So You Want to Know About the Environment

by Bijal Vachharajani

  Have you ever bought a book or toy from a website? How was it packed? A friend got a slim picture book inside a giant box of 15x15 inches along with tons of bubble wrap. Such a waste of bubble wrap, given it could have come in a simple envelope.

  A lot of packaging is necessary to keep things from spoiling. But increasingly, a lot of packaging is unnecessary and wasteful. When shopping, reconsider products that have too much packaging or are ‘disposable’. In fact, you will see that when you go to an open vegetable market, you will have less plastic than a supermarket. Most of those retail stores insist on wrapping each piece of vegetable you buy in plastic to be able to tag the produce with a price.

  Reconsider your choices. Instead of a plastic or thermocol plate, get one that’s made out of dried leaves. Or use a real plate and wash it.

  So basically, Reconsider. Or Refuse to buy things that are wasteful.

  The cleanest country award goes to… Iceland.

  A close second is Sweden which recycles 47 per cent of its waste and 52 per cent is used to generate heat in some 950,000 houses. Less than 1 per cent garbage ends up in the landfill. In fact, they are so good at recycling that they are considering importing waste from other countries for their energy requirements. Talk about zero waste.

  EEEE-WASTE

  Pop question:

  What does Wall-E in Wall-E (the Disney Pixar film) stand for?

  Answer: As Google must have told you by now, it’s an acronym for Waste Allocation Load Lifter—Earth Class.

  Wall-E is a trash-compacting robot who lives in an Earth full of garbage and trash. The film makes you think about how greedy human beings can be by just consuming more than they need.

  There are plenty of people today who have a very puzzling habit. They buy a smartphone, a tablet, an e-reader, a computer or a TV, and love it.

  Then a new smartphone, tablet, e-reader, computer or TV model hits the market.

  These weird people then chuck their perfectly good smartphone, tablet, e-reader, computer or TV model and buy the new version.

  Ctrl+Repeat Maximus Stupidous Behaviour.

  How weird is that?

  Worse, manufacturers make their gadgets obsolete by adding upgrades and make you throw them away because they become so slow (the gadgets, not the people), or change the chargers or small things so that you can’t reuse them. That’s bad design.

  Manufacturing gadgets takes a lot of resources from the Earth such as metal and also uses up a lot of energy. Raw materials are mined, and thousands of them are shipped from different parts of the world to a factory to be made into a smartphone, tablet, e-reader, computer or TV, then packaged and shipped to be sold.

  E-waste can be hazardous with harmful health and environmental effects. They leach out toxins into the land and atmosphere. According to Greenpeace1, often e-waste collection is done by workers, including children who don’t wear protective gear and are exposed to hazardous chemicals and toxins.

  There’s plenty that can be done—companies should take back their products and recycle them safely, they should make eco-friendly gadgets that don’t go obsolete quickly, we should use products longer or pass them on to people who will use them, and rich countries should take responsibility for their own e-waste, rather than send it for recycling to countries like India, China and Nigeria.

  Huh fact of the day!

  Greenpeace found that some 25,000 workers are employed at scrap yards in Delhi, where 10-20,000 tonnes of e-waste is handled each year. And a quarter of this e-waste was computers.

  WHAT DO GORILLAS AND GADGETS HAVE IN COMMON? EXCEPT THE FACT THAT THEIR NAMES START WITH A ‘G’.

  Imagine that you are a gorilla in East Congo. Go on, it would be awesome to be six feet tall, weigh 200 kilos, and less awesome, that you’re an endangered species. You’re smart, you have great tracts of forest land to chill in, you can climb trees like, well, a monkey. As a gorilla, you don’t use smartphones. You have better things to do with your time, such as pounding your chest, munching on fruits, and mostly hanging about.

  Unfortunately for you, humans do use smartphones (and also laptops, tablets and gadgets). And now you and your family are losing your home because of that gadget. Why? People are mining for coltan, short for Columbite-tantalite, a metallic ore found in East Congo. Coltan is an important part of cell phones, laptops and other gadgets because when it is refined, it gets transformed into tantalum, which is heat-resistant and stores energy.

