We talk about midnight oil being burnt in the designing of an incinerator, uncompromising quality of the equipment, service provided, etc. and seem to take credit for a good piece of machine that has been made for handling different types, qualities and quantities of wastes.

The design engineers, the production team, the quality control and service teams do a good job in making a good piece of equipment but can they claim full credit for it?

Not really.

Who then takes the credit for the good incinerator made and who is the winner when using it?

Let`s us just take a step back and see what was the problem and what happened after a correct solution has been made.

Solid wastes, be they biomedical, municipal or hazardous, create problems of infection and health, spreading of disease, proliferation of vermin, bugs and bacteria; fire hazards when stored in the open and ground water contamination by leaching and discharge of heavy metals into the soil.

Liquid wastes certainly cause ground water contamination and make the soil unsuitable for farming.

What about gaseous wastes? They do extensive damage to air quality and the environment. We are talking here of high levels of VOCs, dust, CO and so on. Most Indian cities suffer from bad air quality, which is only getting worse due to increasing industrialization.  This creates further health issues and environmental degradation.

A well designed and operated incinerator with its air pollution control devices eliminates all these risks and problems and makes life comfortable for the present and future generations.

The credit should, however, go essentially to:

-        the organisation for its awareness of the environmental impact caused by their waste.

-        the teams of production/environment/procurement who took the final call and identified a quality incinerator which will solve their problem without causing any collateral damage

-        the operators who run the system ensuring compliance to the norms

These are the people who must be given major credit because they have chosen a quality incinerator and resolved their problems.

And who is the winner?

When a good incinerator is made and used, the real winner is the Environment! We are thus able to preserve the pristine quality of Mother Earth as we acquired it, by getting rid of unwanted materials properly and in the process not creating another problem!