Waste-to-energy plants are like hungry dogs: Jeffrey

Thiruvananthapuram: Waste to energy plants is like having a hungry dog. You have to feed it every day or else it would get angry, said Robin Jeffrey.
The Canadian-born researcher, who co-authored ‘Waste of a Nation: Garbage and Growth in India’ with Assa Doron was delivering the 10th B G Kumar Memorial Lecture at Centre For Development Studies on Wednesday. He said that one could not expect too much energy from them.
“The maintenance costs are also very high and a major share of the power is needed to run the plant,” he said.
Jeffrey, a visiting research professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies, Singapore, elaborated on the situation in Singapore when asked to comment on the state government’s plan to introduce waste to energy plants in cities across the state.
“I would be very sceptical about it. Before the government embarks on such things, it would be better if they look at ongoing models in Singapore,” he said.
He narrated an incident involving Florence Nightingale as he spoke on waste, crises and complexities.
“In India, the British army lost ten times its soldiers to illness than it did to bullets. They died like flies. So, a commissioner was appointed who then sent survey forms to army cantonments to understand how they managed waste, how the quality of water was maintained and the like. The survey reports were so huge that they were sent to Florence Nightingale and after perusing the reports she said that no good will be done in improving sanitation unless it is made the business of a competent person,” said Jeffrey.
Jeffrey, who had a word of praise for the decentralized composting system in Thiruvananthapuram, said that responsibility of local bodies was not matched by powers when it comes to waste management.
“The government has to play a key role in waste management. There has to be a connection between makers of waste and its takers. Appropriate technologies should be used. One or two failures should not stop models which could be a recipe for success. Rules-based reward system should be promoted by governments,” he said.