TRASH TO CASH
ABKI BAAR TAX FREE SARKAR
Trash to Cash
India shall become Tax
Free when Ministries owning huge assets start earning from them and
contributing to Budget. The person who can optimize revenue from National
Assets is a top of the line CEO from Commercial arena who should be appointed
as National Assets Advisor (NAA) to PM Sir similar to NSA and a Chief
Accountant to monetize all national assets !
Ref: PMSir/MK/05 8
July 2019
Open Letter to Hon’ble Prime
Minister of India Shriman Narendra Modi ji
Respected Sir,
This is my 5th
letter to you on the subject ‘India can be the first totally tax free
country’ and a trend setter for the entire world. Taxes take away a
sizable portion of everyone’s hard earned income including of those who govern
the country. Though people have become accustomed to paying taxes but it is the
biggest agony for everybody.
Sir, I have taken up on myself to
bring to your kind attention earning potential of every Ministry and possible modus
operandi to optimize earning from them from the viewpoint of a CEO from
commercial arena. Your target of making India a 5 Trln $ economy is very
realistic and can be achieved if we adopt some progressive measures. I strongly feel and conveyed to you in my
letter No. PM sir-3 dated 20 June 2019 that you need to have a top of the line
CEO from commercial arena as your National Assets Advisor (NAA) on the
lines of a NSA. In this submission I point out the problem of Garbage disposal.
Sir, as per a report of ‘Down
to Earth.org.in” India’s garbage disposal system is flying in danger zone.
Their report says-
“With
rapid urbanization, the country is facing massive waste management challenge.
Over 377 million urban people live in 7,935 towns and cities and generate 62
million tonnes of municipal solid waste per annum. Only 43 million tonnes (MT)
of the waste is collected, 11.9 MT is treated and 31 MT is dumped in landfill
sites. Solid Waste Management (SWM) is one among the basic essential services
provided by municipal authorities in the country to keep urban centres clean.
However, almost all municipal authorities deposit solid waste at a dump yard
within or outside the city haphazardly. Experts believe that India is following
a flawed system of waste disposal and management.
“The key to
efficient waste management is to ensure proper segregation of waste at source
and to ensure that the waste goes through different streams of recycling and
resource recovery. The reduced final residue is then deposited scientifically
in sanitary landfills. Sanitary landfills are the ultimate means of disposal
for unutilized municipal solid waste from waste processing facilities and other
types of inorganic waste that cannot be reused or recycled. Major limitation of
this method is the costly transportation of MSW to far away landfill sites.
“A report by
IIT Kanpur (2006) found the potential of recovering at least 15 per cent or
15,000 MT of waste generated every day in the country. This, the report said,
could also provide employment opportunities to about 500,000 rag-pickers. The
report added that despite immense potential in big cities in this area, participation
from non-profits or community is limited….”
Unquote
Sir, my submission herewith is a
thought provocater and not an expert advice. As a retired CEO I feel Government
can float Blocks for ‘Trash to Cash’ project for large cities of India
having a population of 3 lakh and above to begin with to Entrepreneurs. Experts
with Government can give the project a final shape after considering practical
experience that has been gained from similar projects operating in various
parts of country like the Mysuru project, the Solapur project et al. The
Project is a Infrastructure Project. Hence it should be executed by Roads
Ministry under Shri Nitin Gadkari ji. In my opinion the project can earn some
Rs. 5000 crore every year for the exchequer by way of Lease Rent under the head
‘Non-tax Revenue’ that should be renamed as Income from National Assets. This
revenue shall be in addition to huge saving by Municipal Corporations of respective
Cities and metros for garbage collection and transportation to dumping grounds.
Thus it shall be beneficial for both – Centre and the States. The process shall
generate huge direct and indirect employment for various categories of people.
Most importantly the process shall play an important role in reducing pollution
from urban areas.
