Incineration around the globe

Incineration projects span the globe. Countries have many differing reasons in considering and adopting incineration from embracing the technology to genrate significant energy from waste to outriight banning the burning of waste fearing its impact on communities and the environment

Modern incineration projects usually focus on WTE or Waste To Energy. To make WTE worthwhile you have to investigate the composition of the waste stream. There is far less energy to be reclaimed from wet sloppy kitchen waste but much more energy to be gained from waste wood and plastic. Some waste streams like medical waste really cannot be treated any better than by incineration.

There are many waste streams that can be addressed with different types of incinerators, from rotary kilns that process somewhat soggy sewage, to specialized e-waste units that get rid of old cellphones in an environtally responsible way. There are war on drugs incinerators that destroy drugs that have been seized by the police and drug enforcement authories as well as getting rid of expired prescription medicines. Units that dispose of construction waste are most common since this is a high energy fuel stream for WTE. Waste burners are purpose built for different types of waste.

The composition of the waste stream is very important. The pollution control equipment designed to clean flue gases are selected for specific types of waste. Filling a waste burner designed for municipal waste with old tires would completely overload the pollution control system. Thats why waste still has to be segragated before the incinerator. The proper recipe of burnable items has to be continually fed into the unit.

Opposition to Incinerators often focusses on Dioxin and Furan emissions from the smokestack. In modern incinerators there is a lot of pollution control equipemnt that gets installed between the waste burner and the stack that is used to remove as many dioxins and furans as possible along with a whole host of other contaminants.

One reason smokestack need to be high is to disperse the tiny amount of dioxins and furans over the widest possible area avoiding any possibility of concentrating the material. Its also worth noting that dioxins and furans are components of everywhere automobile exhaust which is blown directly into our faces at street level

Africa

11/07/19

Kenyan police routinely burn cocaine and other drugs seized in drug raids conducted around the country.

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001348442/video-sh598m-cocaine-haul-burnt

Argentina

The banning of one method of disposal in one country creates an opportunity in another. Initially China was the go to nation for the disposal of all kinds of waste but as their economy developed China found that it could be a lot more picky about what types of waste it would accept. Opting to take in only the most lucrative materials like clean cardboad.

Many countries in the developed world are signatories to the Basel convention which in recent times has decided to limit incineration. But the Basel convention has not been enough to stop countires like Argentina from accepting the same types of waste that China refuses to take. The need for expedient disposal and the need developing countries have for money means that someone will always step up to take in what another contry does not want.

11/05/19

https://www.treehugger.com/plastic/argentina-has-signed-become-worlds-dumping-ground.html

11/11/19

https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/argentina-to-replace-china-as-worlds-dumping-ground-for-foreign-plastic-waste/

Canada

10/29/19 Revealing video describing the detailed process the Canadian Government went through to repatriate 50 plus garbage containers originally sent to the Phillipines for disposal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fb1oPR7o7M&feature=em-uploademail

Ontario, Durham

10/31/19 The Durham Incinerator operated by Covanta recently passed all government tests for air quality. This is a voluntary test where impartial air testing companies are brought in to verify that Dioxins and Furans and other contaminants being released by the exhaust stack are within limits set out by Ontario clean air legislation.

https://oshawaexpress.ca/incinerator-test-results-within-guidelines/

11/12/19 Studies show that the vast majority of waste does not get recycled despite statements to the contrary from local government officials. Part of the problem is that recycling efforts are directed at the general public while there are no recycling programs for industry. Because of this a lot of waste ends up being disposed of in the fastest way, most often in landfill and incineration as shown in this interesting bit of detective work by CBC Marketplace.

https://www.squamishchief.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-recycle-win-or-fail-1.23985644

Caribbean

British Virgin Islands

One of the problems of running an incinerator in a Caribbean nation include long wait times for replacement parts. On Tortola in the British Virgin Islands a fire in November 2018 knocked out the control panel for the incinerator. The fire was apparently caused by an explosion in the gas tank that supplies the incinerator burners. The whole system had to be shut down and the island has been depending on landfill as the months go by waiting for a replacement panel.

