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Heron Chan

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Samuel Sze

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Global warming is caused by an excess of greenhouse gases. Although greenhouse gases are natural, it over insulates the globe, causing an increase in temperatures all over the world.

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The greenhouse effect is a natural process where atmospheric gases trap heat - a phenomena that allows the Earth to retain enough solar heat to be livable. Without the greenhouse effect, the Earth would not support most forms of life.

How Does the Greenhouse Effect Work?

Although the process is complex, the greenhouse effect can be described fairly simply:

Sunlight passes through the atmosphere. Clouds, ice caps and other light-colored surfaces reflect some light back into space, but most of the incoming energy reaches the planet's surface. The Earth radiates heat back toward space. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb that heat, bouncing some back to the Earth's surface and releasing some into the atmosphere.

What are Greenhouse Gases?

Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other gases that accumulate in the atmosphere and create the heat-reflective layer that keeps the Earth at a livable temperature. These gases form the insulation that keeps the planet warm enough to support life.

Some of the most common - and worrisome - greenhouse gases are:

Carbon dioxide, which is emitted whenever coal, oil, natural gas and other carbon-rich fossil fuels are burned. Although carbon dioxide is not the most powerful greenhouse gas, it is the largest contributor to climate change because it is so common. In order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, we need to reduce the amount of fuel we use in our cars, homes, and lives.

Methane is caused by the decomposition of plant matter, and is released from landfills, swamps, rice paddies. Cattle also release methane. Although methane emissions are lower than carbon dioxide emissions, it is considered a major greenhouse gas because each methane molecule has 25 times the global warming potential of a carbon dioxide molecule.

Nitrous oxide is released from bacteria in soil. Modern agricultural practices - tilling and soil cultivation, livestock waste management, and the use of nitrogen-rich fertilizers - contribute significantly to nitrous oxide emissions. A single nitrous oxide molecule has 298 times the global warming potential of a carbon dioxide molecule.

Additional greenhouse gases include hydrofluorocarbons (1,430-14,800 time the global warming potential of carbon dioxide), sulfur hexafluoride (22,800 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide), and water vapor.

Learn more about "climate forcing" greenhouse gases.

If the Greenhouse Effect is Natural, Then What's the Problem with Greenhouse Gases?

Modern climate change is caused by an excess of greenhouse gases. This, in turn, over-insulates the planet. As a result, temperatures rise. Imagine wearing a winter parka in the tropics. The effect is similar - too much insulation causes the planet to overheat, which has already begun to change the climate. Learn more about the impacts of climate change.

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Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, and the Greenhouse Effect - Conservation in a Changing Climate

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The greenhouse effect is a natural process where atmospheric gases trap heat - a phenomena that allows the Earth to retain enough solar heat to be livable. Without the greenhouse effect, the Earth would not support most forms of life. Although the process is complex, the greenhouse effect can be described fairly simply: Sunlight passes through the atmosphere.

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Plastic is a polymatter material that is non biodegradable. Because of this, when people throw them in the trash bin, the plastic is no longer useful anymore. Therefore, it causes widespread pollution when people try to dispose it.

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The problem of plastics

Plastic is a polymeric material-that is, a material whose molecules are very large, often resembling long chains made up of a seemingly endless series of interconnected links. Natural polymers such as rubber and silk exist in abundance, but nature's "plastics" have not been implicated in environmental pollution, because they do not persist in the environment. Today, however, the average consumer comes into daily contact with all kinds of plastic materials that have been developed specifically to defeat natural decay processes-materials derived mainly from petroleum that can be molded, cast, spun, or applied as a coating. Since synthetic plastics are largely nonbiodegradable, they tend to persist in natural environments. Moreover, many lightweight single-use plastic products and packaging materials, which account for approximately 50 percent of all plastics produced, are not deposited in containers for subsequent removal to landfills, recycling centres, or incinerators. Instead, they are improperly disposed of at or near the location where they end their usefulness to the consumer. Dropped on the ground, thrown out of a car window, heaped onto an already full trash bin, or inadvertently carried off by a gust of wind, they immediately begin to pollute the environment. Indeed, landscapes littered by plastic packaging have become common in many parts of the world. (Illegal dumping of plastic and overflowing of containment structures also play a role.) Studies from around the world have not shown any particular country or demographic group to be most responsible, though population centres generate the most litter. The causes and effects of plastic pollution are truly worldwide.

