The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Incinerator technology unreliable: report

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 24, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Incinerator technology unreliable: report

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, APRIL 23. Incinerators are an unreliable waste treatment technology, producing a secondary waste stream that is very dangerous, said a report released here.

The report by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) concluded that incinerators were unsustainable in dealing with waste.

As an energy production method, it was inefficient and a waste of resources. As an economic development tool, it was a catastrophe, which drained local communities of money and created scarce and often dangerous jobs.

The report was released by S.P. Elangovan, Secretary, Environment and Forest Department, at a meeting organised by The Alliance for Waste Management, a South-Asian coalition of non-governmental organisations. He said information on the benefits of waste segregation needed to be relayed to all sections.

The GAIA has identified all waste incinerators, including cement kilns burning hazardous wastes, as major sources of dioxins and furans and polychlorinated biphenyls.

The byproducts — incineration emissions and ash residues — have been implicated in contamination of the environment, food supply and even breast milk.

The byproducts are also implicated in health problems including cancers, reproductive disorders, immune system dysfunction and birth defects, said Rajesh Rangarajan of Toxic Links, presenting the report.

Moreover, he said, incinerators destroyed vast quantities of resources, which could have been recycled and brought back into productive economy. "It is a massive financial drain on local governments and communities who end up paying for the operation and maintenance of expensive imported technology."

The report recommended waste segregation at source and composting as a suitable alternative.

This `zero waste' process used up less land space and was a more economical, it said.

Sultan Ismail, managing director, Ecoscience Research Foundation, said composting could be done at the industrial and domestic level as it was an `easy process.'

"All you need is a large crate or even a rubber tube to begin the process," he said.

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