061919 https://bvinews.com/incinerator-still-defunct-consultancy-issues-plague-scrubber-installation/

Meanwhile residents complain about the garbage going to landfill because it too, frequently catches fire. Local government has been handing out face masks as a stop gap measure to protect people from the smoke coming from the landfill. Such is the urgency to repair the control panel the local government waived the competitive bidding process.

Amid all this chaos government has hired a european consultant to advise on reducing the 1200 tons per day of municipal waste and find ways to recycle more materials. And there is also the issue of a pollution control scrubber that the government has been promissing to add to the incinerator for more than 10 years. The incinerator builder has also been paid $500,000 as a down payment.

063019 https://www.bvibeacon.com/contract-for-incinerator-parts-not-yet-signed/

The source of the regular fires at the landfill was found to be contractors dumping garbage after landfill staff had left for the day. Apparently the dumping of oily rags was causing sponteaneous combustion

071219 https://www.bvibeacon.com/dump-fires-blamed-on-garbage-haulers/

Government officials finally get a delivery commitment of 12 weeks on the new control panel but still no word on the scrubber they have already paid 50% for. In the midst of it all the government says they would invite tenders from companies who could supply equipment to reduce the amount of garbage going into the incinerator

072619 https://www.bvibeacon.com/incinerator-repairs-promised-in-12-weeks/

The Health Minister now anticipates the incinerator will be operational again by the end of September 2019. Even with the incinerator operating, the capacity of 100-120 tons per day will only be 10 percent of the total garbage collected.

073119 https://bvinews.com/incinerator-will-be-operational-by-september-says-health-minister/

The government reveals new initiative to reduce reuse and recycle asking local businesses to reuse and repurpose as much material as possible to keep it out of the landfill. To this end 4 small materials recycling facilities will be set up on each of the four British Virgin Islands.

Glass is one material the Government feels it can redirect because they have equipment for processing it and if it remains in the waste stream it damages the incinerator. But a bigger problem is PET plastic water bottles which are widely used because the Islands have poor drinking water. No clear solution exists for redirecting these items.

080119 https://www.wastedive.com/news/british-virgin-islands-recycling-upcycling-reuse-waste/559838/

Ongoing problems such as described have caused infighting in the Government. Hopefully. Hopefully they get the parts they need and get the system working very soon

080219 https://www.bvibeacon.com/legislators-spar-over-incinerator/

111219 Yet another fire burns in the landill and there are reports of an explosion due to an improperly disposed propane tank being mixed with regular garbage. Repairs to the Incinerator control nearing completion but it still has not been shipped to the Island

https://bvinews.com/landfill-fire-likely-to-be-extinguished-by-nightfall-says-minister/

Holland

11/08/19

Putting a Waste to Energy plant next to a paper making plant is one way waste disposal can benefit industry. The WTE makes the steam and the Paper Plant needs it. The country of Holland has gone one step further by recycling the Carbon Dioxide produced by the WTE into a neighbouring greenhouse where plants need the gas to grow better.

https://waste-management-world.com/a/greenhouse-helps-dutch-waste-to-energy-facility-cut-co2-emissions-by

Ireland

11/07/19

The Irish governent passes levys and taxes on retailers to force the recycling of everything from paper cups, to plastic bags to styrofoam containers. In the short term this creates a demand for inciinerators. Its often cheaper to pay tipping fees to burn collected single use plastics than to find appropiate places to dispose of them as the public gradually adopts recyclable and refillable containers.

https://greennews.ie/plans-waste-plastics-levies/

UK

The United Kingdom is particularily interesting since it is a place where large incinerator builders are actively trying to convince towns and cities of the benefits of burning waste locally and generating energy and preventing the export of huge amounts of garbage. At the same time there is considerable pushback from citizens groups trying to stop incineration fearing its alleged impacts on the environment

One advantage to the general public of all this pushback is that city councils can be a lot more choosey about which projects get approved. Large builders like Wheelabrator and Covanta are having to revise their submissions over and over, changing building appearances and stack heights and even juggling multiple applications to different locations within each county to find the best place to move ahead.

