As many as 172 roads in the new areas of Chennai Corporation will be taken up for integrated redevelopment. Stormwater drains, pavements, streetlights and ducts for electrical cables would be provided besides re-laying of the roads under the project. The new initiative would cover 112 km of roads in the …
TOY makers use phthalates to make plastic toys supple and chewy. But the chemical also happens to be very toxic and its use in the Indian toy industry remains unregulated. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has finally drafted standards for phthalates in toys and childcare products so that their …
The government of India has banned the sale of gutkha and other chewing tobacco products across the country. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) issued new regulations on August 1, prohibiting the use of tobacco and nicotine in any edible product. Health experts and civil society groups …
HealthDirty truth If you stop your children from eating mud, read this. Craving for earth—geophagy—can be one of the natural ways to protect stomach against pathogens. After studying 480 reports and analysing theories that geophagy is driven by hunger and for nutrients in the soil like iron, zinc or calcium …
The Union environment ministry, it seems, is not serious about dealing with plastic waste. While notifying the plastic waste management rules on February 7, it banned use of plastic in only gutkha, paan masala and tobacco sachets. No other form of plastic packaging has been banned by the Plastic Waste …
The website www.badplastics.com busts safety myths propagated in the market by the plastic industry. Many plastic products used in our dayto- day lives contain three extremely toxic chemicals, bisphenol-A (BPA), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and phthalates. These can cause hormonal imbalance, cancer, heart problems, behavioural problems in children and also affect …
Sometimes you might go to a shop and in spite of protests handed a plastic bag. The bag will perish naturally, the shop attendant might tell you. In the past three years, different kinds of plastics claiming to be biodegradable, have entered the Indian market. But most of these brands …
On July 27, a catamaran called Plastiki, made of 12,500 PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles, arrived at Sydney's Darling Harbour. David de Rothschild sailed 8,000 nautical miles from San Francisco to Sydney on Plastiki to make a point on the way plastic is used. "You go a couple of hundred miles …
As a kid, Jonathan Watts had nightmares about China. “If everyone in China jumps at exactly the same time, it will shake the earth off its axis and kill us all,” he thought. The apocalyptic thought came back to him in 2003 when he moved to Beijing as The Guardian’s …
THE creator of this site thinks that the recent question marks on the Teflon frying pan are an opportunity to find a plasticless alternative. Martin Higgins from Malta is a fan of cast iron cookware. Steel fabrication, he says, also has an environmental cost, but buying one steel frying pan …
two incidents of fire in April ruined traders of the plastic scrap market in Mundka village in Delhi’s outskirts. While waste pickers search heaps of burnt plastic for metal scraps they can sell to buy a meal, the land owners in Mundka are hoping for better times. The plastic scrap …
This study presents reusing of locally available waste fibrous materials as concrete composites. Mechanical strength properties (compressive strength, split tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, modulus of rupture and shear strength) of synthetic fibres (nylon, plastic and tyre) with volume fractions (0.5%, 1% and 1.5%) and aspect ratios (30, 60 and …
Power and Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira told the House that there is already a ban on the sale of plastic flags. He was replying to the issue of plastic flags used on national days, raised during Zero Hour by Fatorda MLA Damu Naik (BJP). Naik during Zero Hour said plastic …
Narendra Plastic, one of the largest manufacturer and exporter of plastic packaging products in India, plans to invest over Rs 90 crore for setting up two new manufacturing units in Daman and Uttarakhand. Itochu Corporation of Japan, a Fortune 500 trading company, has picked up 30 per cent of the …
Where do you go when the burning rubbish dump near you emits the smell of burning plastic and you know it is toxic? Close the windows perhaps and wait till the wind has blown it away or just get used to it? It is very easy to put household waste …
DESPITE a ban, poly bags have reappeared in the local markets in Patuakhali and these are being widely used by the shoppers as well as shopkeepers. People use the poly bags to carry fish, meat, fruits, vegetables and other items from the markets. These are now mostly seen hanging at …
Japan will urge people to carry their own chopsticks instead of using disposables and to shop with their own bags instead of using plastic ones in a bid to more than halve the garbage it produces. The Cabinet approved a set of plans Tuesday to promote a recycling society, said …
Many villages in the districts of Mangalore and Udupi have taken the lead in minimising the use of plastic. An impressed Ronald Anil Fernandes reports. Perhaps it's difficult to imagine life without plastics. In fact, plastics have become synonymous with modern life. However, one of the biggest challenges with plastic …
The Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government has decided to slap a spot fine of Rs 50 on users of banned plastic bags. Shopkeepers handing out the bags will have to shell out Rs 500, according to a notification issued earlier this month. Officials feel the pollution cost, to be collected by the …