  In the Kahuzi Biega National Park, gorilla populations have almost halved because forest land has been cleared for mining. How much does a grown-up pay for a cell phone—ask them. Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000? Now that phone can’t work without coltan, yet miners who mine coltan get paid poorly. It’s also often smuggled from Congo, and the profit from it helps fuel war by neighbouring countries.

  Ask your tech company to use coltan only from legitimately mined sources. We need Gorilla-Safe Cell Phones!

  P.S.: Check out Fairphones, these are smartphones that try to source minerals from conflict-free zones and are built in a way to last longer. Their workers get a fair wage and decent working conditions and the manufacturers offer safe recycling options. How cool is that?

  RACK YOUR BRAINS

  Hatch a cunning plan to save the gorilla.

  Make a poster to show the problems with coltan mining, our greed for new and shiny gadgets, the problems with companies that don’t want to design sustainable gadgets, and how it all kind of sucks for the gorillas.

  That’s a lot of information to put on a poster. How are you going to do that? Psst—it doesn’t matter if you aren’t a dab hand at drawing. You can make it an informational poster, with only cleverly-placed text on it, or use stick figures to make your point. What’s important is to get your message across.

  TO DO OR NOT TO DO,

  THAT’S REALLY UP TO YOU

  ACTION 1

  Cut the trash in your house by half

  This one is easier said than done, and so it needs to start with a house meeting. Get everyone to study the house trash, give them T for Trash Troll and A for Agreeable Amigo and R for Rockstar Recycler when you grade their findings.

  Here’s the methodology (use big words to impress upon them the seriousness of this task).

  The source of trash: First, identify where your trash is coming from—kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, study, and what kind is it. Categorise it into wet, dry, and other waste.

  Audit the trash: Next, figure out what can be sent for recycling, what can be composted, what can be reused, what can be reduced. Like using two sides of paper instead of one and crumpling it and dunking it in the trash can. Or what can be cut out (see that’s 4 Rs for you) like not buying bottled water. Refuse the Refuse (pun alert!).

  Trash Tax: Enforce a trash tax. Anyone who gets a plastic bag from shopping instead of carrying their own pretty cloth bag has to pay Rs 10 to the Trash Tax Inspector (that’s you!).

  Change shopping habits: When going out for a walk or picnic or trek, carry a reusable water bottle from home. Not only do you save money, but also most mineral water bottles are made out of super cheap plastics and leach toxins after a period of time. And worst, the water often can be contaminated. Replace tissue papers with cloth napkins that can be washed, buy bigger size containers than several smaller ones.

  See what can be reused: Get creative with leftovers—fried potato peels make amazing snacks and if not, can feed the compost. Yesterday’s cauliflower veggie can become today’s stuffed paratha.

  See what can be upcycled: Ah come now, you have art class. Make lamps out of plastic water bottles and craft from wooden pencil shavings. You don’t need anyone to tell you that.

  Jot down your ideas for reusing and recycling here.

  ACTION 2

  Become a biographer of an object

  Biographers are cool people, they may lead boring lives—of course, they don’t *cough, cough*—but they get to write about interesting people.

  Why don�
�t you write about an interesting object?

  Say, the journey of a pen from the time it was manufactured and then what happens when it’s old and leaky and thrown out. Does it land in the landfill, does it get a swirl in the trash vortex or is it made out of recyclable material and becomes a clip then?

  ACTION 3

  What’s the inside of a bin like?

  EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

  Imagine if you were a trash can, would you be down in the dumps (note: pun 3)? Or would you be trash talking?

  Think of what’s it like to be a bin.

  •How would you smell?

  •What would you see?

  •When different kinds of trash fall inside you, what sound do they make?

  •How would it feel to touch a banana peel, a crumpled paper or tea leaves.

  Note to parents: We did not ask your child to sit inside a bin. We asked them to use their imagination. If they are sitting in a bin, that is not the publisher’s responsibility, or the author’s!

