Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Dr. Amit Kumar Vs State of Uttar Pradesh & Others dated 28/05/2025. The applicant has raised a grievance against setting up of a tyre pyrolysis plant by M/s Adideva Carbon LLP. According to the applicant, the tyre pyrolysis plant has …
The powers of local government in the UK derive from acts of Parliament -- not from the Constitution -- and can be amended to suit the wishes of the central government. The future of local government at the district (borough) and county levels is currently under review. The ruling Conservatives …
FOR THE 400 families belonging to the Mudially Fishermen's Cooperative Society (MFCS), Justice Shyamal Sen's order in Calcutta High Court on June 14, 1993, was a tremendous relief for it restrained the Calcutta Port Trust (CPT) from filling up or damaging in any way an MFCS-run wetland nature park that …
AFTER the pollution rights auction held earlier this year (Down To Earth, May 15, 1993), the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) now plans to develop a market in recyclable materials. CBOT will develop an electronic bulletin board on which bids for reusable wastes can be displayed. The exchange will initially …
Indian industrialists will now have few excuses for not undertaking Pollution control measures: the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) has offered Rs 150 crore as assistance to the most polluting industries. About 40 manufacturers of caustic soda, chlorine and paper, which ICICI says are the worst polluters, …
A FORMER British hairdresser, Maurice Ward, who traded his shears in the early 1970s for an executive desk at a plastic-recycling firm that he set up, says he has invented a fireproof plastic called Starlite. Ward says the plastic can withstand temperatures as high as 10,0000 C and can be …
SECRET issues in Japan will experience close encounters in the form of toilet tissue. Officials in Tachikawa, west of Tokyo, report they are recycling tonnes of top secret documents with a state-of-the-art shredder. It tears up the paper into shreds without destroying the fibre, but not to worry: the shreds …
IMPORT of waste scrap material -- some of which could be toxic -- for recycling, has created a controversy in Indonesia. Scavengers in Jakarta are complaining that the price of recycled items has fallen so low, their livelihood is threatened. Their demand for an immediate ban is supported by the …
INSTEAD of energy-consuming systems, simple sewage treatment methods such as oxidation ponds could be utilised in Indian cities and towns. Oxidation ponds are lagoons or basins in which waste water is cleansed through sedimentation and the action of microorganisms. These ponds require land -- and land is expensive and difficult …
GERMANY has demonstrated how economic instruments can be used effectively to promote environmental causes in a market economy. An ordinance on solid-waste management, for example, has resulted in excess packaging in stores being reduced by 98 per cent and the use of recycled material in packaging increasing to 25 per …
WHAT IS the ordinary citizen who is environmentally concerned to do when bombarded from all sides by contradictory claims about a product's recyclability? Should one buy beverages sold in cans made of steel or aluminium? Or, diaper a baby with disposables or reusables? And, when is paper truly recycled -- …
US manufacturers are marketing plastic containers that are labelled recyclable but have to be exported on the sly to developing countries for disposal. The environmental group Greenpeace pointed out the American plastics industry thus satisfies its environmentally conscious consumers by presenting a "green" image, while dumping potentially hazardous material in …
THE MANAGEMENT of water quality is closely related to almost all human activity and, therefore, is of great concern for all. Wastewater, or water polluted to a degree that is harmful to the environment and useless for human beings, is the result of several natural processes as well as all …
THE SWEDISH city of Malmo has carefully landscaped an area of about 10,000 ha, which functions as a natural stormwater treatment plant. In Malmo, on the southern Swedish coast, several projects involving the natural treatment of stormwater are being implemented. One of them is the Toftanas Project in which stormwater …
The figure shows the elements of a small-scale wastewater treatment system in use at Stensund high school in Sweden. First, a sedimentation tank stores the wastewater produced over two days (1). The water then is led to a soil filtration tank (2) with sulphuric bacteria under anaerobic (non-oxygen) conditions, which …
TRADITIONAL communities developed ingenious ways of making use of wastewater. And, experts involved in the modern science of ecological engineering can learn a great deal from them. There is a growing realisation that the term "wastewater" is a sign of human inability to recognise a valuable resource. Traditional societies throughout …
IN THIS "throwaway" age the Germans are trying to be difficult. Their stringent waste laws are creating a rift in the European Commission (EC) which wants lower and more flexible standards. Germany has a law, popularly known as the "Topfer Law" -- after Klaus Topfer, Germany's environment minister -- which …
EARTHWORMS may hold the key to the problem of disposing urban waste. For the last 18 months, Lata Srikhande, honorary secretary of the Save Pune Citizen's Society, has been disposing of all her domestic organic waste, from banana peels to egg shells, in her roof-top garden which is rich in …
The World Energy and Environment Technology (WEENTECH) is happy to announce the International Seminar on Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development, 2015 (RESD2015). The conference is jointly organised with College of Science and Technology, Royal University of Bhutan and WEENTECH. Conference will provide platform for researchers and specialists across the globe …
Vasudha Sharma gets us this inspiring report on how conscious developers and residents together can create zero waste green residential societies. http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the-property-show/building-zero-waste-homes/366370
