Incinerating services at Egerton to boost environmental conservation

By Eric Sindabi
The department of Animal Sciences at Egerton University in Njoro has acquired an incinerating machine that is intended to boost the local environmental conservation and protection. Incinerators are machines that are used to dispose off solid waste that can be hazardous once exposed to the environment.
In many developed countries incinerating machines are used by Municipal councils and in factories to destroy solid waste by burning.
This machine can be able to burn and destroy carcasses, vet nary and biological waste and other related materials to sterilize ashes that are non-hazardous when discharged to the physical environment.
This comes however when the government is fast implementing the use of such machines in all urban centers in the country. Recently the minister for public health professor Anyang nyong directed that all municipal councils should acquire incinerating machines to curb environmental degradation that is caused by solid waste dumping in urban centers in the country.
The heavy duty machine at Egerton that is now in full operation has a capacity of high temperatures of over 1000 degrees centigrade. Sources at the Animal Science department hint that the machine will be used for academic applications at the varsity and will also extend its services to the local community by targeting carcasses from local farmers apart from the University’s farm department.

The source said that the incinerating machine will mitigate on the hazardous means of disposing carcasses by local farmers.
Large incinerators are mainly applied in reducing the volume of wastes in disposal fields while there are also smaller household refuse incinerators. These machines come in handy most communities where land fill space is scarce and where environmental protection measures ought to be upheld.
The Government of Kenya for example has directed the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) to ensure that tough measures are undertaken to implement the use of Incinerating machines.
The media had hitherto highlighted hazardous disposal of wastes and expired drugs by most Hospitals and equally harmful solid wastes by Municipal councils in the country.
While giving out the directive on use of incinerators professor Anyang nyong said that burning or disposing waste in the open was dangerous as these wastes go along way in polluting the environment and pose danger to people where water, soil and air get polluted.
The minister said that NEMA and Municipal councils waste management personnel should under take a thorough understanding of the ecology, water circle and the products of decomposing waste material and their impacts on the environment.
The Vice-chancellor of Egerton University Professor James Tuitoek during a recent environmental conservation day celebrations at the University said that the higher learning institution had made big prospects in sustainable environmental management. He urged other local stake holders to come up with similar projects that will enhance environmental protection.


Incinerating machines come in four major categories depending on the type of waste material targeted for destruction. These include machines that burn harmful chemicals produced as by-products of industrial processes, community waste incinerators, medical incinerators, and sewerage incinerators.
Large incinerators can heart waste to up to 2000 degrees centigrade that is hot enough to break down toxic organic chemicals into less harmful gases and water. The heart that is generated can be used as a by-product to heart buildings or generate power.
To control pollution caused by exhaust from incinerators, modern equipments contain scrubbers, devices that contain chemicals that remove acidic gases from the by-products.