  ACTION 4

  Bottle up

  You know how much a mineral water bottle sucks? Can you think of 15 ways to reuse a plastic water bottle? That’s right, 15. It can be an art installation, a DIY craft idea, a… okay, now you think.

  Was that hard? Easier to use a refillable water bottle?

  ACTION 5

  How many parts?

  This isn’t an easy challenge.

  You need to pick your favourite gadget.

  Now that is easier than the next ask.

  Find out all the materials that went into making the gadget. Doesn’t matter if it’s a tablet, a television, phone, X-Box or PS3.

  Got the list?

  There’s more.

  Find out if each of these parts are recyclable. Many groups in cities offer spaces where you can drop your old gadgets and they recycle them properly. Look them up.

  1 http://des.nh.gov/organization/divisions/water/wmb/coastal/trash/documents/marine_debris.pdf

  1 http://www.chintan-india.org/documents/fact_sheets/chintan_waste_tales_fact_sheet.pdf

  1 http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTURBANDEVELOPMENT/0,,contentMDK:23172887~pagePK:210058~piPK:210062~theSitePK:337178,00.html

  2 http://www.livemint.com/Politics/XsXf3cmvKjaoHPnlo31Y0H/South-Asia-to-become-fastest-waste-producer-by-2025.html

  1 http://www.niir.org/profiles/profiles/stationery-stationery-products-pens-pencils-ink-pads-staplers-glue-pen-pencil-boxes-geometry-sets-desk-accessories-exercise-note-book-files-school-stationery-office-stationery-writing-instruments-envelope-all-pin-ball-pen-refills/z,,7b,0,a/index.html

  1 http://www.unep.org/regionalseas/marinelitter/publications/docs/plastic_ocean_report.pdf

  1 http://www.protectswhatsgood.in/about-us/6-layer-protection/

  1 http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/poisoning-the-poor-electroni/

  WATER

  WHEN A LAKE BECOMES A WASHING MACHINE1

  ‘Huh! Is that snow?’ Neha was awestruck by the soft white flurries that swirled on top of Bellandur Lake in Bengaluru. The flurries looked strangely beautiful, like someone had let the washing machine run riot and now it was spewing froth and foam all across the lake. Or at least Neha thought it looked like that.

  ‘Snow in Bengaluru? That’s ridiculous,’ said her friend Abhiyan, who had come over to play MineCraft.

  As they looked at the lake full of froth, it started to rain. The froth spilled onto the roads, obstructing traffic. There was a disgusting stench around the lake, as if piles and piles of garbage was rotting away.

  Neha and Abhiyan quickly closed the window. Off they went to the Internet to look up the news to figure out what exactly was happening.

  ‘The stink is like a smelly armpit multiplied by 320 million litres,’ said Neha.

  ‘Why that much?’ asked Abhiyan.

  ‘Every day, Bengaluru spews out 1,100 million litres of sewage, but so far, the city can only treat 780 million litres. The rest gets dumped into lakes along with effluents. As a result, ammonia and phosphate levels go up and that’s the froth right there.’

  As they read on they found that the detergents used to wash clothes have a lot of phosphates and foaming agents which also add to the froth. Neha and Abhiyan looked at each other and grinned. Their joke about the washing machine lake was true!

  A few days later, Neha sent Abhiyan a photo message. The froth on the lake had caught fire! The chemicals in the foam had reacted and poof! up in flames the lake went. A burning lake, who would have thought?

  What’s in our detergent?

  The dirty water from our washing machines is drained out into water bodies and pollutes them. A lot of detergents have phosphates to soften hard water and clean better. However, in many countries, phosphates are banned. That’s because phosphates1 cause eutrophication, a process which increases micro-nutrients in a natural waterbody such as a river, stream or a pond. This increases the growth of algae and impacts the natural balance in the water body. When algae die and decompose, it removes the water’s oxygen, which in turn affect the fish adversely. As the detergents destroy the surface water tension of the water, fish also end up absorbing more pesticides and pollutants in their body. People eat fish, as do other animals and birds. That means, we are also eating all that gunk!

