Environmental Sustainability

Be the change you wish to see in the world. Big lasting change take time but the initiative takes less than a minute and let the initiative begins at every home.

One major step towards environmental sustainability is waste management.

What is Waste management:

Waste management ( or waste disposal) are the activities and action required to manage waste from its inception to final disposal.

Waste can be solid, liquid or gas and each type has different method of disposal and management.

Large portion of waste management deals with municipal solid waste ( msw), which is the bulk of the waste that is created by household, industrial and commercial activity.

The most important reason for the waste management ( collection) is the protection of environment and the health of the population. Rubbish and waste can cause air and water pollution.Rotting garbage is also known to produce harmful gases that mix with the air and can cause breathing problems in people.

Types of Waste around the house:

1. Liquid waste

2. Solid rubbish

3. Organic waste

4. Recyclable rubbish

5. Hazardous waste.

In a daily garbage there are :

1. 20 % paper you

2. 60% organics(wet)

3. 2% others

4. 5% glass

5. 3% metals

6. 10% plastic.

Items and years takes to decompose:

1. Plastic - upto 1000 years

2. Train tickets - 2 weeks

3. Orange peel -6 months

4. Milk carton - 5 years

5. Tin can - 50 years

6. Batteries - 100 years

7. Rubber - boot sole - 50 to 80 years

8. Ply wood - 1 to 3 years

9. Cotton gloves - 3 months

10. Cardboard - 2 months

11. Apple core - 2 months

12. Disposable Diaper - 450 years

13. Banana Skin - 3 to 4 weeks

14. Chewing gum - upto 5 years

15. Glass - 1 to 2 million years

16. Aluminium can - 1 million years.

Most important steps in waste management is segregation:

Waste can be segregated into dry waste and wet waste.

Dry waste - Wood, Metal and glass.

Wet waste - Organic waste generated by eating establishments and they are heavy in weight due to dampness.

Colour coding of waste bin:

Green - organic waste ( kitchen waste)

Yellow - glass

White - Paper

Grey - metal

Blue - plastic

Red - hazard.

Steps to lessen the waste:

1. Use your own cloth bag.

2. Not to throw away any edible parts unnecessarily.

3. Seperate decayable and non decayable waste.

4. Reduce , Reuse and Recycle.

5. To make compost fertilizer out of decayable waste.

By following the above steps in our day today life , we can achieve cleaner/ greener environment and gift our current and future generation the healthier / cleaner and greener environment.

Another big step towards environmental sustainability is by planting trees( and work / volunteering in tree plantation campaign).

On this International women's day month, I have taken a oath to start the environmental sustainability initiative at home.

With this I conclude, Small habits accumulated over time can cause serious positive impact to our environment.

Regards

Mrs. Sindhu Sathya Narayanan.