Hampshire, Winchester

10/25/19

Global Waste to Energy builder Wheelabrator accused of not talking enough to locals about proposed WTE

https://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/news/17995114.criticism-consultation-controversial-wheelabrator-incinerator-plans/

Merseyside, Southport

10/27/19

Local Incinerator builder Inciner8 ships batch incinerators to Somalia under contract to the UN to control waste in war ravaged areas. UN sees quick waste disposal a priority in the protection of aid workers

https://lbndaily.co.uk/united-nations-enlists-help-mersey-manufacturer-war-torn-regions/

https://www.insidermedia.com/news/north-west/southport-manufacturer-wins-un-contracts

11/12/19

https://bdaily.co.uk/articles/2019/10/28/british-manufacturer-enlisted-by-un-for-support-in-three-overseas-peacekeeping-missions

Scotland, Aberdeenshire

11/05/19

Local residents pushback against incinerator project and companies reapply multiple times to find a workable solution. Where some projects fail others move forward

https://www.mrw.co.uk/latest/incinerator-proposed-as-another-bites-dust/10045094.article

Wales, Monmouthshire, Usk

070419 Welsh government tries to appease public protests regarding the Barry Dock Incinerator

http://www.glamorgan-gem.co.uk/article.cfm?id=127982&headline=Welsh%20Government%20is%20giving%20incinerator%20protestors%20nothing%20%E2%80%93%C2%A0a%20GEM%C2%A0reader%27s%20letter&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2019

071119

Protesters in this rural Wales farming community cite the declaration of a climate emergency as reason try to stop the expansion of a private incinerator into a Waste to energy project. The project is interesting becasue the incinerator is being built to dispose of chemically treated waste wood products. Which would be an ideal fuel for WTE. As well this type of waste stream would otherwise be dangerous to dispose of in a convetional landfill due to the danger of leaching chemicals into ,streams and rivers

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/17761080.villagers-voice-opposition-incinerator-expansion-plan-trostrey-court-near-usk/

080919

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/17826367.support-grows-pressure-group-swipe-opposing-incinerator-expansion-plan-trostrey-court-monmouthshire/

091019

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/17891136.usk-incinerator-protesters-take-fight-monmouthshire-council/

110219

Protestors claim they would not mind if it was solar panels and windmills being proposed but those types of projects have their own detractors. From danger to birds to the prodigious amounts of environmentally unfreindly concrete needed for the bases of large windmills. As far as solar panels are concerned, obviously you need a lot of sun for these to be effective, not something the UK is known for despite the overwhelmingly beautiful countryside.

http://www.monmouthshirebeacon.co.uk/article.cfm?id=117607&headline=Opposition%20to%20Usk%20Valley%20incinerator%20heats%20up&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2019

Local Government in Wales move toward banning incineration after discussing the pros and cons of incineration, in the process revealing that some politicians dont appreciate the impact on air, ground and water pollution that landfills have. They make concessions for medical incineration, realizing the danger of not processing this waste stream in an expedient manner.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-50212332?intlink_from_url=&

11/05/19

https://www.mrw.co.uk/latest/environment-boss-urges-incineration-ban/10045093.article

111019

Petition is submitted to Monmouthshire council by more than 1000 local residents asking essentially how can you declare a climate emergency and approve this incinerator at the same time

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/17999927.usk-incinerator-petition-handed-monmouthshire-council/

Europe

India

In India there is a huge need for waste management infrastucture in many areas. Municipal waste, Medical waste and Schools are three key areas where incineration is used. Medical Waste needs to be incinerated in a controlled and responsible manner instead of being dumped in a seperate corner of the local waste treatment facility. Schools and Insitutions are often the only places where faciliites exist to seperate items from the normal waste stream such as special small incinerators for sanitary napkins.

Africa

China

UAE

Bahrain

102719 China Tianying Inc (CNTY) want to build WTE to supply 25% of Island Nation Bahrains power

https://www.zawya.com/mena/en/business/story/Chinese_waste_management_firm_offers_to_build_new_incinerator_in_Bahrain-SNG_157822771/

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