Tackling the tonnes of waste

Posted by admin on June 6th, 2008 filed in Living here

The only operating incinerator on Phuket is capable of burning 250 tonnes of garbage daily while the average amount of waste on Phuket is about 550 tonnes each day. On a 170-rai peace of land the daily remaining 300 tonnes piles up and the mountain of refuse gets bigger and bigger.

A second burner is an urgent need for Phuket and the two billion baht expenses should be covered by the central government funds. However, until the coming of a second waste burner is approved, garbage sorting is seen as the most efficient way reducing the sludge being incinerated as well as other garbage-related difficulties.

Operators at the waste burning facility are convinced that a complete island-wide garbage-sorting program could reduce the amount of litter it has to deal with by around 40 per cent. This would also contribute to improvement of the plant’s efficiency and considerably cut poisonous dioxins, a main cause of which is blending plastics and organic material.

Most tourists will not notice it but Phuket struggles to tackle its waste problem

The extreme high temperatures that can be realised when the stream of garbage doesn’t contain organic matter will entirely destroy pollutants such as dioxin. Waste separation that can result in a big difference can be as easy as making people to separate wet trash from dry, as wet waste will reduce the temperature and therefore lowering efficiency.

Improved trash separation would boost the energy output of the plant as well. Currently, the burner produces the energy it needs for the job and the local grid buys the excess of power. The plant’s capacity to produce electricity significantly decreases when the garbage stream contains too much organic material and wet waste.

A campaign to educate the public about the good cause of rubbish separation is planned and introducing different coloured garbage cans is considered to be an option as well. Very soon, the authorities will provide 700,000 baht for the education campaign’s first phase. The Phuket Environmental Protection Society will support this highly important campaign.

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