Category Environtal Studies

Why did China stop taking recycling?

China was the world’s biggest importer of scrap plastic, receiving close to half of the world’s global plastic waste for three decades. But serve pollution concerns prompted the country to impose a ban on plastic waste import abruptly in January 2018. This shook up the global garbage/scrap trade. With the primary importer of plastic waste out of the market, exporting countries began sending increasing volumes of scrap to Southeast Asia, with Malaysia emerging as the number one importer. Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia also picked up a lot of the slack. Malaysia’s imports rose five-fold and the Philippines’, three-fold.

The recycling crisis triggered by China’s ban could have an upside, experts say, if it leads to better solutions for managing the world’s waste, such as expanding processing capacities in North America and Europe, and spurring manufacturers to make their products more easily recyclable. Above all, experts say it should be a wake-up call to the world on the need to sharply cut down on single-use plastics.

Over the coming decade, as many as 111 million tons of plastics will have to find a new place to be processed or otherwise disposed of as a result of China’s ban, according to Brooks and University of Georgia engineering professor Jenna Jambeck. However, the places trying to take up some of the slack in 2018 tended to be lower-income countries, primarily in Southeast Asia, many of which lack the infrastructure to properly handle recyclables. Many of those countries were quickly overwhelmed by the volume and have also now cut back on imports.

 

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Why some countries are shipping back plastic waste?

For many years now, wealthier nations have been shipping their waste including paper, plastic, metal and electronic items, to developing countries, which recycle them and use them as raw material in their manufacturing businesses. For the former, it’s a cheap way to dispose of their waste, and for the latter, waste is a valuable source of income. But in recent months, the global waste trade has been facing a crisis. A growing number of countries are demanding that nations take back their plastic waste. Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia have started to send contaminated waste back to where it came from. Returning 42 shipping containers of illegally imported plastic waste to the U.K., Malaysia’s Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin announced last month that Malaysia would take steps to ensure it does not become the garbage dump of the world. In 2019, the Philippines shipped back 69 containers of plastic to Canada that it said was falsely labelled as recyclable in 2013 and 2014.

Global trade in plastic waste is a big business. According to an estimate, from 1988 to 2016, the top 10 plastic waste exporters shipped 168 million tonnes, most of it to China. Exporting is seen as a cheaper option than sorting, cleaning, recycling or reusing it locally.

In developing countries on the other hand, recyclers line up to buy this waste and turn it into new products.

In the recent past, countries found themselves dealing with huge volumes of waste they are ill-prepared to handle. Such waste also contains a variety of materials, chemical additives and dyes that make it next to impossible to recycle. Workers who process these shipments are often exposed to hazardous chemicals. Further, the plastic that cannot be recycled is disposed of in incinerators, landfills, thereby polluting the air, land and sea. Worries about receiving such waste have forced countries to act.

The Exporters

  • Garbage is exported from about a dozen developed countries, including the U.S., Canada, France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and the U.K., according to Greenpeace.
  • The European Union is the largest exporter of plastic waste, with the U.S. leading as the top exporter for a single country.

The Importers

  • The list predominantly includes Asia countries such as China, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. They import some form of waste or the other.
  • About 1,21,000 metric tonnes of plastic waste is imported to India.
  • Interestingly, some developed countries too import plastic waste. They include Germany, the U.S., Italy, Canada, Sweden, France, the U.K., the Netherlands and Belgium.

 

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COULD SCIENCE FICTION STORIES EVER COME TRUE?

Science fiction stories do come true all the time. Less than a hundred years ago, space travel was a fantasy invented by storytellers such as H G Wells and Jules Verne. When we consider the extraordinary advances made in the fields of travel and communications in the past century, it is tempting to believe that Star Trek may in the future be nearer to reality than at present seems possible!

Science fiction introduces us to elaborate, futuristic worlds that often sound like nothing more than a dream. But humanity has made incredible technological advancements over the past 100 years, and many of the ideas predicted in science fiction have now become reality.

Some predictions, like self-driving cars, are still in the early stages, but scientists and engineers have reached many other milestones first described in fiction, such as bringing people to the moon.

In 1865, author Jules Verne released From Earth to the Moon, which described three Americans’ mission to launch a spacecraft and land on the moon. Parts of the novel were similar to the first real moon landing, which occurred 104 years later.

