Blue washing: New categorisation by CPCB promotes highly polluting incineration industry
Recently, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has carved a new category of industries called the ‘blue category’ industries based on the Essential Environmental Services (EES) for managing the pollution due to anthropogenic activities.
While the addition of important services in waste management such as composting, biogas, material recovery facilities and sewage treatment plants is a welcome move, the inclusion of waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration which is the process of burning unsegregated municipal solid waste (MSW) to produce dirty electricity is a huge retrograde step.
With this new categorisation, the CPCB will give an additional two years validity for consent to operate a.k.a consent to pollute.
Shades of green, hues of blue
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) introduced the concept of categorisation of industries for facilitating decisions related to the location of the industries, formulation of norms for inspection and surveillance, pollution caused and health impacts.
In order to harmonise the ‘criteria of categorisation’, a Pollution Index (PI) was introduced which is a function of the emissions (air pollutants), effluents (water pollutants), hazardous wastes generated and consumption of resources.
The PI is a number between ‘0’ and ‘100’ with 0-20 being the least polluting white category industries and 60-100 being the most polluting Red Category industries while Green (21-40) and Orange (41-59) categories lying in-between.
Until recently, the waste-to-energy incineration industries were classified by the CPCB as a ‘red category’, a highly polluting industry with a PI of 97.6 .
This is because of the flue gas discharges such as SOx, NOx, HCL, PM, Dioxins and Furans, water effluent with toxic pollutants and hazardous bottom/fly ash that needs to be disposed of in a secured scientific landfill.
Even the health and climate impacts of these WTE incinerators are well known. To counter the ‘greenwashing’ allegations against it, the WTE industry seems to have adapted ‘bluewashing’.
Disservice in garb of environmental services
WTE incineration uses heat generated during the burning of MSW to produce heat that will be used to generate steam and run a turbine to produce electricity.
The only difference between a coal fired thermal power plant and a WTE plant is that WTE produces electricity that is dirtier than coal, as they emit more CO2 per unit of electricity! Furthermore, CPCB’s own inspection has revealed that the three WTE plants in Delhi released a cocktail of carcinogens over and above the set standards.
Delhi’s WTE plants also burnt a whopping 7,35,840 tons of plastic or 2000 tons of plastic every day in FY 2022-2023 which directly translated into high chloride content in Delhi’s air and contributed significantly to the poor AQI in Delhi, another important ‘Essential Environmental and Health Service’.
The other essential disservices provided by WTE incinerators include loss of jobs for waste pickers, climate impacts and financial burden on the urban local bodies. Even the reasoning for reclassification of WTEs as a blue category industry is heavily flawed.
CPCB’s own methodology states that only the projects that do not emit hazardous waste can be classified as 'blue category' industries.
Furthermore, it clearly mentions that, only the projects that promote circular economy can be reclassified as a blue category industry.
But, the CSIR-NEERI, a pioneering government research institute in environmental science and engineering has clearly stated: 'WTEs defeat the purpose of circular economy and are against the SWM rules, 2016'.
Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran is associated with the Centre for Financial Accountability and works on the post consumption impacts of plastics with a focus on Waste to Energy incineration.