Uttarakhand government to convert waste into electricity

Uttarakhand is a land of all things beautiful but it is the worst performing state in the country in terms of processing solid waste. In a first, the Uttarakhand government has decided to convert waste generated in the state to electricity under an initiative titled ‘Waste to Energy’.

Madan Kaushik, state cabinet minister and spokesperson for the government said, “The state government is ready with a draft of the policy regarding the matter is ready and soon the honourable Chief Minister will take a meeting on the issue to decide further course of action”.

The stated data observed that at present 900 tonnes of waste is generated in the hill state every day.
Out of the total waste generated, half is organic in nature while 17 per cent falls in a recyclable category followed by 21 per cent biomedical waste and 11 per cent of inert nature which is building material waste.

According to Uttarakhand Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board (UEPPCB), this waste can generate upto 5 megawatt of electricity and curb the pollution.

The scheme also aims to solve the problem of unavailability of landfills to dispose the solid waste across the hill state.

Last month, UEPPCB approved the state fuel policy to reduce air pollution in the coming years including ban on the use of petroleum coke as fuel in a few years, which has high carbon content and contributes more pollution.

The meeting was held in the second week of June and deadline to ban the use of petroleum coke and furnace oil as fuel in the state has been set for March 2024. The board has already started the groundwork for which fuels will be allowed and which not in the state.

Petroleum coke also known as petcoke is a final solid by-product that derives from the oil refining process and is very rich in carbon.

According to a report called ‘Airpocalypse IV’ released by World Health Organisation and Greenpeace report, Dehradun city was featured as almost 11 times more polluted than prescribed standards of World Health Organization standards and worse than Kanpur.

The report was released on January 23, 2020.