Understanding the Environmental Impact of Landfills vs. Incineration

Every second, India generates enough waste to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool. As the battle between landfills and incineration rages on, the real question isn’t which is better – it’s how we can go past both. In this deep dive, we will together explore why these traditional methods are failing our societies, what numbers tell us, and why innovative solutions like those in Indore (with 100% waste segregation) are showing us a different path to the future.

The Great Indian Waste Management Challenge : 

India generates approximately 26,000 tons of plastic waste daily, but only about 8% is recycled.

During the financial year 2024, the country disposed of more than 78% of its total waste, a significant increase from less than 20% in 2016. India’s waste management landscape has witnessed dramatic improvements in recent years. 

Despite this, there are still challenges that have been identified, particularly in plastic waste. 

The waste administration area in India is prepared for a leap forward. Forecasts uncover that the market, at USD 12.90 billion of every 2024, is supposed to extend at a build yearly development rate (CAGR) of 6.10%, arriving at USD 17.30 billion by 2029.

This developing tendency indicates the increasing interest for strong waste administration arrangements due to factors such as rapid urbanization, increased consciousness of natural issues, and huge interests in squander the board foundation.

There are basically two large groups for the disposal of solid wastes for India: land filling and incineration or burning, which have different impacts on environment, air quality, energy demand, and recycling. Let’s see how they work, good and bad, and new options to reduce wastes and the impact thereon in the environment.

  1. Landfills: The Traditional Way
The Great Indian Waste Management Challenge

Landfills are perhaps the most commonly used methods of waste disposal which exist in India as well as everywhere else in this world. The waste is simply buried underneath the ground in landfills sometimes in layers such that it doesn’t allow the waste to ruin other areas. Landfills may seem like the easiest option but they do raise some of the very serious environmental issues:

  • Greenhouse Gas Emissions: For example, the organic waste from nature in a landfill decomposes in an anaerobic process, giving out methane gas which is very harmful to the environment as a type of greenhouse gas. Methane is over 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, hence very problematic.
  • Land and water pollution: Harmful pollutants can leach out of landfills into the soil and water that surrounds these sites and cause harm to our groundwater as well as ecosystems. These can be consumed by heavy metals, chemicals, and microplastics, which at times are harmful to the wildlife and humans.
  • Little elbow room to play: Already rife with some of the world’s highest population densities, and with soil degradation caused by the overuse of water-intensive rice and sugarcane cultivation, there just may not be enough land left for future generations.

Landfill Area: Estimated using landfill density metrics and waste disposal trends.

Year Population (Billion) Waste Generated (Million Tons/Year) Estimated Landfill Area (Sq. Km)

2000 1.05 42.5 10.2

2005 1.17 51.6 12.5

2010 1.24 64.7 15.6

2015 1.31 81.3 19.5

2020 1.38 100.0 24.0

2024 1.43 120.6 28.5

  1. Incineration: Burning Waste for Energy
Understanding the Environmental Impact of Landfills

Incineration or burning waste is also possible, more so in congested cities where land is scarce. In incineration, high temperatures are used to burn waste, which turns into ash, gas, and heat. The heat can then be used to generate electricity, thus transforming waste into an energy source. However, incineration also has its environmental cost:

  • Air Pollution: although incineration reduces waste in the landfills, it means that huge quantities of carbon dioxide and other pollutants end up in the atmosphere. Burning plastic, for instance, forms similar emissions of those from coal or gas plants.
  • Toxic Substances: Incineration also emits such toxic chemicals as dioxins, mercury, and nitrogen oxides, which may eventually have impacts on human health. Frequently the plants are located near low-income communities, which again impacts the weakest communities most.
  • Loss of Resources: Unlike landfills, where we could, at least theoretically, recover the materials, incineration permanently destroys any items which might otherwise have been recycled or reutilized.

For instance, the waste-to-energy plants try to reconcile the environmental costs of burning waste with having space-efficient solutions in a city like Pune or Hyderabad. Some local power demands are met from incinerated waste, though there is air pollution apart from incineration.

  1. Comparing Environmental Impacts

Both landfills and incineration have negative impacts on the environment, but usually, the best one is chosen based on the type of waste, land availability, and pollution concerns.

Landfill Advantages

  • Less expensive and more straightforward technology
  • Suits best to low-density, non-urban areas
  • Can capture methane generation through biogas

Landfill Disadvantages

  • Produces greenhouse gas
  • Effects long-term contamination in soil and water
  • Uses a lot of space

Incineration Advantages

  • Reduces volume, highly
  • Generates energy
  • Suits best for high-density urban areas

Incineration Disadvantages

  • Highly emits toxic pollution
  • Local air pollutants
  • Has very high upfront costs

Environmental expert Tatiana Luján from ClientEarth reveals that incineration is not an option, as this does not fit well into the sustainable solution because, although it seems like a quick fix at the beginning, the real issue is that it is actually based on unsustainable emissions and reduction in resources. They instead advocate for waste reduction and recycling and composting.

