The Navy and the Air Force sprayed water from the air over the smouldering rubbish on the Brahmapuram landfill.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The Kochi landfill website round Brahmapuram that caught fire earlier this month was a stark reminder that Indian cities have to be ready for extra such incidents as summer time approaches. The fires emit greenhouse gases at the same time as folks dwelling across the website had been suggested to remain indoors and don N95 masks till the fire was put out. These are very short-term measures; stopping these fires altogether requires long-term measures, together with thorough and sustained interventions from municipalities.
Why do landfills catch fire?
India’s municipalities have been gathering greater than 95% of the waste generated in cities however the effectivity of waste-processing is 30-40% at greatest. Indian municipal strong waste consists of about 60% biodegradable materials, 25% non-biodegradable materials and 15% inert supplies, like silt and stone.
Municipalities are anticipated to course of the moist and dry waste individually and to have the recovered by-products recycled. Unfortunately, the speed of processing in India’s cities is way decrease than the speed of waste technology, so unprocessed waste stays in open landfills for lengthy durations.
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This overtly disposed waste consists of flammable materials like low-quality plastics, which have a comparatively increased calorific worth of about 2,500-3,000 kcal/kg (in comparison with round 8,000 kcal/kg for coal), and rags and garments. In summer time, the biodegradable fraction composts a lot sooner, rising the temperature of the heap to past 70-80° C.
Higher temperature + flammable materials = an opportunity for the landfill to catch fire. Some fires have been recognized to go on for months.
Is there a everlasting resolution?
There are two attainable everlasting options to handle landfill fires.
One: Completely cap the fabric utilizing soil and shut landfills in a scientific method. This resolution is unsuitable within the Indian context because the land can’t be used once more for different functions. Closed landfills have particular commonplace working procedures, together with managing the methane emissions.
Two: Clear the piles of waste via bioremediation – i.e. excavate outdated waste and use automated sieving machines to segregate the flammable refuse-derived gasoline (RDF), similar to plastics, rags, garments, and so forth., from biodegradable materials. The recovered RDF can be despatched to cement kilns as gasoline, whereas the bio-soil can be distributed to farmers to complement soil. The inert fraction should be landfilled.
However, implementing a bioremediation challenge normally takes as much as two or three years, necessitating a short-term resolution for landfill fires in the summertime.
What are some quick measures to handle landfill fires?
Landfill websites span 20-30 acres (relying on the scale of the corresponding metropolis), and have completely different sorts of waste.
The first quick motion is to divide a website into blocks relying on the character of the waste. At every website, blocks with contemporary waste must be separated from blocks with flammable materials. Blocks which have been capped utilizing soil are much less more likely to catch fire, so parts like these also needs to be separated out.
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Ideally, the completely different blocks must be separated utilizing a drain or soil bund and a layer of soil ought to cap every block. This reduces the prospect of fires spreading throughout blocks inside the identical landfill.
Next, probably the most susceptible a part of the landfill – the portion with plenty of plastics and material – must be capped with soil.
The fresh-waste block shouldn’t be capped however sufficient moisture must be supplied by sprinkling water. The materials also needs to be turned frequently for aeration, which helps cool the waste heap.
Once a website has been divided into blocks, the municipality or the landfill operator ought to classify the incoming waste on arrival to the location, and dispose in designated blocks reasonably than dumping blended fractions.
Already segregated and baled non-recyclable and non-biodegradable waste must be despatched to cement kilns as an alternative of being allowed to build up on the website. Dry grass materials and dry timber from the location also needs to be cleared instantly and disposed of individually.
In addition, the next precautionary measures will assist stop untoward incidents:
- Sites must be outfitted with water tankers with sprinklers for quick motion.
- The municipality ought to work with the closest fire division and have a plan of motion prematurely.
- Waste-processing staff (plant operators, segregators, and so forth.) ought to have fundamental fire-safety and response coaching.
- People round landfill websites also needs to be skilled and outfitted to safeguard themselves throughout fires.
- The municipality ought to have routine round the clock video surveillance of probably the most flammable portion of the landfill.
- Flammable materials like chemical waste, match sticks, and lighters shouldn’t enter the location.
- Machines on the website, like sieves and balers, must be cleaned and moved away from the flammable materials.
- On-site workers and safety personnel must be housed away from the flammable portion.
While these measures can assist scale back the fires’ injury, they’re removed from very best and not long-term options. The everlasting and important resolution is to make sure cities have a scientific waste-processing system the place moist and dry waste are processed individually and their by-products handled accordingly (recycling, soil enrichment, and so forth.). This will want a number of stakeholders, together with municipalities and waste-processing unit operators, to cooperate.
For the already-piled-up waste, bioremediation and clearing the location of RDF is the everlasting resolution.
Considering India’s summer time has already begun, municipalities should implement short-term measures to forestall fire outbreaks whereas additionally specializing in long-term options to enhance strong waste administration.
Pushkara S.V. is a practitioner on the Indian Institute for Human Settlements. He has supplied advisory companies on strong waste administration to 75 city native our bodies on waste administration and has headed operations at a 750-tonne-capacity waste processing facility.