Modus Operandi
A Department of Trash Disposal
could be set up in Ministry of Roads. The personnel for this Department shall
be experts from Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical
Engineering, Hydrological Engineers, Electronic Engineers, Pollution Control
and necessarily concerned civic authorities of the concerned city. The team shall have a team of experts who can
work out land area required to set up the facility, cost of project, operating
cost, revenue that can be generated from the recovered products. This team
shall evolve city specific projects for Garbage Disposal. They shall prepare a
Tender document keeping expanding requirement of garbage disposal for coming
decades. There shall be rapid expansion in urban population, so the projects
should accommodate substantial capacity expansion in coming decades. Some
prevalent and available processes for garbage treatment are given briefly in
Annexure A. The experts shall study various processes in detail and keep updating
themselves for evolving technologies. Help can be taken from IITs to design
city specific Waste Recovery and Disposal project.
The terms of tenders should be in
the interest of all stake holders like Government of India, Government of
respective State, Local Bodies, the Entrepreneur and the people of the area.
Projects that are evolved without keeping due interest of Entrepreneurs do not
fructify; example sale of Air India, Oil exploration sites. Therefore,
attractive package should be offered to them. the team shall have to be very enlightened,
progressive and keeping itself up-to-date with all developments taking place
anywhere in India and the whole world.
The Department finalizes City specific
Tender documents something on the following lines –
Trash to Cash Project
Government of India and the
respective State Government offer a Trash to Cash Project to interested
entrepreneurs on a long lease of 30-40 years with provision for further
extension on terms mutually agreeable to Lessor (Government) and Lessee
(Entrepreneur).
Rights of the Lessee
1.
TThe
lessee shall have full rights on all kinds of garbage, trash etc called by
whatever name in the geographical area earmarked to him.
2. The
identification of the garbage shall be that material which any household,
shopkeeper, industry, hospitality industries, hospitals, etc. throw out in the
dustbins and deposit in the garbage collection centers set up by the civic
authorities of the area concerned.
3. The
Lessee shall be allotted adequate land area by the concerned authority free of
any charge for the entire lease period but subject to payment of Annual Lease
Rent for the project. The land area shall be adequate to undertake all
activities for treating trash like –
i)
Storage and sorting of trash up to 3 months
ii)
Composting of trash in to manure
iii)
Setting up power generation plant
iv)
Setting up any other plants for conversion of
trash in to valuable products
v)
Parking place for garbage collection vehicles and
other vehicles relative to the project
vi)
Plantation of required number of trees to control
pollution arising from the project
vii)
Water storage and water treatment plant
viii)
A petrol pump
ix)
Vehicles repairing and maintenance workshop
x)
Etc.
4. The
lessee shall have right to develop 5% of such allotted area for setting up a Civic
Complex comprising of Administrative
Offices, Houses for staff and workers, shopping, medical care, sports and
entertainment, Offices, storage, Educational facilities, Sports and
Entertainment facilities etc. The lessee
shall have right to collect rent from users of such facilities. A proper STP
plant and Water Harvesting facility shall be established in the complex.
5. The
lessee shall be provided all kinds of pollution control licences and
permissions subject to his fulfilling all terms and conditions for such
permissions.
6. The
Administration shall set up a Police post with adequate personnel for security
and maintaining law and order in and around the complex area.
7. The
Entrepreneur shall be the owner and have full right to sell the products made
out of the waste at prices as thought fit by him. Revenue from sale of waste recovered material
shall be his source of income during the entire period of lease.
8. The
project should be fully operational within a period of three years from the
date of final agreement.
9. The
Lessor i.e. the Government and the Lessee shall have right to terminate the
contract by giving six months notice in writing.
Terms of Offer
1. The
project shall be awarded through transparent E-tendering process.
2. There
shall be a minimum reserve lease rent below which project shall not be given.
3. The
applicant entrepreneur shall have Net Worth of required value as assessed for
the specific city.