  But that’s not all that pollutes water bodies.

  WHAT’S UP WITH ALL THESE WATER BODIES, ANYWAY?

  About 71 per cent of the Earth is covered with water, and many people think that because of this we will always have enough water. Yet a full-blown water crisis is a threat looming in the near future. Most of the water in the world is in our oceans, and is too salty for us. Scientists and engineers are figuring out how to desalinate water, or take the salt out of the ocean water. Only 2.5 per cent of that water is freshwater, the kind we can turn into safe drinking water. And only 1 per cent of that freshwater is water we have easy access to in rivers, aquifers, rain, etc. The rest is trapped in glaciers. At this point, don’t be a wise girl or guy and say ‘Hurrah for climate change that will melt the glaciers!’ Seriously, don’t even.

  So even though most of our world has a LOT of water, we actually have very LITTLE water we can use and must use it wisely. Have you ever faced a morning where there was no water in your bathroom tap for a morning bath? Seen people queuing up by a community tap? Or water tanks coming to housing societies to provide water? Water scarcity is very much a problem.

  India, for one, is a water-stressed region. Right now we have 1,122 cubic meter utilisable freshwater per year, per capita. But the international standard is 1,700 cubic meter, so we are way lower than that. The amount is supposed to go down to 1,000 cubic meter1 in the future. That water is also not distributed equally—some people in our country have enough water to wash their cars and take long baths, while others have to walk for hours to be able to get a tumbler of drinking water.

  It’s really unfair—well-to-do people can install pumps, storage tanks and call for tankers when their water supply goes down. But people with less money can’t do that.

  India depends on its rivers and lakes for water. Yet, we are continuing to pollute them. Industrial effluents, domestic sewage, pesticide from agriculture, eroded soil, over withdrawal of water and religious practices are terrible for our water bodies. For instance, latrines and septic tanks pollute almost 80 per cent of surface waters in India2. EWW!

  So then, what happens to a water body that has so much filth? Can it choke up and die?

  Yes, it can. Ganga, along with Indus, Nile, and Yangtze is now classified as one of the ten most endangered rivers globally. And that’s because of pollution, over-withdrawal of water and harsh climate conditions.

  The Aral Sea1, which was once Asia’s largest lake, has now shrunk to one-tenth of its size from fifty years ago.

  You are grounded! A.k.a. groundwater aquifers.

  Your exciting Geography lessons must have told you by now that groundwater is water t
hat’s below the Earth’s surface.

  We don’t see groundwater, because it’s under the… yes, you’re right, ground. But it is super important for all ecosystems.

  When it comes to using groundwater, India tops the list globally1. Over 60 per cent of irrigation and 85 per cent drinking water come from groundwater. Yet, we are fast depleting our groundwater, which means that we could have a serious problem on our hands.

  Then what will we drink? Colas? They need water to make too. In fact, soft drink companies have been accused of over-extracting groundwater for their factories and creating water shortage2.

  KINDA CURIOUS, HOW MUCH DO WE PAY FOR WATER?

  No, no. Don’t you go looking for a mineral water bottle to see the price of water. That is not what water costs. Did you know that you pay for the water that comes to your house? It takes a lot of work to get safe drinking water to people. If you are living in a city, then most probably the water has come from far—either from villages far away or sources that are deep in the ground.

  It takes massive amounts of energy to pump, treat, and deliver water to our homes. Then once waste water leaves our houses, we need energy to collect and treat that water before we discharge it into rivers. Energy to transport and treat water and waste water is expensive. In many cities around the world, the utilities that provide our drinking water and treat our waste water consume more energy than homes or businesses.

  But the problem is we don’t pay enough for these services. Some people believe that we pay almost 25 per cent lesser than what it costs to operate and maintain the systems that get the water to us. This is a major challenge because every human has a right to safe, clean, sufficient water. But it costs a lot of money to ensure that right.