Wednesday, December 5
Thursday, November 15
India's proposed waste law to officially turn it into global waste destination: Environmentalists
Draft promotes waste trade over health and environment
New Delhi, 14 November, 2007: Through a jugglery of words in the draft legislation on waste, the Indian Government may pave the way for officially opening floodgates for the dumping of world's hazardous waste in the name of recycling and unleash unprecedented havoc on India's environment and health of its citizens, environmentalists have warned.
This was stated by leading global experts and civil society leaders who have been working on waste issues, in the wake of the recently publicised Draft Hazardous Materials (Management, Handling and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2007.
Environmentalists say that the newly drafted hazardous waste management law for India seeks to undo established, science-based definitions of waste and consider waste that is being recycled somehow less hazardous than the waste being landfilled in order to curry favor with hazardous scrapping industries.
"Through a not-so-subtle mangling of international definitions for "waste", "disposal" and "safe recycling" the Indian Government has designed a veritable global waste funnel that will ensure that the world's waste will surge to our shores," said Ravi Agarwal, director of Toxics Link.
"Ironically this is all being done in the name of recycling," he quipped.
The Draft Hazardous Materials (Management, Handling and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2007, which is now in its final stage, proposes redefining "hazardous waste" as "hazardous material". Such completely altered definitions are contrary to the international rules of the Basel Convention, which India is obliged to uphold.
"It is not only inappropriate but its illegal for India to pretend to implement the Basel Convention but utilise definitions that turn the intent of the treaty on its head, said Jim Puckett, Coordinator of the international Basel Action Network (BAN), the Convention's watchdog organisation.
Among examples of departures from the Basel Convention and international law are the following:
· India has decided that transit states do not have to receive prior informed consent for all shipments of hazardous waste.
· India has decided that dumping in rivers, oceans, and lakes, or burning waste somehow does not constitute disposal and therefore that which is dumped in aquatic environments is not waste.
· The international definition of "environmentally sound management" has been ignored in favor of a new definition of "safe for recycling" that states that as long as a material contains less than 60% contamination by a hazardous constituent, then it's safe!
· India has exempted bio-medical wastes and municipal wastes from this law yet these are meant to be covered under Basel.
· India appears to allow dioxin imports for disposal but not for recycling.
· Waste asbestos imports are banned unless they are contaminating other substances (e.g. old ships).
· Fails to implement the Ban Amendment forbidding all imports of hazardous waste from developed countries.
· Fails to recognize it is illegal to trade in waste with non-Parties of the Basel Convention such as the United States.
According to the environmental groups the draft law also changes substantially the existing hazardous waste Management and Recycling Rules, and flies in the face of Supreme Court judgments. Further it is contrary to India's constitution because (provision on the State's obligation to protect people's right to health and environment), instead of an environmental law being protective of human health and the environment, this is trade centric for hazardous waste.
This assumes significance when India is currently negotiating various economic partnerships. For example India is presently negotiating with Japan on what it calls a new-age Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
Japanese EPAs with other Asian countries consistently include toxic wastes for trade liberalization, and if wastes are considered goods it is feared they will be freely traded and India will be the recipient of Japanese waste.
Finally the environmentalists denounced the process by which this law has reached the final stages without public scrutiny.
"A major amendment of a key environmental legislation has been proposed with no discussion or consultation with civil society. Civil Society and the Judiciary have been deeply involved in this issue for over a decade-and-a-half, and ignoring their concerns is demonstrative of the manner in which this government has become representative only of a handful of influential industries," said Mr. Agarwal.
"While India still does not have capacity to deal with its internally generated wastes, it is opening up its borders for imported hazardous and electronic waste, clearly showing the distorted priorities of the Government," he added.
Monday, August 20
Thursday, August 9
Friday, July 27
Selected news
Ban on dumping solid waste in Buddha Nallah
Priyank Bharti, the acting District Magistrate, has passed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC), prohibiting people from dumping solid waste in Buddha Nallah. The acting DM said in these orders that information has been given to him that some people are dumping solid waste in Buddha Nallah, which endangers the life and health of the society at large. He said that in the interest of public safety, it is necessary to prevent the dumping of solid waste in the nallah.
