The plant financing is the biggest challenge of building the projected WTE plant in
Montevideo. According to the financial analysis presented in this thesis, if the plant is
owned by the government, in order to maintain the current gate fee of US$16/ton, and
recover the capital investment over the payback period of 23 years, the cost of capital
would have to be lower than 1.8% if no carbon credits are issued, or lower than 4.3%
including revenues from carbon credits. These rates are lower than the 6% current yields
of Uruguay government 23-year bonds denominated in USD, trading in the international
markets.
If the cost of capital for the government is close to 6%, then, in order to be able to
recover the capital investment over the 23 years, the gate fee for the WTE plant must be
increased to at least US$25/ton or US$37/ton depending on whether carbon credits are
issued or not. The problem with increasing the gate fee, is that the portion corresponding
to MSW (91%) is subsidized by the government, and therefore, to increase the gate fee so
as to avoid losses in the WTE plant would require shifting the burden to other priorities
of the city and the nation. That is, the government would have to absorb those costs one
way or the other, unless it decides to start charging at least part of the gate fee to the
citizens; which could bring about a lot of public discontent, and potentially increase
illegal waste dumping. Another option for improving the economics of the plant would be
for the government to obtain a grant or a low rate loan from a multilateral organism such
as the IDB or IFC.
If the plant is privately owned, the cost of capital will most likely be higher than the
government’s cost of capital. This implies that in order for the plant to have revenues and
become an attractive investment for private entities, the gate fee will have to increase
even further, and /or subsidies or grants will be needed. The financial analysis showed
that, considering a cost of capital of at least 10% and without subsidies or grants, the gate
fee would have to be increased to at least US$50/ton; if the gate fee were to remain at the
current cost of landfilling (US$16/ton), the subsidy or grant needed would be at least
40% of the capital cost. The author believes that these scenarios are difficult to achieve,
and therefore, this project is unlikely to be feasible under private ownership.
Two alternatives for improving the economics of the plant are to improve MSW
collection and transportation in such a way that the current costs are reduced and such
reduction is transferred to the WTE plant; and to increase the amount of industrial waste
that enters the formal system, since the gate fee for these wastes is higher than the gate
fee for MSW.
It is also important to mention that in addition to financing, two other challenges must be
taken into account with regard to a WTE plant: Potential public opposition, and theexisting large population of “clasificadores” (scavengers). Public opposition is a
challenge that most countries face when introducing WTE for the first time, and also,
Montevideo has history of public opposition to incinerators. Therefore, introducing a
public education campaign during the earliest stages of the project is of outmost
importance.
The scavengers’ population is a problem because some of their discards do not reach the
formal waste management system (they are dumped in open fields or burned). Therefore,
Montevideo cannot fully advance in waste management without addressing this problem.
A first approach, which is actually already being considered, is to try to employ
clasificadores in materials recovery facilities.