Order of the National Green Tribunal (Eastern Zone Bench, Kolkata) in the matter of Devavrat Kumar Sahani Vs State of Bihar dated 07/04/2025. The application was being registered on the basis of a letter petition dated December 27, 2024 sent to the NGT by the applicant, Devavrat Kumar Sahani, Muzaffarpur, …
British scientists at the Zeneca a multinational seed company, claim that they are on the verge of developing a "natural biodegradable plastic" from rapeseed (canola) oil. Tony Fentem, the project manager, said smallscale trials will begin next year and he is "very confident" of succeeding. The company already produces 1,000 …
AS THE sun rises over Delhi, 16-year-old Radha slings a gunny sack over her shoulder and ambles off to work. Her destination is the back-lanes of Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, where she and her friends rummage through roadside trash and rubbish dumps for tangled wire, cardboard, bottle caps, dry pens, …
Recycled paper is becoming popular, attest NGOs Tara (a division Development Alternatives) and Sewa Ashram, who are running handmade recycled paper units. Both these organisations do Instead, paper sorting is done accord Ing to the required colour, that is waste of blue paper is used for making blue paper. To …
MODIFIED agricultural implements that could be used by the leprosy-afflicted has made agriculture a worthwhile profession in Shahadara's Tahirpur leprosy colony in Delhi. Although farming in the colony started 17 years ago, the leprosy-afficted farmers could not use conventional implements as many had lost fingers or limbs. The scenario has …
With mid-term polls in Nepal due in November, the Arun dam project is set to become a major poll issue. The Nepali Congress government is trying to highlight the $764-million project's employment potential in the eastern hills. The powerful United Marxist-Leninist opposition, however, is pointing to alleged kickbacks and a …
Incinerating unrecyclable waste plastic is environmentally the most benign way of disposing of it, new experiments show (New Scientist, Vol 143, No 1932). Europe's Association of Plastic Manufacturers incinerated municipal waste containing 3 different proportions of plastics -- without added plastic, with 7.5 per cent extra plastic and with 15 …
GREEN connotations of a different kind have left several Pakistani citizens aghast at a recent decision by the Sindh provincial government to ban the manufacture and sale of polythene bags made of recycled plastic. Officials claim the decision was taken on environmental considerations because the disposal of these plastic bags …
QUETTA in Pakistan has set a precedent by completely prohibiting the sale, purchase and use of polythene bags in the city, as of May 1. Manufacturers have received directives to wind up business, says a Panos report. If the measure proves successful, it will strengthen the case of environmental NGOs …
WOOD is out, and matt or glossy steel and plastics are in, as far as the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) is concerned. In line with the government of India's decision to promote wood substitution, the ministry of urban development has instructed CPWD to ban the use of wood in …
INDIAN women, watch out! Think twice before you place that innocent-looking, stick-on vermillion dot on your forehead. Or, before you slip your plastic purse into your blouse. At least that's the message from dermatologist R K Pandhi of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi. Investigations by his …
Spoilt milk Nestle Lanka, the Sri Lankan subsidiary of a multinational food firm, has had to send back a consignment of radioactive milk powder imported from Poland. In November 1993, Sri Lankan customs officials found the milk powder contained more radioactive particles than permissible. Sri Lanka resumed checks on imported …
IN THE near future, plastic won't be an environmental pejorative. The Japan Corn Starch Co Ltd, in collaboration with US business firm Grand River Technologies of Michigan, will produce a fully biodegradable plastic from corn starch that decomposes readily and can be used as compost for the corn crop (New …
ADDING the genes of broccoli, cabbage or cauliflower to those of rapeseed could yield an oil that can be used to make superstrong plastics. Presently, rape-seed oil yields only 66 per cent erucic acid and is expensive to purify. Researchers at the National Research Council of Canada's Plant Biotechnology Institute …
NOT SO long ago, Ladakhis would have laughed at the idea of growing vegetables in winter when the mercury nosedives to about -300 C. Not any longer. The greening of the Ladakhi winter market has begun, as defence scientists successfully grow fresh green vegetables in greenhouses. Scientists believe greenhouse cultivation …
GERMAN industries and town councils agreed in the first week of September, to loan $345 million to the Duales System Deutschland (DSD) to rescue the country's ambitious recycling programme from the brink of bankruptcy. Trash collection companies had threatened to stop collection unless they were paid the $121.2 million owed …
IN 1988, Seattle city's officials announced a plan to recycle 60 per cent of its garbage in 10 years. Five years later, however, this ambitious programme is running out of steam. The programme has become a big-city benchmark. About 42 per cent of all the city's trash goes into recycling …
SORTING out similar types of plastics from waste may now be possible through a system based on the different ways various plastics reflect a near-infrared light (Environmental Science and Technology, Vol 27, No 7). The different reflection patterns are then analysed by an artificial nerve-like computer programme, which is "trained …
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 …
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 …
HAS THE "eco-angel" fallen from grace? Fourteen years after West Germany adopted eco-labelling, its efficacy is still in doubt because of faulty selection and inadequate evaluation of product impact. Today, the eco-angel -- the blue angel symbol that denotes environment-friendliness of a product -- adorns as many as 3,600 products, …
