Recycling of plastics-New approach to save water and energy

To day's world cannot live without plastics as practically every walk of life is associated with use of one or the other plastic material. Out of the 300 million tons production of plastics of different types world wide, about one third is used for packing,  rest being channeled into a variety of products like tubes, pipes, structural parts, sheets, containers etc. In India more than 40% goes for packaging including that for protecting foods. As they are derived from non-renewable fossil fuels, man must be wondering whether his head-on rushing into massive use of plastics will prove to be a folly, considering that world was using for centuries traditional materials like metal, glass, ceramics, wood etc all of which are readily recyclable endlessly and with relative ease, besides being renewable in nature. Plastics, which are high molecular organic molecules are impervious to water and are not degradable in nature for hundreds of years. Recycling of plastics can be done by just melting it after sorting and cleaning at relatively low temperatures but there is a limit as to how many times it can be recycled as its property is adversely affected after recycling. Conventional recycling involves use of high quantity of water and lot of energy, both at a premium in countries like India. A new technology reported from Mexico claims that the water consumption and energy use can be significantly reduced making the recycled plastic.cheaper. Here is a take on this new development.    

"Mexican startup Ak Inovex has developed a 'Greener' plastic recycling uses no water and only half the energy  At the same time, it produces plastic pellets of equal or better quality,  resulting in an environmentally friendlier process that also promises to be significantly cheaper. Plastic recycling can turn discarded bottles and other scrap into a myriad of useful objects, helping produce anything from polyester clothes to 3D printing filaments and even diesel. However, it is a long, laborious affair that consumes plenty of resources  –  especially water. Among other things, the plastic needs to be thoroughly washed to get rid of impurities, carefully dehydrated inside an oven, and then water-cooled once again as the newly-formed plastic filaments are cut into small pellets. According to Marco Adame, the new method that his startup has come up with can produce pellets of equal or better quality using just half of the energy by getting rid of the need for these temperature extremes, while also doing away with the need for water altogether. The system uses special walls that, on contact, are able to both mold the plastic into the desired pellet shape and cool those pellets at the same time. The energy-demanding dehydration process, which involves temperatures of around 180° C (360° F), had been a necessity so far because, after being washed, the plastic molecules would otherwise attract water to themselves and prevent the plastic from crystallizing properly. Being able to process scrap plastic without water has therefore simplified things considerably. Adame says that using his technique, the same machines are able to process styrofoam, polystyrene and ABS, which together make up about 90 percent of all plastics. The improved versatility would mean less space would be needed for operation."

Limitation vis-a-vis plastic recycling does not lie in technology but logistical problems associated with segregating different plastics from the garbage for channeling them to different recycling systems. There are at least two dozens of plastics in common use and they come to the garbage dump mixed with organic and biological waste and this restricts the extent of plastic recycling to less than 5% of total used through out the world, the figure varying from country to country. Increased use of plastic wastes for energy generation is another encouraging development that will remove more and more of these naturally indestructible man-made material from the environment. Comparing to paper which is recycled to the extent of 80% plastics will have to go a long way to remove the tag it has earned as "chokers" for its role in contaminating oceans and river bodies, bringing about destruction of natural aquatic creatures.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

GARBAGE DISPOSAL-NEW INITIATIVES IN CHENNAI

Urban lives in India face the threat of overwhelming garbage accumulation near their dwelling places as most civic bodies do not have functional processing facilities for the huge waste generated day in and day out. While every citizen has a right to get the much needed civic services in return for the taxes paid by him, it is a matter of shame that these "receipts" are misused and mismanaged leading to a situation where the citizens are left to fend for himself whether it is water, power, roads, parking lots, parks or noise pollution or waste clearance. The audacity of the civic body in raising conservancy charges for those generating garbage is really breath taking as Chennai is a city where the all pervasive Coovum river stink hits any visitor who lands there! As the tax payers there are vigorously protesting this arbitrary move by the civic body, they are being asked to set up their own processing facility investing their funds! What a city! Here is a take on this latest development in Chennai and the on-going tussle between the tax payers and the civic body on the garbage issue.  

