At a time when the monitoring committee of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has taken strict note of the municipal corporation’s (MC) failure in taking up solid waste management, private garbage collection company A2Z company has stopped operating the Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) plant and compost plant at the main dumpsite on Tajpur road after Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has denied consent for running the same.
This has increased the trouble for MC which is facing heat over its failure in dealing with around 20 lakh tonnes of legacy waste (garbage), which has already been dumped at the main dumpsite. Around 1,000 metric tonnes of garbage, which is generated in the city on a daily basis, would now accumulate at the main dumpsite.
The landfill generates highly combustible methane that leads to spontaneous fires, causing massive burning of garbage and highly toxic emissions. This, in turn, leads to widespread air pollution, with serious health implications. Recently, the NGT monitoring committee had directed the PPCB to impose a ₹15 lakh bank guarantee on MC for its failure in dealing with solid waste, and out of this ₹5 lakh was for not dealing with legacy waste.
General manager of A2Z company, Vishant Chaudhary said, “The PPCB had given consent to operate the RDF plant for three months in October 2017. After that, we are regularly in touch with the PPCB for getting their permission and have been clearing the objections raised by the board. Now on August 21, the PPCB has rejected their application, due to which we had to stop the RDF and compost plant at the main dumpsite. Now, we have written a letter to the MC to get permission from the PPCB. If we still fail to get the consent then we will be left with no other option than to move the NGT.”
{{/usCountry}}General manager of A2Z company, Vishant Chaudhary said, “The PPCB had given consent to operate the RDF plant for three months in October 2017. After that, we are regularly in touch with the PPCB for getting their permission and have been clearing the objections raised by the board. Now on August 21, the PPCB has rejected their application, due to which we had to stop the RDF and compost plant at the main dumpsite. Now, we have written a letter to the MC to get permission from the PPCB. If we still fail to get the consent then we will be left with no other option than to move the NGT.”
{{/usCountry}}A PPCB official said that one of the reasons is that the A2Z company was not running the plant to its full capacity. Starting from March this year till July, the plant was run only at 15% of its capacity, while the remaining waste was getting accumulated at the dumpsite, he said.
PPCB member secretary, Krunesh Garg said, “The permission was denied due to certain violations and the company had also failed to follow the directions issued in the past. The company has again applied for permission to operate after fulfilling the requirements.”
In 2011, the MC signed a contract with the A2Z company to lift garbage from houses and secondary dumping points and manage the waste by installing a refuse-derived fuel plant, compost plant, and sanitary landfill at the main dumpsite. The RDF plant was made functional in 2017 but it has not been running on full capacity. The A2Z company has also made operational the compost plant at the main site. On average, around 1,000 metric tonnes of garbage is generated in the city, which was around 1,100 metric tonnes before the pandemic.