According to the trade association PlasticsEurope, worldwide plastic production grew from some 1.5 million metric tons (about 1.7 million short tons) per year in 1950 to an estimated 275 million metric tons (about 303 million short tons) by 2010 and 359 million metric tons (nearly 396 million short tons) by 2018; between 4.8 million and 12.7 million metric tons (5.3 million and 14 million short tons) are discarded into the oceans annually by countries with ocean coastlines.

Compared with materials in common use in the first half of the 20th century, such as glass, paper, iron, and aluminum, plastics have a low recovery rate. That is, they are relatively inefficient to reuse as recycled scrap in the manufacturing process, because of significant processing difficulties such as a low melting point, which prevents contaminants from being driven off during heating and reprocessing. Most recycled plastics are subsidized below the cost of raw materials by various deposit schemes, or their recycling is simply mandated by government regulations. Recycling rates vary dramatically from country to country, and only northern European countries obtain rates greater than 50 percent. In any case, recycling does not really address plastic pollution, since recycled plastic is "properly" disposed of, whereas plastic pollution comes from improper disposal.

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Plastic pollution | Definition, Sources, Effects, Solutions, & Facts

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Plastic pollution, harmful accumulation of synthetic plastic products in the environment. Plastics are persistent large-scale pollutants, and plastic debris (such as bottles, straws, containers, and plastic wrap) and particulates have been found in many environmental niches, from Mount Everest to the bottom of the sea.

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Up to 100000 tons of plastic enters the ocean every year. As plastic cannot be disposed of naturally, it is mainly dumped into the ocean, recycled or incinerated.

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Hannah Ritchie and Veronika Samborska and Max Roser

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How much plastic ends up in the ocean? Where does it come from?

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Even though plastic is one of the most common materials in the world, it causes an astounding amount of pollution. They travel around the world but polluting the ocean and affecting marine life.

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The world’s plastic pollution crisis, explained

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Much of the planet is swimming in discarded plastic, which is harming animal and possibly human health. Can plastic pollution be cleaned up?

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bad condition of the water, polluted, unclean water can bring alot of harm to our human body

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Affect health, increase diseases for lungs and e.t

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Pollutants not only severely impact public health, but also the earth’s climate and ecosystems globally. Most policies to reduce air pollution offer a “win-win” strategy for both health and climate. Lower levels of air pollution result in better cardiovascular and respiratory health of populations i…

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Non biodegradable plastic stays in the ocean or land for decades and they won't decomposition

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The Harmful Effects Of Non-Biodegradable Products

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Our planet continues to edge closer to a state where it will become unliveable to any life form. Our activities are causing the slow death of our planet. Our lack of awareness and bad choices over non biodegradable products is polluting the earth and we need to change the trend.

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Non-degradable plastic can affect ecosystems by strangling or giving digestion problems to animals that consume them

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One of the side effects of technology advances is the inability of nature to decompose substances humans create. For example, polythene used in shopping bags is non-biodegradable -- it doesn't beak down naturally in landfills. Non-biodegradable waste can last for centuries and cause environmental problems that affect more than just the land.

TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read)

Non-biodegradable waste sits in landfills -- or as litter in forests, parks, rivers and streams. It also washes into seas and oceans, where it has devastating effects on marine wildlife.

When something is biodegradable, soil, air or moisture decompose it so that it becomes part of the land. Bacteria, fungi and other decomposers break down dead organisms in a natural process that keeps dead material from covering the planet. While most biodegradable substances consist of animal or plant material, humans can create products that decompose, such as egg cartons and paper bags. If a company produces biodegradable plastic, decomposers break down the plastic's complex organic molecules into simpler inorganic compounds. In May of 2014, Stanford University scientists and Mango Materials teamed up to develop a biodegradable plastic made from waste methane gas.