"Commercial establishments in the city are likely to set up their own bio-gas plants for processing their food waste.The Chennai Corporation, at a meeting in Ripon Buildings with representatives of hotels, marriage halls and other commercial food business operators asked the traders to commission decentralised waste processing facility based on a technology of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). The meeting was organised to resolve a deadlock on the issue of conservancy charges in Chennai. At the meeting, Corporation officials indicated that new conservancy charges levied on these establishments, which had been fiercely opposed by them, would be reduced if the traders' association commissioned their own plants based on such proven technology. A number of food-business operators, including large hotels and marriage halls, had been asked to pay more conservancy charges by the Chennai Corporation. The city has more than 20,000 commercial entities including large food-business operators and marriage halls that generate large amount of municipal solid waste every day. As the commercial establishments did not agree to the increase in conservancy charges by the Chennai Corporation, a series of meetings were organised over the past few months to resolve the deadlock. Commercial establishments that use 1,100 litre bins for conservancy were asked to pay Rs.1.31 lakh to the Chennai Corporation, according to the new proposal. Similarly, the establishments that use 120 litre bins were asked to pay Rs.14,600. The charges for marriage halls with a seating capacity of more than 1,000 were increased from Rs.12,000 to Rs.86,400 per year. BARC had already knocked on the doors of the Chennai Corporation to sell its garbage segregation technology and the civic body has suggested that commercial establishments use the indigenously-developed technology."

Garbage processing technology is readily available but its economic viability depends on the volume of waste generated. While a city with large population will have the wherewithal to invest on large processing plants and set up the infrastructure to distribute the products like power, manure etc, hotels, restaurants, marriage halls etc cannot be expected to generate regular garbage of required volume to sustain economically viable processing units, no matter how efficient the technology is. The Chennai civic body is trying to camouflage its utter inefficiency and lack of planning by passing on the responsibility to the tax payers! It is unfortunate that in a country like India there is no national policy on garbage management in urban townships with each one following its own unimaginative and ad hoc policies putting the tax payers at great disadvantage and inconvenience. It is time that major civic bodies in the country get together and evolve a uniform policy on garbage taxing and processing that is equitable to citizens, commercial establishments and the financial health of the city.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

VEGETABLES "FROM" GARBAGE!-AN INNOVATIVE CIVIC INITIATIVE

One of the serious problems being faced by towns and cities world over is to make the living environment clean, safe and livable for their citizens by efficient collection and disposal of household waste. This does not mean that the individual citizen has no role to play in this task as most of the refuse comes from thousands of households and the problem of disposal of waste can be considerably reduced by minimizing the quantity of garbage generated for the civic body to handle. The urban refuse can have both organic materials which are biodegradable and recyclable materials having some economic value. While most organic waste can be composted in-house, recyclable materials are to be collected for bulking before delivery to the processing centers. Segregation of waste into biodegradable and recyclable is a prerequisite for efficient removal of unsafe and unhygienic liter from the vicinity of living areas within a town or a city. Many big cities do have working systems to collect the garbage and the portion not recyclable is used for land fill but involvement of the citizens is not as much as one would like to have. It is here that the innovative program of one of the urban entities in Brazil is breath taking in its concept and practice. As an incentive families are offered fresh vegetables for trading in garbage, the program serving the dual purpose of improving the health of the citizens as well as improving the environment of the city! Here are more details about this exciting story worthy of emulation by every town and city in this world.   

"In many urban centers throughout the world, vibrant waste recycling programs aren't just eco-minded niceties, they serve an essential role in keeping communities clean and clutter-free. But thanks to one forward-thinking initiative in the Brazilian city of Jundiaí, trading in trash has never been tastier. Ten years ago, the city's Municipal Utilities department launched "Delicious Recycling", a program aimed at encouraging residents to get into the habit of collecting recyclable waste in exchange for fresh vegetables, grown locally in a public-run garden -- and boy did it take off. Today, the garden boasts more than 30 thousand plants to meet the demand of thousands of veggie-loving recyclers, turning aluminum cans and plastic bottles into edible greens. Ultimately, the program has done wonders for the health of the environment as well, by ridding the city of improperly disposed waste. "What once cluttered and even choked the flow of water from storm drains is today used as currency for healthy food," local mayor Miguel Haddad tellsJundiaí Online. "Everybody wins with this."

