Pollution-free garbage facility hits snag

Pollution-free garbage facility hits snag

A pilot project for a clean-air waste-to-energy garbage disposal facility is being held up by a delay in getting land-use approval from the Treasury Department.

Firemen keep watch over the blaze at the old Ban Pom landfill of Ayutthaya province in May 2014. (Photo by Sunthorn Pongpao)

Interior permanent secretary Wiboon Sanguanpong said that all elements of the project were ready to go, including staffing and finance, but they were still awaiting approval from the director-general of the Treasury Department for construction to begin.

Mr Wiboon said the pilot waste-to-energy project was planned on a 400-rai block of land (640,000 square metres) in Mahaphram sub-district of Bang Ban district in Ayutthaya province. The land is under the jurisdiction of the Treasury Department.

The pollution-free project is planned to replace the Ban Pom landfill in Ban Pom sub-district of Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya district. The old landfill covers an area of about 30 rai (48,000 square metres). It has been in use since 1987 and caught fire in May this year.

The Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning designed the 375-million-baht project -- that includes a landfill and a pollution-free incinerator, with the heat from the furnace being used to generate electricity.

It is a pilot waste-to-energy project, the first in the country, Mr Wiboon said. If the  director-general of the Treasury Department does not approve the land use within the next week he would report the obstruction of the project to the government.

It is planned that garbage from the old Ban Pom landfill will be trucked to the new facility over six months and the old dump will then be turned into a public park.

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