Source: Indian Express, New Delhi, July 27, 2007
UPPCB gets tough on medical waste disposal
The Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board (UPPCB), along with the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC), is all set to crack the whip on hospitals that do not dispose of bio-medical wastes in accordance with the Bio-Medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules. The UPPCB team recently visited some city hospitals and found them blatantly violating the norms. Member Secretary, UPPCB, C S Bhatt that private hospitals have been asked to make appropriate arrangements for disposal of bio-medical wastes within a month’s time. “The hospital waste, if not dumped properly, poses a major health hazard. Notices in this regard would soon be issued to hospitals. The LMC has also been asked to take stock of the situation,” said Bhatt. He, however, said, "If hospitals and nursing homes are dumping their wastes along with domestic waste, it is a matter of serious concern. I would gather information from the department and then decide on the course of action,” he said. Meanwhile, an LMC official said, “The LMC incinerator is under-utilised as the volume of the bio-waste is too little. Incinerator works only for five hours a day. It's the responsibility of the NSA and the ZHOs to check the waste being dumped by city hospitals.”
Source: India Express, New Delhi, July 27, 2007
BARC tech turns urban waste into organic manure
Kitchen waste, stale food, split milk, leftovers from hotels and vegetable refuge, which is becoming a huge and mounting burden on urban civic bodies, could no longer be a threat to the urban environment. In fact, it can be a good source of well-balanced organic manure offering excellent top soil material to the farmers, thanks to a technology developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). If segregated well, this waste could do wonders for the farmers practicing organic farming, said Mr. Sharad P. Kale of Nuclear Agriculture and Biotechnology Division of BARC. While discussing various arguments and counter arguments on the advantages of organic food, he referred to the concerns that organic food could be less safe than non-organic food as the former increased the risk of exposure to biological contaminants and food-borne diseases.
Source: The Hindu Business Line, New Delhi, July 27, 2007
Climate panel to meet in August; help frame policy
India will move a little closer to deciding its stance on climate change ahead of United Nations –sponsored discussions this December, when an expert scientific committee meet on 6th August in Delhi. The December meeting in Bali (Indonesia) will decide on a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2021. The protocol mandates that its signatories cut emissions in an effort to stem global warming. At the August meeting, the committee, chaired by Mr. R. Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, will discuss the country’s vulnerability to climate change, identify research areas to asses the impact of human-induced climate change and suggest measures to mitigate this. These will play a critical role in forming India’s stance for the Bali meet.
Source: Hindustan Times, New Delhi, July 27, 2007
Badal Calls For Time-bound Pollution Monitoring Policy
Punjab Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal on July 25, 2007 called for formulation of a comprehensive policy to check the pollution of rivers in the state. He asked the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) to frame and implemented guidelines in this regard and ensure regular and time bound monitoring of the anti-pollution steps. Presiding over the meeting here in Chandigarh on July 24, 2007, Badal asked the pollution board officials to install sewage treatment plants in the state. The Chief Minister asked the Chief Secretary to hold a joint meeting of the industries, local bodies and PPCB to work out the modalities to control the menace of pollution effectively because the effluents discharged in the river and drains are not treated properly thus posing a threat to both aquatic life as well as humans.
Source: Financial World, Chandigarh, July 25, 2007
Wednesday, July 25
Toxics Alert An environment news bulletin
July 23, 2007
F E A T U R E
Think before you make the switch to CFL!
If there is one product that has come to symblolise the ease with which an individual consumer can make a contribution in towards reducing global warming, it is the Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL). But a growing section of experts and activists have dared to question the wisdom of a mass shift to CFLs without taking into account its dependence on mercury, writes Parvinder Singh and says there is more to it than a mere change of bulbs.
Read More: http://enews.toxicslink.org
N E W S
EU move on banning mercury trade welcomed
Delhi-based Toxics Link has urged the Indian Government to take a cue from the recent move against mercury by the European Union Parliament through a resolution seeking to ban trade of the heavy metal by 2010 and take some strong steps for replacement and phasing out of mercury here.
Read More: http://enews.toxicslink.org
Metro Go Underground: Demand RWAs
Citizens of Delhi have been voicing concern over the damage that is being caused to the city trees and environment for the mega transport projects, like Metro and High Capacity Bus System. Tired of waiting on the sidelines, residents from some of the residential colonies are now organising themselves to push for a people and environment-friendly implementation of these projects.
