Environmental groups have raised the warning against the use of waste-to-energy technology to generate electricity, arguing this offers “false solutions” to waste management, more expensive and odds-on to produce more toxic pollutants.
The warning is a bulletin board for the Philippines, which codified Republic Act 9513, or the Renewable Energy Act of 2008, which allows the use of waste-to-energy (WTE) technology, but only in a limited sense, and affirms the government’s commitment to accelerate the use of renewable energy resources in the country.
The law mandates the Department of Energy to encourage the adoption of WTE facilities and considers biodegradable organic fractions of industrial and municipal wastes as part of biomass resources.
WTE, a term which describes various technologies that convert non-recyclable waste into usable forms of energy including heat, fuels and electricity, is sometimes called a trash-to-energy, municipal waste incineration, energy recovery, or resource recovery plant.
The warning echoes after the Environmental Management Bureau projected that from 2022 to 2025, the country’s generated waste will hit 92 million tonnes.
“The protection of our environment is an important consideration, so safeguards are provided in the proposed measure to make sure that this innovation will not be at the cost of health or environment safety,” Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said last year.
“Unfortunately, our solid waste disposal system is yet to keep up with the continuously increasing amount of household and domestic wastes that we produce,” Zubiri said, adding WTE shall be classified as another renewable energy resource.
“This way, not only would we be able to prevent our landfills from being filled up, but we can harness usable energy from non-recyclable waste,” he said.
Experts say WTE plants cause less air pollution than coal plants, but more than natural gas plants. It is also carbon-negative: processing waste into fuel releases considerably less carbon and methane into the air than having waste decay away in landfills or bodies of water.
We hear experts argue the disadvantages have grown even more during the past couple of years, like the particulates and pollution it produces, the destruction of valuable materials, and the potential to disincentivize renewable energy sources and sustainable waste management solutions.
Experts say poorly fed WTE facilities may emit concentrated toxins with serious potential health risks, like dioxins/furans and heavy metals; these toxins may remain problematic in bottom ash as a combustion by-product
Let’s mind the warning.