Non-biodegradable plastic containers in oceans and estuaries can harm fish, seabirds and other marine life. Animals that eat plastic can strangle or experience digestion problems. Microplastics, tiny bits of polypropylene or polyethylene, hide beneath the water and pose a risk as well. As of September 2014, Virginia Institute of Marine Science researchers were developing biodegradable microbeads that break down when microbes in seawater consume them.

The planet has a limited amount of land, and people waste it when they dispose of non-biodegradable materials. Products that do not decompose naturally may reside in landfills and take up space much longer than biodegradable materials. When people litter, some non-biodegradable trash may not even make it into landfills. Instead, it may make its way into forests, parks, fields, and the sea. Styrofoam, also known as foamed polystyrene, is a non-biodegradable substance that can cause environmental problems when it becomes litter. For instance, styrene, a neurotoxin at high doses, can leach out of polystyrene materials when temperatures climb.

While people, animals and the environment benefit from biodegradation, it may cause a few problems. Too much biodegradable waste in a water supply can deplete its oxygen. In addition, some types of biodegradable waste, such as cattle manure, can cause health and environmental concerns if too much is produced.

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What Are the Effects of Non-Biodegradable Waste?

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One of the side effects of technology advances is the inability of nature to decompose substances humans create. For example, polythene used in shopping bags is non-biodegradable -- it doesn't beak down naturally in landfills. Non-biodegradable waste can last for centuries and cause environmental problems that affect more than just the land.

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Effects of untreated sewage to human health and aquatic ecosystems

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Effects of untreated sewage to human health and aquatic ecosystems

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Untreated sewage provides risks towards human health due to waterborne pathogens, and it also destroys aquatic ecosystems

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Methane emission is estimated to be responsible for 30% of global warming, and it also brings chronic diseases and more than 1 million pollution-related deaths to humans every year

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Photo: Unsplash / Tuan Anh Tran

Can farmers help in the campaign to cut methane emissions?
Yes. They can provide animals with more nutritious feed so that they are larger, healthier and more productive, effectively producing more with less. Scientists are also experimenting with alternative types of feed to reduce the methane produced by cows and looking at ways to manage manure more efficiently by covering it, composting it, or using it to produce biogas.

When it comes to staple crops like paddy rice, experts recommend alternate wetting and drying approaches that could halve emissions. Rather than allowing the continuous flooding of fields, paddies could be irrigated and drained two to three times throughout the growing season, limiting methane production without impacting yield. That process would also require one-third less water, making it more economical.
Will reducing methane really help counter climate change?
Yes. Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for hundreds to thousands of years. This means that even if emissions were immediately and dramatically reduced it would not have an effect on the climate until later in the century. But it takes only about a decade for methane to break down. So, reducing methane emissions now would have an impact in the near term and is critical for helping keep the world on a path to 1.5°C.
How much methane can we really cut?
Human-caused methane emissions could be reduced by as much as 45 per cent within the decade. This would avert nearly 0.3°C of global warming by 2045, helping to limit global temperature rise to 1.5˚C and putting the planet on track to achieve the Paris Agreement targets. Every year, the subsequent reduction in ground-level ozone would also prevent 260,000 premature deaths, 775,000 asthma-related hospital visits, 73 billion hours of lost labour from extreme heat and 25 million tonnes of crop losses.

What is the United Nations doing to help limit methane emissions?

A lot. UN Secretary-General António Guterres will convene the UN Food Systems Summit in September 2021, which aims to help make farming and food production more environmentally friendly.

In the meantime, the UN's Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture initiative is supporting the transformation of agricultural and food systems, focusing on how to maintain productivity amid a changing climate. Representatives are also working to mainstream agriculture into the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and will hold discussions at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), later this year.

For more information about agriculture and clean air, contact Tiy Chung: tiy.chung@un.org
Every year, on 7 September, the world celebrates the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies. The day aims to raise awareness and facilitate actions to improve air quality. It is a global call to find new ways of doing things, to reduce the amount of air pollution we cause, and ensure that everyone, everywhere can enjoy their right to breathe clean air. The theme of the second annual International Day of Clear Air for blue skies, facilitated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is "Healthy Air, Healthy Planet."