Read More: http://enews.toxicslink.org
Waste water irrigation make vegetables toxic: Study
Vegetables grown in semi-urban areas, which use industrial waste water for irrigation, have high levels of heavy metals such as lead, which is neurotoxic brain and cadmium, which can cause cancer, according to a new study by Indian and UK scientists.
Read More: http://enews.toxicslink.org
Demand for organic cotton growing: India emerges as largest producer
Global consumers are increasingly becoming environmentally conscious and this is pushing the demand for organic and eco-friendly products, particularly textiles. Demand for organic cotton is accelerating with brands and retailers continuing responding to consumer choices by increasing the use of organic cotton for manufacturing textiles.
Read More: http://enews.toxicslink.org
Government wants apex court's green bench disbanded
The Union Government has urged the Supreme Court it to wind up its Green Bench on the ground that it has outlived its utility and is hurting the objective of preservation of forests.The Bench's orders on the basis of advice given by lay persons have contributed in accentuating poverty, social unrest and a spurt in Naxal activities in major states, the Centre said in what marked an unprecedented display of belligerence.
P O L I C Y
Single-window system for environment clearances for builders being planned
The Union Government is reportedly planning to introduce as single window system for environmental clearance for builders. This will reduce the time required for the process to just three months.
Read More: http://enews.toxicslink.org
U P D A T E
Landfills not a solution to Delhi's urban waste crisis: DPCC
With all the three existing landfills in the National Capital Territory of Delhi running out of capacity and the State Government announcing new sites for fresh landfills, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), a nodal environmental body for the Capital, today said landfills were not a solution for the current Municipal Solid Waste crisis in the city.
Read More: http://enews.toxicslink.org
P A R T N E R S
Clearance to Commonwealth Games Village illegal: Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan
A grouping of citizens and civil society organisations, Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan (YJA), has alleged that the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has gone ahead with the plans to build the Commonwealth Games Village on the Yamuna riverbed overriding serious concerns expressed by the Expert Appraisal Committee of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) that studied the proposal in 2006.
Read More: http://enews.toxicslink.org
O P I N I O N
In this section, our readers and users can express their views and opinions in whatever way they chose to, through write-ups, pictures, web-posters or even clips, on issues related to toxics and environment. All you will need to do is send an email at editor (AT) toxicslink.org and we will post it routinely at http://toxicslink.blogspot.com/
--ENDS --
Saturday, July 7
Insight into missing dimension of Nandigram
Staff Reporter
N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, releasing a documentary film CD on Nandigram at Banga Sanskriti Bhavan in New Delhi on Friday .Also seen are filmmaker Prakash Kumar Ray and Mala Hashmi.
NEW DELHI: For a directorial debut, Prakash Kumar Ray has been valiant enough to choose Nandigram killings and violence as a subject matter. He reasons it was important for him as a person to find out what really went wrong in the rural area and why the popular Left Government in West Bengal was in the news for the wrong reasons.
Prakash’s attempt to see Nandigram from close quarters has resulted in the documentary, Nandigram: Aasman Ki Talaash Mein, released by the Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, N. Ram, here on Friday. The film trie s to explore the events at Nandigram before and after March 14 — the day when 14 persons were killed in police firing and subsequent violence — and “see through the anti-Left campaign” in West Bengal.
The film captures the run-up to the March 14 tragedy; how the Trinamool Congress-backed anti-land acquisition platform, Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee, forced innocent people — several of them Communist Party of India (Marxist) cadres — to leave their homes and property; how the CPI(M) activists were attacked and killed; and how some of the complaints of people missing were fabricated.
“The Left has been helming the State for the past so many years. It has been a popular Government. So when the March 14 tragedy occurred, I could not believe what was happening in West Bengal. I knew I had to be in that area to find out the facts,” Prakash, a scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said after the screening.
“So when I decided to go there, I thought of taking my camera and other equipments along. Three of us toured the area from March 29 to April 6 to get a first-hand report. Of course, we used deception and were under cover all the while,” he added.
Calling it an “exemplary effort,” Mr. Ram complimented the director on “successfully breaking through the barrier and giving us an insight into the missing dimension.”
“It is quite an achievement. We need to put this in the right perspective. