Thiruvananthapuram Corporation’s incinerator plan hits a roadblock

The city Corporation might be pushing ahead with a plan to include incinerators as part of its solid waste management initiatives, but the Kerala Suchitwa Mission’s stated stand might become a roadblock for its implementation.

The civic body has submitted for approval a plan to set up three incinerators at the Santhikavadam electric crematorium, Palayam market, and the Manacaud market.

A Suchitwa Mission official told

The Hindu that the very nature of the incinerators, which were known for polluting the atmosphere, had made the mission look for better sustainable alternatives.

Toxic

“The kinds of incinerators that have been tried out in this State are difficult to maintain and lead to emissions. Also, there is no facility to monitor the emissions. The dioxins and furans produced from incineration are known to be toxic. Only the third-generation incinerators have all the facilities required to monitor and control emissions, but the prohibitive costs of these makes it unviable for local bodies,” the official said.

The temperature of operation of the incinerators has also been a problem.

“Ideally, the working temperature should be between 600 and 800 degree Celsius. But we have incinerators working at temperatures much less than that, which is just a refined form of burning waste openly,” said the official.

Requests have been flooding in from local bodies across the state, asking for technical sanctions for incinerators but the Suchitwa Mission has been denying them all.

“There are many agencies working in the field and they have all been approaching local bodies with their proposals. They also have some interest in this.”

Meanwhile, Corporation standing committee chairperson S. Pushpalatha said that the main aim of asking for incinerators in the market was to burn the large quantities of plantain waste.

“We deliberated a lot before putting forward this proposal. Now, it is up to the mission to grant sanction,” she said.