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Methane emissions are driving climate change. Here's how to reduce them.

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This primer explores the causes of methane emissions and how the world can limit the release of this potent greenhouse gas.

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Carbon dioxide impacts smog, and smog delivers negative effects to one’s respiratory health

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​ Carbon dioxide​, also known as CO ₂, isn't what you might consider a traditional air pollutant. Though it plays a massive role in the greenhouse effect, carbon dioxide doesn't contribute to the classic smog that you might picture when you think of cities with heavy air pollution. However, research shows that the results of global climate change driven by carbon dioxide emissions could directly impact human respiratory health in a fashion similar to the more traditional forms of air pollution.

What Is Air Pollution?

You can classify ​ air pollution ​ as any pollutant released into the atmosphere that can adversely impact human health, the planet or both. Not only does carbon dioxide fall under the category of planet-wide implications, but it also directly impacts human health as well. Research has shown that temperature and humidity increases related to global climate change can increase annual air pollution deaths.

Carbon dioxide also indirectly impacts the more visible form of air pollution - smog. By increasing temperature and humidity, carbon dioxide emissions increase the formation of ​ smog ​, which has adverse effects on respiratory health. Through both direct and indirect fashions, carbon dioxide pollution impacts our planet and human health.

Where Does Carbon Dioxide Pollution Come From?

Carbon dioxide pollution, better known as CO ₂ emissions, primarily comes from the burning of fossil fuels. Two great examples of this are the consumption of gasoline in gas-powered vehicles and the production of electricity by power plants.

Researchers estimate that nearly 30% of greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation, while another 25% comes from the production of electricity, 23% from industrial production, 13% from commercial and residential sources and 10% from agriculture.

Carbon dioxide accounts for approximately three-quarters of global greenhouse gas emissions.

What Are the Problems With Carbon Dioxide?

The primary concern with carbon dioxide pollution is how it exacerbates the greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide and other pollutants, known as ​ greenhouse gases​, are released into the air due both to human activity and natural sources. These gases collect in the atmosphere and create an insulating effect around the planet - the ​ greenhouse effect ​. They let in the sun's rays, but when those rays bounce off the planet and back towards space, the greenhouse gases reflect them back to Earth.

This process increases the global temperature and results in a complex chain of events known as ​ global climate change ​. Global climate change leads not only to increased temperatures but also changes the overall weather patterns and climate of the planet.

Impacts of Global Climate Change

One of the most direct results of global climate change has been the rise in sea level. As the average global temperature rises, the polar ice caps melt. This melting raises the overall sea level and can cause flooding in coastal regions. It can also exacerbate the impacts of storms in coastal areas.

Global climate change also affects the formation and severity of major weather events such as hurricanes, causing them to form with greater regularity and higher power. Hurricanes build up over warm tropical seas, and increasing water temperatures help these storms become more powerful faster.

The changing sea temperature also impacts aquatic life beneath the surface. As oceanic temperatures increase, fish populations migrate to colder regions where waters better replicate their natural habitat. As fish stocks move towards the poles, fishermen must travel farther to catch food and support their local economy.

How to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Greenhouse gas emissions greatly impact human life. While a large portion of emissions come from large commercial industries, your family can make also make changes to reduce emissions as well, including:

Switching to sustainable power sources, such as electric cars and solar power.

Shopping locally and supporting companies with fewer emissions.

Making your home as energy efficient as possible, turning off lights and switching to energy-saving appliances.

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The Effects of Carbon Dioxide on Air Pollution

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​ Carbon dioxide​, also known as CO 2, isn't what you might consider a traditional air pollutant. Though it plays a massive role in the greenhouse effect, carbon dioxide doesn't contribute to the classic smog that you might picture when you think of cities with heavy air pollution.

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Excess fertilizers releases nutrients that helps the growth of microorganisms, and they consume dissolved oxygen in the water and it makes other aquatic species such as fishes suffocate and die

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When nutrients and other pollutants associated with animal manures and commercial fertilizers are not managed properly, they can affect plant and animal life (including humans) negatively. Some of these impacts include algae blooms causing the depletion of oxygen in surface waters, pathogens and nitrates in drinking water, and the emission of odors and gases into the air.