4. The
applicant shall submit a technical offer explaining in detail his work plan for all
operations like –
i)
Collection
of the garbage from whole area under offer on daily basis. The entrepreneur
shall depute required number of vehicles for collection of garbage at his own
cost.
ii)
Process for sorting various kinds of wastes,
garbage and trash and storage of sorted material
iii)
Disposal
and conversion process for various kinds of garbage and trash materials. He
shall have to set up several kinds of projects to treat different kind of
wastes. The entrepreneur shall bear the cost of such projects.
iv)
Successful entrepreneurs whose technical proposal
are found acceptable shall then make their financial proposal and
participate in the E-auction.
v)
Project
shall be awarded to technically approved highest financial bidder.
vi)
As setting up of the project shall take 2 -3 years
complete with plant and machinery for all recovery process, the lessee shall be
given a discount of 75% in the lease rent for the 1st 12 months, 50%
for the next 12 months and 25% for the next 12 months. Thus full lease rental
shall be chargeable from the 4th year of awarding the contract and
handing over required land parcel.
Sir, these are some of the
important issues that should be properly incorporated in the Tender document.
Government has a very competent legally enforceable tendering system and does
not need any advice.
Sir, as a CEO from commercial
arena I strongly feel the Ministry of Forest is a very important Ministry. It has
control on 1/4th of India. It should generate 1/4th GDP
for the country in various ways. What it is presently contributing to GDP is a mere 1.8%. I have opened up this issue in my earlier
letter No. PM Sir-2 dated 20 June 2019 too. The more I look in to Government
working the more I am convinced that if CEOs from commercial arena are inducted
in various Ministries and a Chief CEO as your National Assets Advisor then
country can hugely add to its income from National Assets which presently is projected to be a
megre 3.00 lakh crores in the current year. The country also needs to know financial value of all
assets and resources. I have developed a methodology for it and have offered it
to present to the Government on asking. Kindly look in to these very important
issues that shall help in achieving your
target of 5 Trln $ economy in next five years.
With most respectful regards,
Faithfully
Mr M.K. Agarwal
Retd. CEO
Twitter handle :
@Ramsewak
Mumbai, India
Blog address : /mynotestopmofindia.blogspot.com/
Annexure
A
Some Garbage Treatment Processes prevailing in India and
abroad
1.
Waste
recycling: Israeli business says it can turn garbage into plastic products
Ilan Ben Zion, The Associated
Press Published 10:11 a.m. ET March 22, 2018
KIBBUTZ ZEELIM, Israel — Hawks,
vultures and storks circle overhead as Christopher Sveen points at the heap of
refuse rotting in the desert heat. "This is the mine of the future,"
he beams.
Sveen is chief operations officer
at UBQ, an Israeli company that has patented a process to convert household
trash from landfills into reusable plastic. After five years of development,
the company is bringing its operations online, with hopes of revolutionizing
waste management worldwide and making landfills obsolete. It remains to be
seen, however, if the technology really works and is commercially viable.
UBQ operates a pilot plant and
research facility at Kibbutz Zeelim, on the edge of southern Israel's Negev
Desert, where it has developed its production line.
"We take something that is
not only not useful, but that creates a lot of damage to our planet, and we're
able to turn it into the things we use every day," said Albert Douer, a
member of the company's board. He said the UBQ's material can be used as a
substitute for conventional petrochemical plastics and wood, reducing oil
consumption and deforestation.
UBQ has raised $30 million from
private investors, including Douer, who is chief executive of Ajover Darnel
Group, an international plastics conglomerate.
Leading scientists serve on its
advisory board, including Nobel Prize chemist Roger Kornberg, Hebrew University
biochemist Oded Shoseyov and Connie Hedegaard, a former European Commissioner
for Climate Action.
In this Tuesday, March 13, 2018
photo, Jack Tato Bigio co-Founder and Chief Executive at UBQ, holds a recycled
plastic bucket next to a pile of dried and shredded garbage at the UBQ factory
in Kibbutz Zeelim. Israeli start-up UBQ says its innovative method to convert
garbage into plastics, five years in the making, will revolutionize waste
management worldwide and make landfills obsolete. (Photo: Ariel Schalit, AP)
The small Zeelim plant can
process one ton of municipal waste per hour, a relatively small amount that
would not meet the needs of even a midsize city. But UBQ says it is planning to
expand operations.