Both the NASA astronauts and Verne’s characters launched from Florida. NASA’s command module was named Columbia in another similarity to Verne’s fictional spacecraft, the Columbia. NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin succeeded in walking on the lunar surface in 1969 while Michael Collins remained in the spacecraft. The three men in Verne’s novel, however, never stepped foot on the moon.

NASA has acknowledged other similarities between Apollo 11 and Verne’s novel as well. For example, the space agency said the Columbiad’s shape and size closely resembled the Apollo spacecraft. The novel also claimed a telescope would be able to see the Columbiad mission’s progress. When an explosion caused a malfunction during the Apollo 13 mission in 1970, a telescope at Johnson Space Center was able to see the accident, which took place more than 200,000 miles away (300,000 kilometres).

3D holograms have been featured in sci-fi for decades. In 2017, an Australian company claimed it has managed to produce a hologram table that resembles the futuristic holograms from the original “Star Wars” movie. Princess Leia called for Luke Skywalker’s help using a holographic message in the 1977 “Star Wars” movie. Since then, scientists have worked on turning this technology into reality.

Euclideon, an Australian company, says it has made the first multi-user hologram table in the world. As many as four people can interact with the hologram at once using motion-tracking glasses. Though Euclideon’s invention has been met with some scepticism, but New Atlas reported in November 2018 that the company is moving forward with bringing the hologram technology to market.

“Star Trek” featured replicators that could 3D print food and everyday objects in a few seconds. Scientists are now using 3D printing technology to make objects out of plastic, metal, and glass, though the process is not nearly as fast.

The New York-based nonprofit Mattershift says it has developed carbon nanotube membranes that could separate and put together individual molecules.

Forbes reported that Mattershift CEO Rob McGinnis says the membranes could help scientists make anything out of a set of basic molecular building blocks. “We’re talking about printing matter from the air,” McGinnis said, according to Forbes. “Imagine having one of these devices with you on Mars. You could print food, fuels, building materials, and medicines from the atmosphere and soil or recycled parts without having to transport them from Earth.” In addition, startups like Natural Machines are working on making 3D food printers commercially available.

The Iron Man suit has become legendary since first appearing in Marvel Comics. People won’t be flying around in suits anytime soon, but the US military is developing high-tech suits that will mirror some of Iron Man’s capabilities. The military’s TALOS program – short for Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit – aims to enhance human combat.

TALOS will take in huge amounts of data from drones, naval sensors, and reconnaissance aircraft to better inform soldiers, Military Times reported. The suit is expected to be light and include life support systems that will track soldiers’ vitals. 3D sound pickups built into the suit will also help soldiers figure out where incoming fire and vehicles are coming from.

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WHAT ARE THE MAIN PROBLEMS OF SPACE TRAVEL?

The biggest problems of space travel all have to do with the enormous distances that are involved. Using today’s technology, it would take years to reach even the nearest planets, and generations of space travellers would live and die on a journey to more distant ones. For this to happen, spacecraft will need to be self-supporting or able to travel faster than the speed of light.

The first hazard of a human mission to Mars is also the most difficult to visualize because, well, space radiation is invisible to the human eye. Radiation is not only stealthy, but considered one of the most menacing of hazards.

Above Earth’s natural protection, radiation exposure increases cancer risk, damages the central nervous system, can alter cognitive function, reduce motor function and prompt behavioral changes. To learn what can happen above low-Earth orbit, NASA studies how radiation affects biological samples using a ground-based research laboratory.

Mars is, on average, 140 million miles from Earth. Rather than a three-day lunar trip, astronauts would be leaving our planet for roughly three years. While International Space Station expeditions serve as a rough foundation for the expected impact on planning logistics for such a trip, the data isn’t always comparable. If a medical event or emergency happens on the station, the crew can return home within hours. Additionally, cargo vehicles continual resupply the crews with fresh food, medical equipment, and other resources. Once you burn your engines for Mars, there is no turning back and no resupply.

Planning and self-sufficiency are essential keys to a successful Martian mission. Facing a communication delay of up to 20 minutes one way and the possibility of equipment failures or a medical emergency, astronauts must be capable of confronting an array of situations without support from their fellow team on Earth.

The variance of gravity that astronauts will encounter is the hazard of a human mission. On Mars, astronauts would need to live and work in three-eighths of Earth’s gravitational pull for up to two years. Additionally, on the six-month trek between the planets, explorers will experience total weightlessness. 

