Ghazipur Landfill: Tackling Methane Emissions Through Waste-to-Energy Solutions
For a long time, the Ghazipur landfill in East Delhi served as an obvious reminder of India's problems with urban waste. It now receives thousands of tonnes of mixed waste every day and rises almost as high as famous monuments, making environmental concerns unavoidable. Among these issues, one of the biggest threats to the climate and public health is methane emissions from decomposing waste. Scalable Waste-to-Energy (WTE) systems present a viable way to reduce emissions, lessen the load on landfills, and move toward a circular, low-carbon waste ecosystem.
Methane: The Silent Hazard Beneath Ghazipur
Over a 100-year period, methane (CH?) is 28 times more potent than CO? as a greenhouse gas. When organic waste, such as food scraps, yard waste, paper, and textile residues, breaks down anaerobically that is, without oxygen landfills produce methane. Due to its enormous height and decades of careless dumping, Ghazipur has become a constant source of methane emissions, which has led to:
- A significant decline in East Delhi's air quality
- An increased risk of underground fires, a persistent problem at Ghazipur
- A higher chance of explosions and risks to worker safety
- Contribution to climate change over time
Why Methane Emissions Are Difficult to Control at Ghazipur
Several structural and systemic issues fuel methane formation:
- No engineered landfill cells with liners or leachate control
- High organic waste load entering the dumpsite daily
- Lack of daily cover, enabling deep anaerobic pockets
- Poor segregation at source, sending mixed waste directly to dumping
- Legacy waste layers stacked over 40 years, trapping methane inside
As methane accumulates and tries to escape through dense waste layers, it ignites easily leading to the frequent, dangerous fires widely reported in media.
Waste-to-Energy: A Critical Piece of the Solution
Waste-to-Energy has emerged as a workable, scalable solution for handling non-recyclable, high-calorific waste that would otherwise contribute to landfill load and methane formation, even as India continues to strengthen its recycling, composting, and segregation systems.
How WTE Reduces Methane Emissions
- Diverts mixed waste away from landfills, preventing anaerobic decomposition.
- Processes combustible waste (plastics, paper, textiles, laminates) into energy, reducing the volume of waste requiring dumping.
- Eliminates the methane-generating fraction, significantly lowering emissions.
- Supports biomining efforts, as legacy waste fractions like RDF can be sent to WTE plants instead of re-dumped.
The Ghazipur WTE Plant: Opportunities and Challenges
The non-recyclable refuse-derived fuel (RDF) produced from waste is intended to be processed at the current Ghazipur WTE facility. It can serve as the foundation of the methane mitigation strategy with strategic enhancements:
Opportunities
- A higher intake of RDF
- Better waste quality through integration with MRF
- co-processing of legacy waste during biomining
- production of renewable energy that contributes to Delhi's grid
- a decrease in landfill pressure that speeds up remediation
Challenges
- High moisture and mixed waste reduce calorific value
- Operational issues due to poor segregation at source
- Need for consistent feed quality for efficient combustion
- Public concerns around emissions and stack standards
With strict adherence to emission norms, continuous monitoring, and improved waste preprocessing, these challenges can be systematically addressed.
A Dual-Strategy Pathway: Biomining + WTE Integration
A sustainable solution for Ghazipur requires a two-pronged waste management approach:
- Accelerated Biomining of Legacy Waste
- Segregation of old waste piles
- Extraction of RDF for WTE use
- Recovery of recyclables
- Utilisation of bio-soil in land reclamation
- Safe disposal of inert fractions
- Strengthening Waste-to-Energy Operations
- Routing all high-calorific waste to WTE
- Ensuring controlled combustion with CPCB compliance
- Preventing new methane pockets from forming
- Reducing landfilling to only inert, scientifically managed residues
Together, these methods can reduce methane emissions by up to 70–80%, making Ghazipur safer, cleaner, and significantly smaller over time.
The Road Ahead: A Scientifically Managed, Low-Emission Delhi
For Delhi to transition from a landfill-dependent model to a circular waste economy, the following actions are critical:
- Mandatory and enforced waste segregation
- Strengthening MRFs and preprocessing units
- Integration of informal recyclers
- Enhanced capacity utilization of WTE plants
- Strict prohibition of unprocessed waste in landfills
- Adoption of methane capture systems wherever feasible
Ghazipur doesn't have to continue to represent poor waste management. It can become a model for landfill mitigation and climate-focused waste recovery with targeted biomining, scientifically run WTE infrastructure, and strict adherence to the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.
Reducing methane emissions is important for public safety as well as the environment.
Delhi can move toward a cleaner, healthier, and more resilient future by turning our waste into energy and getting rid of dumpsites that produce methane.
