Call for specific policies on waste management
View(s):The amount of waste that is being created is increasing. The nature of waste itself is changing with many stakeholders saying that a series of environmental action plans and a framework of legislation that reduce negative environmental and health impacts is the call of the hour.
There has to be specific policies dealing with waste, says Pasad Kulatunga, Executive Director/ Chief Technical Officer, Fairway Waste Management. “These policies must take a long term perspective and be formulated with the environment and sustainability taking a prominent place in planning. Lack of well-thought-out policies to deal with end-of-the pipe waste disposal issue has been a hurdle to develop viable and economically sustainable plans. The private sector is looking for guidance in this area from the policymakers. These policies may have to do with waste collection, transport and disposal,” he told the Business Times.
The flow of people within an urban area has implications to solid waste management and flow of people invariably result in waste transfer from one locality to other, he said citing Colombo Metro as a prime example. A significant amount of this waste is from the outskirts that is transferred by the roughly two million people that commute to Colombo daily and in per capita per day waste generation statistics of Colombo compared to rest of the country, according to a World Bank reports, is roughly 0.8 kg/per capita/per day.
“However, you will see that the Colombo metro rate is as high as 1.4 kg! A figure that is higher than in OECD countries. It is not that Colombo Metro dwellers are high waste producers, it is simply that urban flow patterns transfer waste from outskirts to the metro. These are the facts,” Dr. Kulatunga said.
Also the levels of emissions from landfills, how to regulate byproducts, etc isn’t considered, he said noting that not all by products are toxic or harmful, in fact some byproducts from waste processing is a resource recovered and must be taken into account in formulating policies in this regard.
Cleanliness
Solid waste management has a direct influence on quality of life, cleanliness, aesthetics of surroundings and environmental health and also directly impact the quality of life, he said, noting that proper waste disposal and end-of-pipe solutions are a must for everyone to have an equitable quality of life irrespective of income levels.
Fairway Waste Management is stepping in to fill a void in end-of-pipe solutions after carefully evaluating the impact such a project will have not only to the surrounding community but to the general public as a whole realising that for it to thrive that there must be a sustainable solution to solid waste management, Dr. Kulatunga said adding that in the aftermath of the recent unfortunate incident in Meethotamulla, the ‘Waste Free-Clean City project in Karadiyanne, been awarded to Fairway Waste Management Pvt Ltd.
“Fairway Waste Management has come up with a proposal to develop a solid waste processing facility at the Thambovila-Kadariyana landfill site located in the Western Province of Sri Lanka. This will be an integrated waste processing facility to process 500 tons per day of fresh municipal solid waste received at the site. The proposed facility is designed to maximize energy production while having minimum environmental impact by optimizing the recovery of energy and nutrients in the waste stream.” The processing facility will reduce the amount of waste diverted to landfills by as much as 80 per cent by mass and 90 per cent by volume, whilst the fraction, which will be disposed in a suitably prepared landfill is mostly inert with no ill effects on the environment, he said.
The design consists of a biological treatment plant that will process the fast degradable, high moisture content organic waste in a wet fermentation anaerobic digestion system, Dr. Prasad said, adding that this system will treat a maximum of 115 tonnes of fast degradable organic waste per day. The remaining waste will be diverted to an incinerator facility having a capacity of 425 tonnes per day.
“The project will supply a total of 70,000,000 kWh of electricity. Waste has an intrinsic value. It contains recoverable nutrients as well as energy that can be recovered through thermo physical or biological processes. All things when supplied with enough heat will burn releasing most often more energy than that was required to start the combustion process. One can think of a roadside garbage pile that is set on fire with a single match. If there is enough material with low moisture content it will burn releasing energy as heat into the atmosphere,” Dr. Kulatunga said.
A mass burn incinerator facility is simply a system that recovers the heat and converts it to electricity, he said adding that it also cleanses the smoke and particulate matter that is released in the combustion process. “It is possible to incinerate all of the waste but doing so is not the most environmentally sound solution, and it can be inefficient to burn the high moisture content waste consisting of fast degradable organic waste. It is for this reason that Fairway Waste Management has incorporated a biological process to treat the organic fraction so that no only energy but also nutrients are recovered from the waste stream.” The decomposition of organic matter can occur in the presence of oxygen, aerobic decomposition, and in the absence, anaerobic (which is a decomposition that’s a naturally occurring process that produces biogas containing methane as a byproduct)
With all this, there will be a significant reduction of the volume of landfill by more than 90 per cent, Dr. Prasad added. “Fairway Waste Management will contribute to capacity building by working closely with local universities on the project. As of now there are several academics who are experts in solid waste management, biological waste processing and thermal processing who are working with the government and with Fairway Waste Management on this project.” (DEC)