On a recent day, Chief Executive
Jack Bigio stood alongside bales of sorted trash hauled in from a local
landfill.
2.
Converting Garbage into Fuel
Waste Management, a
large waste company, gives technology for gasifying trash a boost.
Waste gasification, a process for
converting garbage into fuel and electricity without incinerating it, may be a
step closer to large-scale commercialization. Last week, Houston’s Waste
Management, a major garbage-collection and -disposal company, announced a joint
venture with InEnTec, a startup based in Richland, WA, to commercialize
InEnTec’s plasma-gasification technology.
Waste converter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
3.
A waste
converter is a machine used for the treatment and recycling of solid
and liquid refuse material. A converter is a self-contained system capable of
performing the following functions: pasteurization of organic waste;
sterilization of pathogenic or biohazard waste; grinding and pulverization of
refuse into unrecognizable output; trash compaction; dehydration. Because of
the wide variety of functions available on converters, this technology has
found application in diverse waste-producing industrial segments. Hospitals,
clinics, municipal waste facilities, farms, slaughterhouses, supermarkets,
ports, sea vessels, and airports are the primary beneficiaries of on-site waste
conversion.
The converter is an evolution of
the autoclave, invented by Sir Charles Chamberland in 1879, but differs from a
waste autoclave in several key characteristics. While the autoclave relies on
high temperature and pressure to achieve moist heat sterilization of waste, a
converter operates in the atmospheric pressure range. Superheating conditions
and steam generation are achieved by variable pressure control, which cycles
between ambient and negative pressure within the sterilization cell. The
advantage of this updated approach is a safer and less complicated operation
that does not require a pressure vessel. Additionally, while autoclaves require
external water input, modern converters utilize the moisture content already
present in the conversion cell to generate steam sterilization conditions. Any
water that is introduced into the process can be recycled in a closed-loop
system as opposed to being dumped as run-off sewage. In general, the converter
is a simplified, cleaner, and more efficient update to Sir Charles's invention.
Converter technology is an
environmentally friendly alternative to other traditional means of waste
disposal that include incineration, plasma arc, and landfill dumping in that
waste conversion results in a small carbon footprint, avoids polluting
emissions into the atmosphere, and results in a usable end product such as
biofuel, soil compost, or building material (see also Refuse-derived fuel).
4. "Why Clog
the Landfills When You Can Now Convert Organic Waste into Compost in Just 24
Hours!
by Aparna Menon
April 16, 2016, 3:45 pm
Bioneer is a revolutionary
machine that can create compost from organic waste in just 24 hours. An
innovation of Mumbai-based Excel Industries Private Limited, this product is in
the market now.
Everyday, our growing cities
generate more and more waste and this is overloading our municipal systems.
Governments as well as the common people have fortunately come to realize that
responsible and inclusive waste management is the only sustainable solution to
this mounting problem we face.
Excel Industries is an Indian
company involved in the manufacture of domestic chemicals. It was set up as an
agro-chemical manufacturing company in 1941. But it was only 20 years ago that
it stepped into waste management in a big way.
5. How Solapur converted garbage
into electricity
Maharashtra's
Solapur, where a waste-to-energy plant has daily generated 3 MW of eco-friendly
power for the last two years, boasts of this success.
This plant has
converted the dumped garbage into electricity, organic compost and plastics to
be used for paving roads.
For the past 40 years, India has
been trying to make electricity from
domestic waste. If countries in Europe have accomplished the feat, why can't
India? But even after subsidies and support from the government, most of the
experiments have failed, and for a very long time. All this while, Germany,
Sweden, Norway, Belgium and Netherlands have pushed far ahead and have put up
more than 420 waste-to-energy plants which are already supplying clean
electricity to their citizens. Recently, Sweden reduced its waste landfills to
such a level that it became insufficient for them to produce enough electricity
converted from waste. Surprisingly, city municipals are now squabbling over
their shares of waste.