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Environmental Implications of Excess Fertilizer and Manure on Water Quality

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When nutrients and other pollutants associated with animal manures and commercial fertilizers are not managed properly, they can affect plant and animal life (including humans) negatively. Some of these impacts include algae blooms causing the depletion of oxygen in surface waters, pathogens and nitrates in drinking water, and the emission of odors and gases into the air.

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Untreated water that we don't know where they end up, can cause a lot of decease, they contain a lot of harmful substance that can do a lot of damage to our human bodies

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This water causes diarrhoeal diseases that kill 800 children every day, mostly in India, Afghanistan and Congo

To limit the spread of disease and reduce environmental pollution, human waste (excreta) needs to be safely contained and effectively treated. Yet 4.2 billion people, more than half of the world's population, lack access to safe sanitation.

In developing countries, each person produces, on average, six litres of toilet wastewater each day. Based on the number of people who don't have access to safe sanitation, that equates to nearly 14 billion litres of untreated faecally contaminated wastewater created each day. That's the same as 5,600 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

This untreated wastewater directly contributes to increased diarrhoeal diseases, such as cholera, typhoid fever and rotavirus. Diseases such as these are responsible for 297,000 deaths per year of children under five years old, or 800 children every day.

The highest rates of diarrhoea-attributable child deaths are experienced by the poorest communities in countries including Afghanistan, India, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Given the global scale of this problem, it's surprising sanitation practitioners still don't know where exactly all the human excreta flows or leaches to, due to absent or unreliable data.
Poor sanitation to worsen under climate change
Inadequate sanitation is not only a human health issue, it's also bad for the environment. An estimated 80 per cent of wastewater from developed and developing countries flows untreated into environments around the world.

If an excess of nutrients (such as nitrogen and phosphorous) are released into the environment from untreated wastewater, it can foul natural ecosystems and disrupt aquatic life.
Read more: Australia's pristine beaches have a poo problem
This is especially the case for coral reefs. Many of the worlds most diverse coral reefs are located in tropical developing countries.

And overwhelmingly, developing countries have very limited human excreta management, leading to large quantities of raw wastewater being released directly onto coral reefs. In countries with high populations such as Indonesia and the Philippines, this is particularly evident.

Shutterstock

The damage raw wastewater inflicts on corals is severe. Raw wastewater carries solids, endocrine disrupters (chemicals that interfere with hormones), inorganic nutrients, heavy metals and pathogens directly to corals. This stunts coral growth, causes more coral diseases and reduces their reproduction rates.

The challenges of climate change will exacerbate our sanitation crisis, as increased rain and flooding will inundate sanitation systems and cause them to overflow. Pacific Island nations are particularly vulnerable, because of the compounding impacts of rising sea levels and more frequent, extreme tropical cyclones.

Meanwhile, increased drought and severe water scarcity in other parts of the world will render some sanitation systems, such as sewer systems, inoperable. One example is the mismanagement of government-operated water supplies in Harare, Zimbabwe leading to the failure of the sewerage system and placing millions at risk of waterborne diseases.

Even in more developed countries like Australia, increased frequency of extreme weather events and disasters, including bushfires, will damage some sanitation infrastructure beyond repair.
Global targets to improve sanitation
Improving clean water and sanitation have clear global targets. Goal 6 of the United Nation's sustainable development goals is to, by 2030, achieve adequate and equitable sanitation for all and to halve the proportion of untreated wastewater.

Jacqueline Thomas, Author provided

Achieving this target will be difficult, given there is an absence of reliable data on the exact numbers of sanitation systems that are safely managed or not, particularly in developing countries.

Individual studies in countries such as Tanzania provide small amounts of information on whether some sanitation systems are safely managed. But these studies are not yet at the size needed to extrapolate to national scales.
Read more: When bushfires meet old septic tanks, a disease outbreak is only a matter of time So what's behind this lack of data?
A big reason behind the missing data is the large range of sanitation systems and their complex classifications.

For example, in developing countries, most people are serviced by on-site sanitation such as septic tanks (a concrete tank) or pit latrines (hole dug into the ground). But a lack of adherence to construction standards in nearly all developing countries, means most septic tanks are not built to standard and do not safely contain or treat faecal sludge.

Jacqueline Thomas, Author provided

A common example seen with septic tank construction is there are a lot of incentives to build "non-standard" septic tanks that are much cheaper. From my current research in rural Fiji, I've seen reduced tank sizes and the use of alternative materials (old plastic water tanks) to save space and money in material costs.

These don't allow for adequate containment or treatment. Instead, excreta can leach freely into the surrounding environment.

Jacqueline Thomas, Author provided

A standard septic tank is designed to be desludged periodically, where the settled solids at the bottom of the tanks are removed by large vacuum trucks and disposed of safely. So, having a non-standard septic tank is further incentivised as the lack of sealed chambers reduces the accumulation of sludge, delaying costly emptying fees.

Another key challenge with data collection is how to determine if the sanitation infrastructure if functioning correctly. Even if the original design was built to a quality standard, in many circumstances there are significant deficiencies in operational and maintenance activities that lead to the system not working properly.
Read more: Sewerage systems can't cope with more extreme weather
What's more, terminology is a constant point of confusion. Households - when surveyed for UN's Sustainable Development Goal data collection on sanitation - will say they do have a septic tank. But in reality, they're unaware they have a non-standard septic tank functioning as a leach-pit and not safely treating or containing their excreta.

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 6 requires nationally representative data sets. The following important questions must be answered, at national scales in developing countries:

for every toilet, where does the excreta go? Is it safely contained, treated on site, or transported for treatment?

if the excreta is not contained or treated properly after it leaves the toilet, then how far does it travel through the ground or waterways?

when excreta is removed from the pit or septic tank of a full on-site latrine, where is it taken? Is it dumped in the environment or safely treated?

are sewer systems intact and connected to functioning wastewater treatment plants that releases effluent (treated waste) of a safe quality?

Presently, the sanitation data collection tools the UN uses for its Sustainable Development Goals don't answer in full these critical questions. More robust surveys and sampling programs need to be designed, along with resource allocation for government sanitation departments for a more thorough data collection strategy.

And importantly, we need a co-ordinated investment in sustainable sanitation solutions from all stakeholders, especially governments, international organisations and the private sector. This is essential to both protect the health of our own species and all other living things.

Read more: Curious Kids: Where does my poo go when I flush the toilet? Does it go into the ocean?
Jacqueline Thomas, Lecturer in Environmental and Humanitarian Engineering, University of Sydney This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Untreated wastewater in developing countries: 14 billion a day and we don't know where it ends up

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This water causes diarrhoeal diseases that kill 800 children every day, mostly in India, Afghanistan and Congo To limit the spread of disease and reduce environmental pollution, human waste (excreta) needs to be safely contained and effectively treated. Yet 4.2 billion people, more than half of the world's population, lack access to safe sanitation.

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marcus poon

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Non biodegradable plastics affect ecosystems and pollute the ocean. They strangle marine animals and spread pathogens which harms biodiversity and ecosystems.

https://www.lendingkart.com/blog/non-biodegradable-waste/

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An average person's morning starts with a pouch of milk. He cuts it open, pours the milk into a cup and deposits the cover in the trash.

Someone peels the vegetables and throw the peels into the trash can.

We get the products we buy offline or online delivered to our home. Here too, the packaging is thrown into the trash can.

The instances given above are a few examples of the domestic waste we generate. There is also industrial waste. This accounts for a larger share of the wastes we produce every day.

The amount of waste we generate is the same as the amount of products we consume.

Every day, humans across the globe generate tons of waste. And it is now a threat that demands our immediate attention.

These enormous amounts of wastes are the result of the ever-increasing industrial domestic and business activities all over the world. Landfills and incineration emit greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane.

The US, for instance, generates more than 250 million tons of waste every year. In India, the same as 62000000 tons. This, according to experts, will increase to 150000000 tons by 2030.

What is the difference between non-biodegradable and bio-degradable waste?

