The idea of making electricity by burning waste sparks big debate, even though it could help African cities.

In Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, piles of trash are everywhere.

Illegal dumpsites are full of plastic and other garbage that block waterways and end up on beaches.

This causes health dangers, floods, and problems for fishermen. Burning trash in the open also sends harmful gases into the air.

Meanwhile, electricity is a huge problem in Sierra Leone.

Only 21% of homes are connected to the power grid, and even those homes don’t have steady power.

The country’s hydro plants don’t make enough electricity in the dry season.

The government also struggles to pay for electricity from a floating power station run by the Turkish company Karpowership.

The company has even shut off power sometimes when payments were late.

So, with too much trash and not enough power, one answer seems clear: burn trash to make electricity.

Infrastructure company Infinitum Energy wants to do just that in Freetown.

They plan to build a 30 MW waste-to-energy plant this year. This plant would burn 365,000 tonnes of waste each year to create power.

“The big impact is going to be the reliability,” says Lindsay Nagle, Infinitum’s CEO.

Right now, people in Freetown are lucky to get a few hours of power each day.

“We’re adding 40% more electricity to the grid,” he tells African Business.

He explains that the plant will provide steady power, unlike solar panels that only work when the sun shines.

Infinitum hopes the plant will start working by late 2027.

But not everyone agrees that burning trash is the right choice for Africa.

So far, waste-to-energy projects on the continent have been slow to start.

Waste-to-energy plants are common in Europe.

In Sweden, 52% of waste is burned to make electricity and heat. Another 47% is recycled, and only 1% goes to landfills.

Africa’s first modern waste-to-energy plant opened in 2018 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Since then, other countries have been planning projects.

For example, in Lagos, Nigeria, the government signed a deal with the Dutch company Harvest Waste Consortium to build a 75 MW waste-to-energy plant.

The Lagos government also made an agreement with cement company Lafarge to use waste in one of their factories.

Nagle believes Africa is ready for this technology.

“We know waste-to-energy works,” he says. But he admits there are challenges.

In Freetown, only about 20-30% of waste is collected right now. The rest is dumped anywhere.

Infinitum plans to pay small amounts of money to people who collect waste.

Nagle hopes this will raise collection rates to 60% when the plant opens, and up to 80-90% within five years.

The electricity made from burning waste will be sold to the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority, the government’s power company.

They are still working out the agreement.

Nagle says there is a “monumental” chance to do this in other African cities that also struggle with waste and electricity problems.

“If I have my way, we are going to try and put two to three of these into development at various stages every year,” he says.

“It’s going to be a wash, rinse, repeat business model.”

Still, not everyone thinks this is a good idea.

“It is not efficient, it is expensive, it’s economically not feasible, it’s polluting,” says Weyinmi Okotie, a clean energy campaigner at non-profit group GAIA Africa.

He explains that waste-to-energy plants release a “cocktail of noxious substances into the environment.”

Okotie also says the technology wasn’t made for Africa.

Incinerators are built to burn dry waste, which is common in Europe.

But African waste is mostly organic material, which is hard to burn.

He points out that the Reppie plant in Addis Ababa has had many problems and doesn’t work as planned.

Local news recently reported that the city may have to pay compensation to Ethiopian Electric Power because they haven’t been able to deliver enough waste to the plant.

Okotie is most upset about claims that burning waste is good for the environment.

“That’s one of the biggest lies I’ve ever heard in my life,” he says.

“How can you say the burning of plastic, which is burning a fossil fuel, is a renewable source of energy?

That’s crazy.”

This argument is being debated around the world.

Supporters of waste-to-energy say that it keeps waste out of landfills and reduces methane gas, which is harmful to the climate.

Critics argue that there are better ways to manage organic waste and that burning plastics creates just as much carbon dioxide as burning coal.

Darron Johnson, regional head of Africa at Climate Fund Managers, an investment group helping to fund Infinitum’s project, says that emissions can be controlled.

“The Freetown project will implement circulating fluidised bed technology, which significantly reduces pollutant emissions compared to conventional incineration methods.

This technology is designed to comply fully with EU emissions standards,” he says. “Continuous emissions monitoring will be in place to guarantee adherence to these standards.”