE ILOILO City government is proposing a waste-to-energy strategy to manage its garbage. But is this sustainable? Environmentalists have issued warnings.

The waste-to-energy process involves incineration and this is banned by the Clean Air Act and the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. There  are, however, pending bills in Congress removing the ban such as House Bill 2286 introduced by Aklan 1st District’s Cong. Carlito Marquez.

In a recent visit to the country, scientist-turned-activist Dr. Paul Connett dismissed incineration as “the biggest obstacle to Zero Waste” as he urged decision makers to uphold the incineration ban under the country’s major environmental laws. He said incinerator promoters are making false claims.

“We have to move from the back-end of waste disposal to the front-end of resource management, better industrial design, and a post-consumerist way of life.  In both industry and our daily lives, we have to get waste out of the system.  We need a zero waste strategy, not an incineration strategy, to make it happen,” said Connett.

There are several arguments against waste incineration, including the formidable costs involved in constructing, operating and maintaining the facility, the creation of very few long-term jobs for the community, the production of toxic ash that nobody wants, and the generation of hazardous air emissions and nanoparticles.

This is serious stuff. Waste-to-energy projects, therefore, must be thoroughly vetted.

For environmentalists, the claim that incinerating waste can be used to recover energy or produce electricity makes good marketing gimmick, but the reality is that if energy conservation and recovery is the goal, then more energy can be saved through composting and recycling. The better solid waste management endeavors, they say, are the following and which communities can participate without much expense and risk: source separation; door-to-door collection; composting; recycling; reuse, repair, and deconstruction; a “pay as you throw” policy for residuals; residual separation facilities built in front of landfills;  interim landfills for the biologically stabilized organic residuals and currently non-recyclables. All these are ecofriendly and sustainable.

So yes, there must be in-depth study on waste-to-energy projects. No need to rush. As the saying goes, haste makes waste.                                                      

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