Non-biodegradable wastes stay in the environment for a long time. They don't decompose naturally. And they cause havoc in the ecosystem. Plastic, battery, polybags, glass, bottles, etc. fall in this category. They, however, are convenient to use and are therefore preferred to their biodegradable alternatives.

Biodegradable waste doesn't cause any harm to the environment. They get decomposed by natural agents like fire, water, air, micro-organisms or soil, etc. Besides, these are beneficial to the environment in one way or the other. Wastes from plants and animals, dead animals and plants, vegetables, paper, food, etc. belong to this group.

Impact of non-biodegradable waste

Pollution due to plastic

Plastic is there in every nook and corner of the world. It is there in oceans, in forests, in the ice-covered arctic and even in remote islands.

We still don't know how long it will take for the oil-based plastic to degrade. But one thing is sure. If the plastic gets into the soil, cleaning up becomes a herculean task. The plastic bottles and other things that come up on the seashores form just a tip of the trashbag, as experts call it. Up to two-thirds of the plastic wastes, we dump into the ocean reach their depths. And they create a vast wasteland inside. The concerning thing is that these plastic degrade into small pieces and cause damage to the eco-systems.

Plastic lobby, however, has successfully lulled the world into a slumber in the matter. They make us believe that much of the plastic we produce get recycled. In reality, it is only less than 50% of the plastic that is getting recycled. The situation is much worse in developing countries. Even here, very little is turned back into packaging. The rest gets turned into something of lesser value. It implies that recycling too, to a great extent, just delays the process of the same getting into the landfills.

Combine it with the plastic being imported to foreign countries. Plastic pollution is a grave threat that demands concerted efforts to find a viable solution. The greater part of the plastic waste being produced is exported to the southern part of the world. For instance, China alone imported up to 8000000 tons of plastic every year. In 2018, the country banned it.

Plastic wastage is aggravating climate change. The emission of greenhouse gases from plastic containers adversely affects the world's ability to maintain global temperature.

Managing non-biodegradable waste in our country

The steps to manage biodegradable waste should begin from the time they get generated. It requires utmost care at every stage; collection, transportation and disposal. Each stage should have a separate process, different from that of non-hazardous and biodegradable wastes. In our country, the State Pollution Control Board is responsible for taking care of the same. The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Climate Change presides its activities in each State.
The country has taken the following measures to manage the non-biodegradable wastes generated here:

Every municipal corporation here has a special storage house in one of its wards to collect wastes for processing.

The authority hires rag pickers to separate them. Non-biodegradable wastes are then gathered for further treatment.

The corporation keeps different types of wastes in different colored baskets. This makes it easy for an average person to identify the same.

The corporation uses different vehicles to handle different types of wastes. They are covered so as to avoid spillage.

The authority also offers other ways to dispose of non-degradable wastes using scientific methods.

Biodegradable plastics

Biodegradable plastic is the type of plastic that gets decomposed by natural agents like microorganisms in certain conditions. The uniform standards maintained across the globe here help boost consumer confidence. It will also have a compostable logo.

Materials used

Biodegradable plastic can be used in different ways. It can be used to pack food. It can also be used in machines. One can also use different fillers for the purpose. Clay, paper and flowers are just a few to mention.

Managing polymer waste

Polymer waste can be disposed of through the process called pyrolysis. Here, the waste is heated up to 400-600°C in the presence of a catalyst. A volatile substance comes out of the process. This can be condensed to produce pyrolysis oil. We can use this oil after the process of purification to heat anything. This way, polymer becomes sustainable.

Construction waste management

Wastes that are generated through construction and demolition require separate handling. They are collected at designated facilities. And they are reused for projects meant to boost infrastructure.

Sustainable waste management mechanism

Dumping wastes into landfills are sure to cause wastage of land. It can be taken care of a process known as plasma arc gasification. This is an eco-friendly mechanism and will reduce solid waste up to 95%.

The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research has developed a new technology to manage waste. It features an automated waste segregation mechanism. It separates wastes in accordance with assigned categories. Municipal authorities nowadays visit factories and similar establishments and encourage scientific disposal of waste.

