Waste to Energy: A Green Paradigm in Solid Waste Management

Abstract

The current annual generation of municipal solid waste in India is estimated to be around 42 million tones which will rise rapidly with population growth, urbanization and improving living standards of people. The municipal solid waste (MSW) generation ranges from 0.25 to 0.66 kg/person/day with an average of 0.45 kg/person/day. In addition, large quantities of solid and liquid wastes are generated by industries. Most of the wastes generated find their way into land and water bodies. Without proper treatment, these wastes emit gases like Methane (CH4), Carbon Dioxide (CO2) etc, resulting in bad odor, emission of green house gases and increase in air and water pollution. This problem can be significantly mitigated through adoption of environment-friendly waste-to-energy technologies for the treatment and processing of wastes before disposal. It will not only reduce the quantity of wastes but also generate substantial quantity of energy. India at present is the world’s fifth biggest energy consumer and is predicted to surpass Japan and Russia to take the third place by 2030. Indian economy has shown a robust growth of around 8% in recent years and is trying to sustain this growth in order to reach goals of poverty alleviation. To achieve the required level of growth, India will need to at least triple its primary energy supply and quintuple its electrical capacity. This will force India, which already imports a majority of its oil, to look beyond its borders for energy resources. In India waste-to-energy has a potential of generating 1700 MW per person and this is scheduled to increase when more types of waste would be encompassed. At present hardly 50 MW power is being generated through waste-to-energy options. Waste combustion provides integrated solutions to the problems of the modern era by: recovering otherwise lost energy and thereby reducing our use of precious natural resources; by cutting down our emissions of greenhouse gases; and by both saving valuable land that would otherwise be destined to become landfill and recovering land once sacrificed to the products of consumerism. This paper focuses to present waste to energy as a green and sustainable solution of solid waste problem vis-à-vis its importance as renewable source of energy.