QCOSTARICA – One man’s refuse is another man’s … electric generation method. The Health Ministry (MInisterio de Salud) has taken off the blanket prohibition it placed on garbage burning last June, recognising two realities: The country needs to produce more electricity in the short term and is drowning in garbage in the long run.
This would allow municipalities to dispose of at least part of their solid waste problem by generating electricity in garbage incinerators. On the surface, this would seem the ideal solution, converting the glut from rapidly exhausted landfills into extra income for the canton. But not everyone is jumping for joy.
Groups of concerned citizens are alarmed but the government says they just don’t understand how the process has improved technically over simply lighting a match to a garbage dump. With a new regulation, the ministry can safely lift its ban without releasing toxic gases or contaminating the air.
The new rules set down what materials are safe to incinerate and what must be banned from the new process. Moreover, the Ministry says that the rejects of modern living can begin to produce income for the canton within six months’ time, a fraction that it would take to, for example, build a small dam.
The Ministry’s Ricardo Morales sees a rich panorama of possibilities, especially since no one wants a landfill in their neighborhood in the first place. Morales says that the new regulations are set up on European and North American models (such as the Environmental Protection Agency) to protect public health.
The local government of Leon Cortes greets to new regulation with a sign of relief. When the Ministry prohibited all burning in June, it derailed a contract they council had made with the Agropecuario 7048 firm to install a flammable gas production plant to produce a megawatt of power from 45 metric tons of waste.
But other plans were buried by resident ignorance, the Ministry says. Last June, San Ramon was forced to bury its plan after a citizen protest opposed it even before the Ministry ban. Yadira Soto, a San Ramon resident, told La Nacion that she still opposes the plant because of “odors, gases and the increased traffic of garbage trucks.”
But the landfill at San Ramon will have to close Aug. 19, due to a decision by the Constitutional Court (Sala IV). Ms. Soto may not want incinerators but no one wants a landfill in the neighborhood, either. At least the Ministry of the Environment would be watching out for air quality under the new rules.
Via iNews.co.cr