Household garbage that regularly piles up along Bengaluru’s roads has now become an energy source, lighting up several parts of the city. The city generates approximately 6000 metric tonnes per day (MTD) of waste. Ironically while the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) faces umpteen problems managing this waste, Bengaluru’s first functional waste-to-energy (WTE) plant at Bidadi, a joint venture between Karnataka Power Corporation Limited and the BBMP, is seeking sufficient waste to produce energy yet is unable to get it. The Bidadi plant needs 600 MTD of dry waste to generate 11.5 MW of electricity, but receives not more than 400 MTD, compelling the plant to source waste from Mandur, 110 km away, where Bengaluru has been dumping waste for ages and where now exists a pile of 24 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste.
So, why do we have a burgeoning waste management crisis on one hand and a waste shortage problem on the other? While Bengaluru generates 6,000 tonnes of waste daily only 30-35 per cent of it is dry. Although Bengaluru’s waste has a calorific value of 2,200 kcal/kg, well above the expected level of 1,650 kcal/kg, the Palike cannot offer the required dry waste to the WTE plant. Segregation at source has always been inconsistent, and the BBMP is able to adequately segregate only 2,000 of the 6,000 tonnes of daily waste in Bengaluru. The BBMP therefore offers waste, mixed with metals and moisture whereas what the waste-to-energy plant needs is dry combustible waste for incineration, to heat water and to produce steam for power generation. This leaves the plant underutilised due to insufficient availability of dry, refuse-derived fuel (RDF). The balance RDF sourced from Mandur’s legacy waste pile only worsens the situation. The Mandur waste is also not properly segregated, and has the presence of metals from metallic springs in old disposed of mattresses or cast off gas cylinders, a mixed waste which hampers efficiency. Whenever metal gets stuck in the grates, removing the metal pieces often require the plant to shut down.
So why can’t the Palike supply segregated dry RDF to the Bidadi plant? Weak enforcement and poor segregation at source makes the city’s waste fit only for ending up in landfills. Segregation demands citizen participation which in turn requires sustained campaigns to bring about behavioural and attitudinal changes in the populace. Without this, by offering mixed waste instead of dry waste with low moisture and a higher calorific value you get a reduced heat output, leaving WTE plants unable to operate efficiently. Not just attitudinal campaigns, Bengaluru needs an efficient collection, transportation, and processing system to supplement these efforts. Residents are not totally to blame for not segregating waste today. Many of them are simply not aware of the need for segregation. Moreover they have to contend with dirty collection vehicles in poor condition, absent supervisors, misdemeanour of collection staff perpetually on the lookout for tips, and erratic collection times; these issues are hardly conducive to enforce segregational discipline. Responsibility is joint and lies with both the BBMP and citizens who should together make Bengaluru successful in segregating at source, like Mysuru, Surat and Indore that are good examples of successful enforcement in segregation through sustained public messaging.
Bengaluru’s experiment in generating energy from waste is not new, but achieving success in this endeavour certainly is. The city’s garbage crisis peaks every now and then; on earlier occasions, the Palike had entered into agreements with both local and global companies to set up WTE plants in different parts of the city to generate power. Land was allocated, only to be stiffly opposed by public and environmental groups over the concerns of pollution and financial viability. The Bidadi plant however has sufficient land, adequate water, (95 per cent water is recycled), a lake and a forest patch that ensures a pollution controlled ecosystem with air quality meeting Central Pollution Control Board standards, leaving a relatively clean and odour-free environment (except at waste dumping points) and an ash repurposing system. Importantly the incineration of waste saves substantial landfill costs. All that the Bidadi plant needs is segregated dry refuse-derived waste and the sooner the BBMP and Bengalureans get their act together the better for the city!
Bengaluru’s garbage management landscape itself is undergoing an overhaul. Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Limited, a body set up to execute solid waste management projects, is contracting out door-to-door collection, segregated transport, and public bin services, planning for GPS-enabled auto-tippers with dual containers for wet and dry waste.
Hopefully, better segregation, efficient transport, and faster response to citizen complaints should enable the Bidadi and future WTE plants to gobble up waste at their designed capacity saving huge landfill costs, which in turn should transform Bengaluru into a clean, intelligent metropolis, competent at waste handling.
(Priyan R Naik is a columnist
and independent journalist
based in Bengaluru.)