Solapur Experiment
In India, there's one city for
sure that has tasted success in converting waste into energy without harming
the environment. Maharashtra's Solapur, where a waste-to-energy plant has daily
generated 3 MW of eco-friendly power for the last two years, boasts of this
success. Solapur has a population of 10 lakh and generates 5,000 tonne of
municipal waste daily. Earlier, this waste was dumped in a landfill along the
Pune-Hyderabad highway. This presented an ugly sight, and an unbearable stench
for the commuters. Now, the pile has disappeared and has been replaced by a
power plant of Organic Recycling System (ORS), a private firm that develops
clean electricity from waste.
Every day, the local municipal
corporation's trucks dump waste in the powerhouse. For the past three years,
this plant has converted the dumped garbage into electricity, organic compost
and plastics to be used for paving roads. ORS then sells this clean electricity
to the government at the prescribed rate of Rs 4-5 per unit. Three years mark
an important landmark because most of the country's waste-to-energy projects
have failed or were shut down within 4-6 months.
What's unique about Solapur
project
"Indian waste has a mixed
nature. That is, we don't segregate but put everything into same waste like
plastics, batteries, kitchen waste, and so on. Most of the failed projects
faced a challenge of segregating this waste for recyclable use. We have developed
a technology in accordance to India waste, which does a basic segregation and
can recycle the rest to generate power. The technology is more or less like our
digestive system," said Suhas Bhand, CMD of ORS and an engineer by
profession.
It has been proved that thermal
technologies have some limitations treating Indian Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
due to more moisture and less calorific value. Also, thermal technologies cause
more pollution than acceptable levels. Indian waste has high moisture content and
during the monsoon season it further goes up hindering thermal technologies.
ORS has indigenously developed a biomethanation
technology that can produce electricity from Indian waste and deployed
it successfully in the Solapur plant. The plant is then connected to
electricity grid completing the conversion process.
The emission levels during
recycling are almost nil thus making the technology environment-friendly. The
slurry left behind, after the generation of electricity through this process,
is used to make organic compost and sold to the fertilizer companies. The
plastic residue is sold to companies associated with the road industry.
Other cities keen to follow the
Solapur's footsteps
Besides the Solapur project, Pune
and Bengaluru have also approved the biomethanation technology to develop 7 MW
and 10 MW respectively. Work in these cities will start soon. Delhi also sees a
ray of hope with a company Jindal SAW starting to recycle waste to produce
electricity for the capital. Another recent effort to convert electricity from
waste, from a different technology, failed in Varanasi making it a good
prospect for biomethanation.
6.
Dutch
Incinerators Bv -
Dutch Incinerators BV is a
Western Europe based company providing turn-key solutions in thermal waste
processing, waste-to-energy solutions and related waste handling
infrastructure.
Main focus of Dutch Incinerators
BV is to provide rotary kiln incinerators for the treatment of hazardous
(chemical) and medical wastes with various waste-to-energy options.
Typical products are rotary kiln
based medical waste incinerators and hazardous chemical waste incinerators with
optional waste-to-energy technology.
7.
Putting Garbage to Good Use with
Waste-to-Energy
Over the
last four decades, we human beings have tripled our consumption of the earth’s
natural resources, said a recent report from the United Nations Environment
Programme. And according to the World Resources Institute “one half to three
quarters of annual resource inputs to industrial economies is returned to the
environment as wastes within just one year.”
Alt-Energy-logo-snip1
In 2013,
the U.S. produced 254 million tons of garbage, or municipal solid waste. About
87 million tons of this was either composted or recycled, 32.7 million tons
were burned for energy and 134.3 million tons went to landfills.
Municipal
solid waste consists of paper, cardboard, food, grass clippings, leaves, wood,
leather, plastics, metals and petroleum-based synthetic materials. No single
approach can handle all types of waste, so a “hierarchy of waste management” is
used to rank the strategies of dealing with waste according to their
environmental impacts. A key principle of sustainable waste management is to
try to deal with waste as high up on the waste hierarchy as possible.
