Questions over waste from YCDC electricity project

A plan to turn Yangon’s trash into electricity has hit a snag, with Yangon City Development Committee still unsure how to manage the potentially dangerous residual ash from two planned incinerators.

YCDC invited proposals from companies interested in generating electricity from municipal waste in 2012. South Korean company Chasson International won the tender for methane extraction, while local firm Zeya & Associates received the contract for garbage incineration.

Under the latter project, Zeya & Associates will build two incinerators at Dawai Chaung in Yangon’s North Dagon township and generate electricity by burning 600 tonnes of rubbish a day. The process will leave behind about 10 percent of that figure, or about 60 tonnes a day, as residual ash.

While the contract has already been signed and the plant is expected to begin operations in October, no instructions have been given for managing the waste product.

“Yangon City Development Committee will instruct us how we have to manage that issue,” said U Pyi Sone Aung, the assistant managing director of Zeya & Associates.

The assistant chief of the committee’s Environment Protection and Cleaning Department, U Aung Myant Maw, said the committee is “still planning” how to manage the leftover ash.

“Ash from organic trash is safe but that of heavy metals is dangerous,” said U Aung Myant Maw, who is also the department’s chief engineer.

source: The Myanmar Times