Looking For The Best Option In Waste Management

A Special Report By Siti Hawa Othman And Rosyatimah Tukimin

KUALA LUMPUR, April 26 (Bernama) -- Come Friday, the nation will know how its solid waste, a lingering issue with no solution in sight, is going to be managed, albeit, correctly.

While the so-called "best technology" for waste management is yet to be decided, the public, on the other hand, should be made aware of the options available and for the government to exercise caution when choosing the methods to be used, that is by also evaluating advanced technologies already in use by developed countries.

Malaysians generally have been quite familiar with open dumping and landfills, the sites where most of the solid wastes they generated had gone to.

In addressing the waste management problem, the government has resorted to landfills, incinerators and now the focus seems to be on recycling and conversion of waste to refuse-derived fuel (RDF).

Others have suggested that a holistic, community-driven approach that focuses on waste prevention, reduction, segregation, recycling and composting would be a better solution.

CHOOSING THE BEST METHOD

Which is the best way to manage wastes?

The Cabinet Committee on Environmental Issues headed by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, will meet this Friday to decide on a final proposal for the country's solid waste management.

The meeting, it was reported, would take recommendations in previously approved projects as well as new views on managing wastes properly, including that of the RDF.

The RDF technology is being used in the United States, Europe and Japan.

Open dumping and landfill are not good options, industry sources told Bernama, and the recent leachate problem at Bukit Tagar landfill is testimony to that.

In fact Australia, a country with a population of 22 million and ample open space is not looking at landfill or incineration but at alternative waste-disposal technologies.

To address the landfill problem, many countries have turned to incinerators but these too are considered taboos as they pollute the air and emit toxic chemicals such as the cancer-causing dioxin and furan.

INCINERATORS POLLUTE THE AIR

The RM1.5 billion Broga gasification plant project did not take off the ground due to protests from local residents as they claimed this project poses risks to the environment.

The incinerator could burn 1,500 tonnes of rubbish via the fluidised bed gasification technology but the normal incineration temperature of 1,200 degrees Celcius would not get rid of dioxins and furans.

A Greenpeace report -- "Incineration and Human Health", reveals, among others, a 670 per cent increase risk of death from lung cancer among residents living near a municipal solid waste incinerator in Italy, as well as a 126 per cent increase in birth defects in newborn babies living near two municipal waste incinerators in Belgium based on studies conducted in the country in 1998.

Now the talk is about recycling and RDF which many consider a good alternative to incineration. But are these still the right choices?

Questions arise as to what happens to the RDF in order to convert it into energy. Does it involve burning which leads us back to square one?

FIRST WASTE-TO-ENERGY PLANT

It has been reported that the RDF project is set to take off when the first waste-to-energy plant in Hulu Semenyih begins operations in June.

This plant could process up to 1,000 tonnes of municipal wastes by reducing the moisture content to 20 per cent and increasing the energy content to 3,000-4,000 kilocalories (kcal) as compared to 850-900 kcal for raw wastes.

However, in order to generate electricity from the wastes, it will still involve combustion, which is more dangerous than the now-defunct gasification project in Broga.

In its haste to solve the problem where leachate seeps into underground water, the government has been focusing on the RDF.

The RDF technology is a step-by-step segregation of combustible and non-combustible materials, with the former converted into free-burning pellets to produce energy.

SEPARATION OF MATERIALS

Non-combustible materials are further separated to recover metals, paper, plastics, glass and other materials of economic value which can be recycled.

Apparently only 10 to 15 per cent of the original amount of solid waste remains after the separation, drying, shredding and pelletisation.

The non-recyclable residue can be safely disposed at landfills as they do not generate odour, leachate, greenhouse gases or volatile organic compounds.

However, burning of the RDF for energy conversion would become an air problem and this is worse than the water problem.

Will the choice of this technology to manage waste, solve bigger problems or will it create others?

-- BERNAMA

posted by Lim Sze Ghee