Alliance against waste-to-energy plant condemns Chennai Corporation resolution

CHENNAI: Alliance for Incinerator Free Chennai (AIFC) demanded the Chennai Corporation to scrap decentralised waste processing centres and condemned the Council resolution passed in support of waste-to-energy (WtE) incinerators in Kodungaiyur.

“In its monthly Council meeting on February 27, the GCC adopted resolutions in favour of the proposed WtE plant in Kodungaiyur and to shut down 168 Micro Composting Centres (MCC) and 137 Material Recovery Centres (MRC) functioning across 200 wards in the Corporation to facilitate the burning of all the compostable and recycling waste in the new proposed project,” an AIFC statement said.

The Alliance added that WtE projects were emission intensive, financially unviable and would worsen socioeconomic inequalities as these incinerators are often situated in neighbourhoods where marginalised communities reside. “Even the US, EU countries and the UK are scaling back on these projects as it has become evident that WtE is more polluting than coal,” it said.

Warning that the proposed plant would burn 2,100 tons of garbage every day, the alliance demanded the government focus on systemic solutions for waste management such as capping the production of Single Use Plastics (SUPs), lower consumption, source segregation, and decentralized processing.

“It was learnt in February that the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank has decided to reject an investment of $40 million for building four WtE incinerator projects in Gujarat. CSIR-NEERI in its report to the National Green Tribunal has submitted that these cause serious health and environmental impacts. The GCC’s Chennai Climate Action Plan (CCAP) report has noted the severe climate impacts of WTEs and recommends against it,” the statement said.