5.1 Environmental pollution & Process of Recycling or Waste Recycle

What is Environmental Pollution?

When there is an undesirable change in the surrounding that has harmful effects on plants and animals, it leads to environmental pollution. A pollutant is a substance that causes pollution. We can have pollutants in liquid, solid or gaseous form. A substance becomes a pollutant when its concentration is greater than the natural abundance and this increase in concentration is either due to human activities or natural phenomenon.  There are pollutants which can be degraded and rapidly broken down by natural processes similar to the degradation of vegetables. We also have pollutants which take decades to degrade, once released cannot be easily removed. for example, DDT, plastic materials, heavy metals and nuclear waste.

Effects of Environmental Pollution:

It has been seen that pollutants originate at a point and are then transported to other places by the action of wind or water. Some pollutants are dumped into the soil by human beings. This leads to air, water and soil pollution respectively. If the soil is polluted, the useful microorganisms in it will die and the fertility of soil will be lost. The production of crops will decrease. If the soil is not fertile; it will have a harmful impact on the human society. Similarly, if water is polluted then we have to purify it before drinking. Purification needs resources. Lastly, if air is polluted, respiration will become an issue and survival of life will be under threat. Air pollution leads to many respiratory diseases and harms the human body.

We can conclude by saying that environmental pollution will affect the life on earth and should be reduced as far as possible. We harm the nature and in turn, nature will harm us more. This should be stopped, our survival depends on this environment so care should be taken and its balance should be maintained.

 How is the Environment Polluted?

The environment comprises of all living and non-living things which occur naturally. This term is often applied to Earth or say some parts of the Earth. We come to see various kinds of the interaction of all the living species, weather, climate, and along with natural resources that affect the economic activity and human survival.

But, nowadays we can see that our environment is getting polluted which is called as environmental pollution. Environmental Pollution is nothing but the contamination of biological and physical components of the atmosphere system such that the standard processes within the environment are adversely affected. In simple words, it is called as the destruction of habitation.

Pollution of environment matters as it has an adverse impact on the environmental resources such as the provision of the clean water and clean air (and many others) without which life on this Earth would not exist. Hence protecting our living system is necessary to have a balanced atmosphere.

Process of Recycling or Waste Recycle:

Recycling process has been given a lot of importance in the recent years. Many products which we use in our everyday life come from the materials which are recovered by the process of recycling, which includes, beverage container, appliances, computer paper, plastic bags and etc. The purchase of such goods will create a market for the recycle products and also in a way reduce the environmental pollutants.

Almost everything we buy nowadays comes with a tag stating whether the product is recyclable and along with a code which represents the level of biodegradability. The Municipalities within cities are now demanding that the domestic waste would be segregated into organic, recyclable and disposable waste.

Below given are some of the ways for waste management in the process of recycling –

·         Buy products which are made from recycled items.Be on the lookout for the symbol of recycling or otherwise ask the salesmen or store managers. This symbol means two things, either it is a recycled material, or it can be recycled. Take, for instance, various plastic containers have the tag of recycling symbol along with a numbered code that specifies what type of plastic resin it is made from.

·         Secondly, consider purchasing recycled materials at work suppose the materials which we buy for office supply, or any office equipment or manufacturing.

·         Segregating the waste at your house can help you out in recognizing the things which are recyclable.  

Benefits of Recycling:

Recycling of the wastes such as paper, glass, plastic, etc in a way helps the environment and the economy, as it is said according to the study of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Manufacturing products from recycled materials tend to consume less energy as well as gives out less pollution than producing the same materials from the raw materials, from scratch. Reducing the use of virgin materials is said to conserve the natural resources such as trees, minerals, water, etc. Hence all these things help us in the conservation of natural resources.