Burning waste, warming cities: New report links waste-to-energy plants to urban heat crisis in Delhi

By A Representative

A new report released by The People’s Alliance for Waste Accountability (PAWA) has raised alarm over a largely ignored consequence of Delhi’s waste management strategy: the role of Waste-to-Energy (WTE) incineration plants in intensifying urban heat and related health crises. Titled “Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi: Burning Waste, Warming Cities?”, the report presents damning evidence linking the city's WTE incinerators to the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect and broader environmental degradation.

According to the report, Delhi’s four WTE facilities—located in Okhla, Bawana, Ghazipur, and Tehkhand—burn over 7,250 tons of unsegregated municipal solid waste daily, releasing massive amounts of thermal and chemical pollutants. These emissions, which include greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, are significantly raising localized temperatures, especially around the plants, turning nearby communities into what residents describe as “gas chambers” and “heat prisons.” The report highlights that WTE plants use dry-cooling systems, unlike conventional coal or oil-fired power plants, leading to unusually high levels of sensible heat release into the surrounding environment.

Among the technical findings, the report estimates that Delhi’s WTE plants emit 398 million cubic meters of flue gas daily at approximately 200°C. This is in addition to heat from auxiliary equipment, waste storage pits, and other infrastructure. The plants are also estimated to release 12,325 tons of CO₂ each day—equivalent to the daily emissions from over 3 million passenger cars.

Despite these alarming figures, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is moving ahead with plans to nearly double the city’s incineration capacity by 2027. This expansion flies in the face of the government’s own data, which indicates that only 10% of Delhi’s waste is truly non-recyclable.

Activists and experts cited in the report are calling for an urgent policy shift. Virender Kumar of the Wastepickers Welfare Association warned that these facilities are worsening health conditions for already vulnerable communities. Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran from the Centre for Financial Accountability noted that WTE plants generate more heat per unit of electricity than traditional thermal power stations, citing studies by IIT-Delhi on the Badarpur thermal plant's UHI impact. Farzana, a former waste picker who now lives near the Ghazipur WTE plant, spoke from personal experience, saying, “All of the plastics that we used to collect from the dumpyard is now burnt in the WTE, and of course it will increase heat near the plant.”

The report offers several urgent recommendations, including halting the expansion of WTE facilities, mandating independent assessments of their thermal and pollution impacts, and integrating heat emissions into Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs). It also advocates for a transition toward decentralized, community-based alternatives like composting and bio-methanation and for recognizing WTE sites as heat hotspots requiring mitigation.

“WTE facilities aggravate the crisis by releasing not only chemical pollutants but also substantial thermal emissions, an aspect grossly overlooked in current regulatory frameworks. Delhi’s fight against intensifying heat cannot succeed without confronting the thermal injustice embedded in its waste infrastructure,” said Bhavreen Kandhari of Warrior Moms.

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