  1. Cost Comparison:  Landfill vs Incineration vs Zero-waste approaches

Landfill:

  1. Annual Energy Production: 74.5 GWh.
  2. Cost: $3.8 million per year, with a Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of $0.05/kWh.
  3. Emissions: Total of 77.98 kg CO₂ equivalent per ton of waste​.

Incineration:

  1. Annual Energy Production: 271.2 GWh.
  2. Cost: $33.9 million annually, with an LCOE of $0.13/kWh.
  3. Emissions: Total of 856.48 kg CO₂ equivalent per ton of waste​.

Zero-Waste Approach:

  1. Cost: Variable but lower long-term costs due to reduced waste generation and material reuse.
  2. Emissions: Minimal when processes are optimized, but implementation and awareness challenges exist.

5. Emerging Alternatives and Solutions

With both the problems of landfills and incineration, some Indian cities and companies have approached innovative means of waste management solutions, remaining as less dependent on old methods as possible:

  • Composting and Biogas Production: As the fact is that organic waste constitutes nearly half of the total waste of India, this can either be composted or converted into biogas. Such cities are Indore and Mysuru, whereby they enhance their facility for composting, which afterward translates the organic waste into fertilizers, hence generating surplus income.
  • Recycling and the Circular Economy: The circular economy approach, focused on reuse rather than waste, somehow is gaining currency. Companies in the business of waste management, such as ScrapEco, are called for recycling, essentially of e-waste, carrying valuable metals that can be retrieved.
  • Source segregation of waste: Waste segmentation from the source at the site is important. Household segregation in cities like Pune and Bangalore provokes households to separate organic and recyclable materials, hence it becomes easier to recycle or compost them.

6. The Role of Policy and Legislation

Over the last few years, there has been a change in India’s waste management policies that focuses on sustainability:

  • Swachh Bharat Mission: The government genuinely initiated a campaign in the year 2014. Cleanliness, waste segregation, and recycling are focused on.
  • Extended Producer Responsibility: Companies have to take responsibility for how the products they have produced would be disposed of at the end of their life cycle, especially electronics and plastics.
  • Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2022: These have recently been issued as a measure to minimize plastic waste through strict regulations on the usage of single-use plastics by encouraging recycling.

Despite all these policies, the implementation at times becomes challenging and especially in the rural and semi-urban regions which have meager resources.

7. Expert Insights :

Ravi Agarwal, founder of Toxics Link, emphasizes the importance of “preventing waste in the first place,” advocating for a reduction-first approach before considering disposal options.

Sunita Narain, an Indian environmentalist, believes that “the priority should be waste reduction and recycling” instead of quick fixes like incineration.

Her 3-Point Framework suggests:

  • Prevention First: Reducing waste at the source is cost-effective, cutting waste management expenses by â‚ą2,000 per tonne. This strategy prioritizes minimizing waste generation through better consumption patterns and effective segregation at the household level.
  • Community Integration: Empowering local communities, especially rag pickers, transforms them into entrepreneurs. Their integration into waste management systems enhances recycling rates, provides livelihoods, and creates a circular economy driven by grassroots efforts.
  • Technology Integration: Implementing smart waste monitoring systems leads to a 40% improvement in efficiency. These systems enable real-time tracking, better logistics, and data-driven decision-making, reducing waste management costs and environmental impacts.

8. The Road to Sustainable Waste Management in India

The road ahead for turning waste into worth is full of potential for cities, businesses, and citizens to come together to drive meaningful change.

For Cities:

  • Implement AI-powered waste segregation (15% cost reduction)
  • Develop hybrid solutions combining composting and recycling
  • Create waste-to-resource mapping systems

For Businesses:

  • Invest in circular economy initiatives (40% ROI potential)
  • Partner with waste-tech startups
  • Develop closed-loop supply chains

For Citizens:

  • Adopt zero-waste practices
  • Support local recycling initiatives
  • Demand corporate responsibility

Together, these efforts from cities, businesses, and individuals will transform waste into a resource that benefits everybody in creating a circular economy.

Conclusion: 

The problem with both landfills and incineration is that they bear environmental costs, so neither of them can be a perfect solution to India’s waste problem. Instead, it would be through some combination of waste reduction, recycling, composting, and biogas production. This would reduce the environmental impacts of cities and create new economic opportunities in the field of waste management. Let the way of thinking be altered—it is not waste to be trashed but is itself a resource that will change the approach forever.

Related Articles