The first
priority is to avoid producing
waste-to-energy should only be considered after waste reduction and
recyclingwaste by reducing consumption and packaging. The next best option is
to recycle; composting organic waste comes next. This is followed by combusting
the post-recycled waste for energy and then finally, landfilling.
The
number of U.S. landfills has decreased over the years, but the average size of
existing landfills has increased. Landfills can emit carbon dioxide, methane,
volatile organic compounds and other hazardous pollutants into the air. In the
U.S., they are the third largest contributor of methane emissions, whose global
warming potential is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide’s over 100 years.
Landfill gases can also move underground, potentially causing fires and
explosions, and the liquid or leachate that accumulates in landfills can
contaminate groundwater. Moreover, landfills are unsightly and odorous.
A
landfill in Danbury, CT Photo: United Nations Photo
A
landfill in Danbury, Conn. Photo: United Nations
Landfilling
solid waste brings with it the problems described above, and also means that all
the energy inherent in the waste is squandered. Burning the waste in
waste-to-energy plants not only reduces its volume by 87 percent, but can also
harness its embedded energy and put it to good use.
Plants
that burn waste to produce electricity were first constructed in the 1970s.
After the Clean Air Act came into effect, it became clear that the plants were
producing dangerous mercury and dioxin emissions; standards were established
that banned uncontrolled burning of waste and limited emissions of particulate
matter. During the 1990s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency established
the Maximum Achievable Control Technology regulations, which required
waste-to-energy facilities to install air pollution controls. In 2007, EPA
compared waste-to-energy emissions between 1990 and 2005; it found decreases of
24 percent in nitrogen oxide, 88 percent in sulfur dioxide, 99 percent in
dioxins and 96 percent in mercury.
In the
U.S., there are currently 77 waste-to-energy facilities in 22 states,
processing 95,023 tons of waste each day, capable of generating 20,800 gigawatt
hours of electricity a year. Europe has over 400 such plants, and another 300
are found in other parts of the world.
Most of
these plants are mass burn facilities. Waste is stored in large bunkers, then
transported to a moving grate in a furnace where it is burned at over 850˚C for
at least two seconds to ensure complete combustion. The heat from the furnace
heats water in a boiler, creating steam that turns a turbine to drive a generator
that makes electricity. The electricity then enters the grid. In Europe, some
plants combine electricity generation with a district heating system, using the
excess steam to create heat used to heat homes.
About 20
percent of what is left after burning is non-hazardous bottom ash; some of it
is used for cover at landfills to reduce leachate or is landfilled. In Europe,
it is often used in the construction industry or for road building.
The
burning of plastics like polyvinyl chloride produces toxic emissions, so the
boiler’s exhaust, flue gas, must be treated with filters, absorption,
scrubbing, and/or other equipment before it can be released into the
atmosphere. The flue gas contains fly ash consisting of particulate matter and
toxic chemicals. The fly ash is less than 5 percent of the waste entering the
plant; it can be treated, but needs to be disposed of as hazardous waste. In
fact, all the pollutants, even if filtered or trapped, need to be disposed of
in special landfills. The wastewater produced by the plant is treated then
released.
The Clean
Air Act sets standards for the emission of sulfur dioxide, hydrogen chloride,
nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, particulates, cadmium, lead, mercury and
dioxins. The federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act requires testing of
the leftover ash to ensure that it is not hazardous and is properly disposed of
or reused. State requirements are sometimes even more stringent than the
federal regulations.
…
P.S. The list is only an
indicative one. There is huge development in the world on the subject. An
exhaustive study should be made of all processes and projects available for the
purpose….”
-o0o-
Disclaimer:
The article has been compiled for the purpose of providing general knowledge
only. Viewers should make further
research on the subject for taking any decision which can have consequences. This information has been collected through
secondary research and publisher is not responsible for any errors in the same
Text is available under the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By
using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
Comments
Post a Comment