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From trash to ash -- new incinerator ready to replace the dump

In February, a worker will strike a match and set Bermuda's garbage burning.After years of debate and planning, the $70 million Tynes Bay Incinerator will be tested and gradually put to work.

In February, a worker will strike a match and set Bermuda's garbage burning.

After years of debate and planning, the $70 million Tynes Bay Incinerator will be tested and gradually put to work. It is expected to be fully operating by June.

"Bermuda won't see anything as complex as this ever again,'' said Mr. Stanley Oliver, permanent secretary for the Ministry of Works and Engineering. For Government, the 900 Centigrade heat from the burning trash will end the Island's landfill problems while providing electricity for the Belco power grid.

But the incinerator also generates heat from those concerned about its environmental effects.

Independent MP Mr. Stuart Hayward has called on Government to ban incinerators, as Ontario recently did.

The National Trust is worried about emissions, particularly as they might affect the rainwater Bermudians drink, said Mr. Timothy Marshall, chairman of the Trust's environmental committee.

There were also concerns about keeping potential air toxins like batteries out of the waste stream, he said. Blocks made from incinerator ash and cement and used to reclaim land could pollute the sea. They could also accumulate more quickly than Government can use them.

"While we made these concerns known and made them known very forcefully, the fact of the matter is that the incinerator got approval,'' Mr. Marshall said.

"Now we are watching to see exactly how this incinerator performs in practice, to find out whether indeed we were right to voice the concerns that we did.'' Compared with landfill and problems the Pembroke Dump has caused, even Mr.

Marshall sees incineration as "the better of the two evils''.

While new to Bermuda, incineration is increasingly common around the world.

Von Roll Ltd. of Switzerland, the principal mechanical-electrical contractor at Tynes Bay, has built about 250 incinerators and has another 16 on the go.

How do they work? An incinerator is a major engineering feat, but the principles on which it operates are simple.

Trucks will arrive regularly at the Palmetto Road site in Devonshire, entering a building that looks like an airplane hangar and dumping residential and commercial waste into a large pit.

An overhead crane operated from a control room will then be used to lift the waste into hoppers from which the incinerator is fed.

Mr. Stephen Hunt, the engineer overseeing the project for the Ministry of Works and Engineering, said visitors were always surprised at the small size of the actual combustion chamber. A jail cell is larger.

Nevertheless, each of the two chambers can burn six tonnes of waste each hour.

Operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, just one of the two streams will usually be able to handle all of Bermuda's waste. Two were installed to handle peaks and so that one keeps working while the other shuts down for maintenance.

Garbage can be difficult to burn, and the Tynes Bay incinerator will use a patented, tilted grate, combined with plenty of air from a massive bellows, to keep the fire burning at a high temperature. The grate looks like a cast steel staircase. Using hydraulics, each stair is constantly moving, keeping the burning garbage tumbling around.

The ash falls down to a collection area while the smoke rises. The gases pass a boiler which extracts heat to produce 22 tonnes of steam per hour, which is then converted to electricity. Not only will the incinerator produce enough power to run itself, it is expected to send enough excess to Belco to provide one to two percent of the Island's needs.

Next, the gases enter a precipitator, where electrostatically charged plates are used to remove soot. By the time they reach the 200-foot stack, the emissions, which will be continuously monitored, should be clean, Mr. Hunt said.

"Unless there is any condensation, you won't see anything at all,'' rising from the plant.

Works and Engineering Minister the Hon. Ann Cartwright DeCouto, who until recently was Bermuda's Environment Minister, said she was "very pleased'' with the incinerator's progress, adding it was on schedule and within budget.

"It's an extraordinarily major project for a little island like Bermuda,'' she said.

Mr. Hunt said the uneven terrain of the site was one of the biggest challenges. The benefit was that aside from the stack, two-thirds of the 100-foot-high complex would be hidden from view, he said.

Of the $70 million budget, $55 million was for the construction contracts and the remainder for land acquisition and "a host of other things,'' Mr. Hunt said.

The workforce recently peaked at about 90. The main contractor along with Van Roll is civil engineer Pihl and Son of Denmark. Numerous sub-contractors from around the world are also involved.

Once completed, it would only take three operators to keep Tynes Bay running at any time, Mr. Hunt said. To cover the operation around the clock, the incinerator is expected to employ 27 people.

The Island's recycling programme was key to the incinerator's success, Mrs.

Cartwright DeCouto said. Though the incinerator was designed to safely handle a "worst-case scenario,'' residents and businesses would be relied on to separate things like batteries, waste oil, fluorescent tubes, and PVC plastic which should not be burned.

Participation in recycling was now at 50 to 55 percent, she said. While the goal was 100 percent, experience in other countries showed about 88 percent participation was the maximum achieved.

At the National Trust, Mr. Marshall said mandatory recycling should be considered "for our own good''.

"In terms of businesses, and perhaps even in terms of individuals, one of the things we might want to look at is legislation which actually carries fines if you put batteries or PVC material intentionally into the waste stream.'' Mrs. Cartwright DeCouto said such a law was premature. "The problem with making it mandatory is policing it,'' she said. "There is no point at this stage, when people are coming on board, of even thinking about making it mandatory.'' Once 88 percent participation was achieved, it could be considered.

INCINERATOR CONTROL -- Trucks that arrive at Tynes Bay will dump their loads into the huge pit shown here. An operator in the control room (behind window) will then use an overhead crane to send the waste to the fire.