Waste incineration to be privatised in five years' time
BY 2005, waste incineration will be handled by private companies.
This will make it more efficient than having them handled by a monopoly. Domestic waste collection has already gone private.
All incineration is now handled by the Ministry of the Environment, which runs plants at Senoko, Ulu Pandan, Tuas and Tuas South. In five years’ time, the Tuas and Tuas South plants — 70 per cent of the current incineration capacity — will be privatised.
The Acting Minister for the Environment, Mr Lim Swee Say, said this yesterday when he opened Singapore’s fourth incineration plant in Tuas South.
Next to this new plant —said to be the world’s largest— a fifth is due to be built and operated by the private sector. It is scheduled to be completed in 2006.
Mr lim said that the Ulu Pandan Incineration Plant will be closed when this fifth plant is open. ‘Ihe Senoko plant will be corporatised and run by the ENV.
But once the waste incineration business is liberalised and going smoothly, the ministry will also let Senoko go to private hands and concentrate on its role as an industry regulator.
These moves are in sync with Singapore’s move to privatise more of the public sector. Plans to privatise the Jurong Town Corporation and the National Science and Technology Board eventually have already been announced.
Explaining why competition was needed in the waste business, he said: "We believe that by subjecting the industry to competition, we can bring out the best in the operators as they compete and innovate for greater operational efficiency."
Competition will also ensure that disposal fees are competitive and that they show the true cost of disposal, he said.
Disposal is now subsidised, but this is being cut back. Dumping fees will rise by$10 a tonne every year until the rate reaches 887 a tonne in 2002.
The only aspect not being privatised will be landfill. This is because there is so little land that there is no room for market competition in landfill ownership.
According to general manager Poh Soon Hoong, the $900 million plant can burn some 3,000 tonnes of refuse a day — twice as much as the other plants. It uses the latest technology, including a digital-control system that allows more incineration equipment to be operated at the same time, and one operator to handle three incinerators.
It uses rotary bulky waste crushers that deal with bulky refuse, so that it can be burnt more easily.
Boilers have to shut down less often for maintenance because the silicon-carbide tiles in the furnace have a longer lifespan.
The plant can generate 80 megawatts of electricity per hour — three times as much as the other plants.
It makes use of rainwater and treats its own industrial water. So it saves on some 194,000-cu m of potable water a year, said the plant’s general manager.
But making waste disposal more efficient isn’t enough, said Mr Lim.
"As a city state, there is a limit to our long-term capacity in waste disposal. We must do our best to minimise the generation of waste and maximise the reduction, reuse and recycling of waste."
-By Eunice Lau
Source : The Straits Times, Nov 26, 2000
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