Non-Biodegradable Waste FAQs:

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Non-Biodegradable Waste: A Threat That Demands Immediate Attention

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An average person's morning starts with a pouch of milk. He cuts it open, pours the milk into a cup and deposits the cover in the trash. Someone peels the vegetables and throw the peels into the trash can. We get the products we buy offline or online delivered to our home.

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Methane is more efficient in trapping heat, and is responsible for at least 30% of global emissions. Methane also creates a risk of chronic diseases like breathing problems, asphyxia, etc. Methane is released by the breakdown of organic compounds and is a crucial factor in global warming.

https://www.edf.org/climate/methane-crucial-opportunity-climate-fight#:~:text=Methane%20has%20more%20than%2080,by%20methane%20from%20human%20actions

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Methane: A crucial opportunity in the climate fight

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At least 25% of today’s global warming is driven by methane from human actions. Here’s how we can strive to cut methane emissions.

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Hundreds of thousands of tons of plastic enters the world's oceans every year, many of which are not biodegradable, and will usually stay there for hundreds of years or incinerated. Every year, plastic accumulates and has formed a large patch of plastic larger than Texas in the Pacific Ocean

https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution

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Hannah Ritchie and Veronika Samborska and Max Roser

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How much plastic ends up in the ocean? Where does it come from?

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Untreated sewage is a global issue that risks not only human health but also endangers marine ecosystems and biodiversity. This is due to lots of pathogens and harmful toxins that untreated sewage contains.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320721000628

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Microplastics are plastics the size of planktonic organisms, and have severe consequences. Microplastics in lakes and seawater cause concerns over harbouring parasites which can harm ecosystems and human health.

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/microplastics-in-seawater-may-harbor-parasites-69950

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Tiny pieces of plastic can ferry around fecal pathogens in saltwater, researchers report today (April 26) in Scientific Reports, suggesting that plastic pollution may play a role in the marine transmission of terrestrial parasites. The findings point to a novel potential danger of microplastics, whose effects have proven difficult to assess.

"The intersection of microplastics and three serious [parasites] in seawater should raise red flags for everyone from beachgoers to wildlife conservationists," University of Hawai'i marine mammal physiological ecologist Mary Donahue, who wasn't involved in the work, tells New Scientist.

Experts have long expressed concern about the rising abundance of plastics in the environment. Iconic images of sea creatures wrapped in soda can rings or with straws protruding from their nostrils have sounded the alarm on macroplastics, but even more prevalent are microplastics-the tiny pieces less than 5 mm in diameter that result from the breakdown of larger chunks or are shed from synthetic fabrics-the health effects of which remain unclear.

The new study experimentally combined three feces-vectored pathogens ( Toxoplasma gondii, Cryptosporidium parvum, and Giardia enterica) with two kinds of microplastics (microbeads and microfibers) in seawater to determine if the disease-causing agents could stick to and live on the particles. They did, leading to orders of magnitude higher concentrations of pathogens per gram of plastic than per milliliter (roughly a gram) of the surrounding seawater.

As microplastics have been found in seafood species, the authors suggest that microplastics may be a previously unknown way for pathogens to get inside marine species, where they can cause illnesses in the animals themselves or in humans that consume them. Indeed, the researchers write that they chose the three pathogen species used in their study because the World Health Organization identified them as underestimated causes of illness from shellfish consumption in 2010.

"It's easy for people to dismiss plastic problems as something that doesn't matter for them, like, 'I'm not a turtle in the ocean; I won't choke on this thing,'" says Karen Shapiro, a University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine infectious disease researcher and coauthor on the paper, in a press release. "But once you start talking about disease and health, there's more power to implement change. Microplastics can actually move germs around, and these germs end up in our water and our food."

New Scientist reports that the researchers now seek to determine if these pathogen-coated plastics can make it across oceans and remain infectious.

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Microplastics in Seawater May Harbor Parasites

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Tiny pieces of plastic can ferry around fecal pathogens in saltwater, researchers report today (April 26) in Scientific Reports , suggesting that plastic pollution may play a role in the marine transmission of terrestrial parasites. The findings point to a novel potential danger of microplastics, whose effects have proven difficult to assess.