Taking the case of India, it is beyond the comprehension of many right thinking people as to why such simple schemes cannot be thought of with thousands of acres of cultivable land owned by the civic bodies available for raising vegetable gardens. These are the days when urban dwellers are clamoring for good quality fruits and vegetables at affordable price, preferably grown locally without using too much of fertilizers and pesticides and there are reports that in many cities in countries like the US, Canada etc, urban gardens are being raised on roof tops, abandoned sites, city lands, balconies etc by the urban families to get their daily needs of vegetables. There are even suggestions that instead of landscaping, people must go for foodscaping where lawns are replaced with food plants capable of yielding a variety of vegetables without disturbing the image of the house. Involving the civic bodies in programs similar to the one reported from Brazil can go a long way in cleaning up the dirty environment which is a feature of to day's urban settlements in India. Such schemes must be encouraged through the much touted JNURM program or the job guarantee schemes of Government of India.  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

WHO IS THE OWNER OF THE GARBAGE?-A NEW LEGAL TANGLE

Food industry is considered one of the biggest polluters both solid as well as liquid types and in spite of more and more stringent pollution control measures being promulgated in most countries the problem does not seem to be going away. By far plastics have been blamed as post processing pollutants caused by the consumers after opening and using the contents and if a recent report is to be believed almost 5 million tons of plastic wastes flow into seas and oceans making these water bodies literally toxic to marine creatures supposed to be thriving in this habitat Of course all these "garbage" materials do not originate from food processing but still it is substantial. Beverage industry which manufactures cans sells billions of units of different varieties of drinks, mostly in plastic and glass bottles, metal cans and laminated pouches and boxes, has not bothered to see beyond their factory gates as to what happens to these packaging materials once the contents are consumed by the people. While glass bottlers are recycled for economic reasons, some attempts are being made to recycle plastic bottles also. Billions of cans and bottles which end up in the garbage and public places do not seem to have any "ownership" because the industry from where they originate does not seem to be too much concerned about the nuisance caused by them. But all of a sudden some industry players are claiming that their used containers, cast away so recklessly, should not be used by any one for any purpose. Here is a ring side view of a developing story that pitches world's largest soda maker against an entrepreneur who is trying to use these discarded containers for promoting his home scale soda making gadgets by sending a message that industrial products create so much waste and pollution that can be avoided by making better soda at home..   

"Here, here. Even if, just like in Sodastream's cages, it's not just Coke's bottles and cans that are the problem. You can't just single out Coke for being the problem here, it's an entire culture of disposability. Ultimately it does seem like Coke wants it both ways: Disclaiming responsibility for ownership of cans and bottles when littering is concerned or there is a suggestion, as Lloyd has suggested many-a-time here on TreeHugger, that beverage manufacturers should be legally required to take back their bottles and cans, but then saying they own them, via intellectual property and trademarks, when the same waste product is used against them. Even if the law comes down against Sodastream on this one—and I could see that happening—common sense clearly favors Sodastream, especially as Coke is not being singled out. Sodastream is holding all disposable beverage containers up to the same ridicule here. If Sodastream were saying something positive about all those cans no doubt Coca Cola wouldn't have a problem with it".

The commercial soda manufacturer has taken exception to the use of discarded cans in exhibitions promoting the home soda machine and is threatening to sue him if he does not desist from such practices fearing that it will show commercially available products in bad light. It may be a logical action considering that use of containers in such exhibitions can adversely affect the reputation of the brand assuming that the promotors criticize the products directly for its quality or healthiness. However in this case all that has been done is sending a message that commercial bottling in general produces enormous wastes and pollutants. It will be interesting to watch further development in this evolving battle between the two adversaries which can rightly be called a "David Vs Goliath" war! One is tempted to ask whether if beverage manufacturers claim ownership of used containers scattered all over the world, will they also take up the responsibility for their safe disposal without harming Mother Nature?  It is morally reprehensible for any one to claim ownership of public garbage but shirk the responsibility to clean it up! Dont they know that playing the "dog in the manger" game does not pay or the "having the cake as well as eat it" attitude cannot work always!

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com