Besides Mars and deep space there is a third gravity field that must be considered. When astronauts finally return home they will need to readapt many of the systems in their bodies to Earth’s gravity. Bones, muscles, cardiovascular system have all been impacted by years without standard gravity. To further complicate the problem, when astronauts transition from one gravity field to another, it’s usually quite an intense experience. Blasting off from the surface of a planet or a hurdling descent through an atmosphere is many times the force of gravity.

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COULD HUMANS FIND HOMES ELSEWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE?

As there are billions of planets in our universe, it is likely that some of them could support life, but the vast distances that would have to be travelled to reach them are at present an immense problem. More possible is the idea that humans could build self-supporting communities on nearby planets. Ideally, these would need to be enclosed, containing their own atmosphere and able to support a variety of plant and animal life just as our planet does. Experiments are being made t9 see if it is possible to build artificial ecosystems like this here on Earth.

We know of only one living planet: our own. But we know it very well. As we move to the next stage in the search for alien life, the effort will require the expertise of planetary scientists, heliophysicists and astrophysicists. However, the knowledge and tools NASA has developed to study life on Earth will also be one of the greatest assets to the quest.

There are two main questions in the search for life: With so many places to look, how can we focus in on the places most likely to harbor life? What are the unmistakable signs of life — even if it comes in a form we don’t fully understand?

“Before we go looking for life, we’re trying to figure out what kinds of planets could have a climate that’s conducive to life,” del Genio said. “We’re using the same climate models that we use to project 21st century climate change on Earth to do simulations of specific exoplanets that have been discovered, and hypothetical ones.”

Del Genio recognizes that life may well exist in forms and places so bizarre that it might be substantially different from Earth. But in this early phase of the search, “We have to go with the kind of life we know,” he said.

Further, we should make sure we use the detailed knowledge of Earth. In particular, we should make sure of our discoveries on life in various environments on Earth, our knowledge of how our planet and its life have affected each other over Earth history, and our satellite observations of Earth’s climate.

Above all else, that means liquid water. Every cell we know of — even bacteria around deep-sea vents that exist without sunlight — requires water.

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DOES THE PLANET HAVE ITS OWN RECYCLING SYSTEMS?

The saying that there is nothing new under the Sun is strangely true. The stuff that makes up everything on Earth —animals, plants, rocks, water — cannot be destroyed, although it can be changed from one form to another. Living things are almost entirely made up of six elements: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorous and sulphur. When a plant or animal dies, it decomposes. Gradually, its body breaks down, and the elements it was made of go back into the soil or water. These elements in time are taken up by new plants, which in turn are eaten by animals. This cycle of elements being released and re-used can take millions of years, but it is quite likely that within your body there are chemicals that were once part of a prehistoric plant — or even a dinosaur!

Eventually, all living things die. And except in very rare cases, all of those dead things will rot. But that’s not the end of it. What rots will wind up becoming part of something else. This is how nature recycles. Just as death marks the end of an old life, the decay and decomposition that soon follow provide material for new life. “Decomposition breaks apart dead bodies,” explains Anne Pringle. She’s a biologist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.

When any organism dies, fungi and bacteria get to work breaking it down. Put another way, they decompose things. (It’s the mirror image of composing, where something is created.) Some decomposers live in leaves or hang out in the guts of dead animals. These fungi and bacteria act like built-in destructors.

Soon, more decomposers will join them. Soil contains thousands of types of single-celled fungi and bacteria that take things apart. Mushrooms and other multi-celled fungi also can get into the act. So can insects, worms and other invertebrates. Yes, rotting can be yucky and disgusting. Still, it is vitally important. Decomposition aids farmers, preserves forest health and even helps make biofuels. That is why so many scientists are interested in decay, including how climate change and pollution may affect it.

Decomposition isn’t just the end of everything. It’s also the start. Without decay, none of us would exist. “Life would end without rot,” observes Knute Nadelhoffer. He’s an ecologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “Decomposition releases the chemicals that are critical for life.” Decomposers mine them from the dead so that these recycled materials can feed the living.

The most important thing recycled by rot is the element carbon. This chemical element is the physical basis of all life on Earth. After death, decomposition releases carbon into the air, soil and water. Living things capture this liberated carbon to build new life. It’s all part of what scientists call the carbon cycle. The carbon cycle starts with plants. In the presence of sunlight, green plants combine carbon dioxide from the air with water. This process, called photosynthesis, creates the simple sugar glucose. It’s made of nothing more than the carbon, oxygen and hydrogen in those starting materials.

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