Tackling Khon Kaen's mountain of garbage

[rooster59]

Tackling Khon Kaen's mountain of garbage

JITIMA JANPHROM



KHON KAEN: MORE than 800,000 tonnes of garbage in Nakhon Khon Kaen municipality - accumulated over the past five decades at Ban Kham Bon in Muang district's Tambon Noen Thon - gives this city in the Northeast the dubious distinction of having the eighth biggest rubbish dump in the country.

Residents living around the 98-rai (16 hectare) dumpsite at Ban Kham Bon believe the amount of rubbish could exceed one million tonnes if waste buried beneath the ground is included.

They also lament they have been negatively affected by the foul smell from the site and polluted water leaking into rice fields and water sources, as well as by occasional fires sending off smoke.

The residents say they have protested and filed complaints about these issues many times over the years.

Despite the municipality's efforts to tackle the dumpsite's impacts on people, as well as handling the amount of garbage before the site reaches maximum capacity, the level of waste coming in is relentless - and increasing on a daily basis.

As Khon Kaen has expanded and its population grown over the years, so has the amount of trash.

Burying the garbage has only led to a faster rate of accumulation, while the mooted establishment of a biodiesel factory to turn plastic waste into energy is not deemed as value for money - because it cannot compete with petrol, the price of which has fallen.

Attempts to find more places to bury garbage have faced protests from villagers near other areas.

Mayor Theerasak Theethapha said this meant the city had to find new solutions with minimum environmental impacts.

The first solution of constructing a wastewater-treatment system, featuring a 20-rai pond with 129,000-cubic-metre capacity to gather polluted water, has lessened the problem of polluted water leaking into villagers' farmland, he said.

The next challenge, however, was to tackle the huge mountain of garbage, and the most suitable solution was seen as an electricity-generating plant powered by burning the municipality's solid waste, he said.

The idea was in line with government policy to support alternative-energy production and the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand's policy to buy electricity from retail power generators, he explained.

The municipality finally found a private company with expertise and funding for 100 per cent of the investment required to build such power plant, the mayor said.

Public meetings about the project with stakeholders, including villagers, went well, as people agreed it was a good solution for Khon Kaen, provided that all impacts on villagers would also be addressed and solved, he said.

Work on the project commenced in 2011 and all steps have been carried out in accordance with the law, including licence application.

The Bt800-million power plant will be operated by Alliance Clean Power, and applies the direct-fired-furnace method to produce heat for electricity generation, Theerasak said.

The plant, also equipped with an air pollution-eradication system, will dispose of tonnes of garbage at a low cost of less than Bt249 per tonne for the first three years. This would rise by 10 per cent every three years, with the operating period initially set at 20 years, he said.

When completed, the plant is expected to dispose of 450 tonnes of garbage a day and yield 4.9 megawatts of power per day - 4.5MW will be sold and the rest used within the facility.

Plant construction has now progressed 50 per cent and the facility should start operating by next April, he added.

The mayor said that since early this month 20 local administrative bodies in the province had brought garbage to the dump in accordance with the province's policy. A further local bodies nearby will have to wait for the power plant's completion before their can unload their trash there also.

The municipality normally produced 200 tonnes of garbage a day, but the amount arriving at the site has risen to at least 350 tonnes.

The original plan for the plant was to dispose of 250 tonnes of accumulated trash per day and 200 tonnes of "new" garbage. That would have meant getting rid of Ban Kham Bon's mountain of garbage in seven to 10 years, he said.

However, the increasing amount of trash has caused them to seek additional measures to ensure the disposal of no less than 350 tonnes a day, in order to keep up with the growing rate of "new" trash from the city.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Tackling-Khon-Kaens-mountain-of-garbage-30273912.html

-- The Nation 2015-11-29

[trogers]

A mountain of problems. Raise the refuge collection fee and people scream murder!

And so, heads in the sand and then an avalanche...

[stoneyboy]

A mountain of problems. Raise the refuge collection fee and people scream murder!

And so, heads in the sand and then an avalanche...

Indeed,I pay 300 baht a year for refuse collection in neighbouring Lom Sak Phetchabun.

My bin is full everyday when I attempt to use it because people simply will not pay,that includes my neighbour who drives around in a brand new Toyota Fortuner.

You've got to get your priorities in order I guess.

Edited November 29, 2015 by stoneyboy

[steven100]

Waste to Energy is growing more and more ..... and it makes economical sense ....

http://www.gasification.org/uploads/downloads/2015-presentations/2015-10-1-Fosgitt.pdf

[sanukjim]

Think about what the ground water is like in this area.You would not want to drink out of a well closer then 100 miles from there.

[Surasak]

At least its a start. How long before all households and businesses have to recycle waste or it will not be collested? They are catching up but very slowly.

[NeilSA1]

"the dubious distinction of having the eighth biggest rubbish dump in the country."

​
​Imagine how bad the seven bigger rubbish dumps are.

[eliotness]

Waste to Energy is growing more and more ..... and it makes economical sense ....

http://www.gasification.org/uploads/downloads/2015-presentations/2015-10-1-Fosgitt.pdf

It would help to get a breakdown of what this garbage consists of. I suspect that it will not be suitable for waste to energy plants. There is no where near the paper waste one would find in Europe. Thais tend to waste an enormous amount of food. There is obviously no gas collection either, so no methane gas to burn in a controlled manner. I'd bet the "landfill" isn't lined and leachate not collected and treated. Groundwater pollution from a badly "managed" landfills can and will persist for hundreds of years.

This whole thing is so very bottom end 3rd world and the article doesn't seem to push solutions. As another poster stated, just imagine what the bigger sites are like ! How can Thailand and it's various governments allow such crude, polluting, backward, stuff your neighbour situations to happen. This reflects so badly on Thai culture and is so sad.

[kinmaew]

I remember years ago a couple of poms were trying to get the Thais to listen about sustainable living, recycling etc - It was like talking Greek to them, they prefer to keep burning tons of garbage daily and living in the dumps, I think they must love it or too lazy or stupid - Both I think.

[Siamwhiteelephant]

If only the authorities would lower their filter of face more and adopt the waste disposal of developed countries further. When will they tackle the Thai public's backward attitudes and behaviour about waste disposal? The annoying in your face ads are well down the road in trying to alter the public's buying habits, yet no-one seems to complain much about the crass ads. Why don't the authorities exercise some tact and taste into an ad campaign about recycling, etc? Why don't they organize systematic managed recycling and more ways of sustainable waste disposal? Why don't they set up colour-coded recycling bins everywhere with regular collections of them to well-run recycling plants?

[spidermike007]

A mountain of problems. Raise the refuge collection fee and people scream murder!

And so, heads in the sand and then an avalanche...

Indeed,I pay 300 baht a year for refuse collection in neighbouring Lom Sak Phetchabun.

My bin is full everyday when I attempt to use it because people simply will not pay,that includes my neighbour who drives around in a brand new Toyota Fortuner.

You've got to get your priorities in order I guess.

An aluminum can, which is electrified to 1660 Volts might change your neighbors behavior and encourage him to behave in a more civil manner. Does the term kee nyow mak mak come to mind?

[elgordo38]

The burning of garbage to produce electricity takes a lot of maintenance to keep pollution standards at acceptable levels. This is not a strong Thai suit. Khon Kaen is also located in the northern part of the country and if they are depending on Bangkok to fund part of this I wish them luck.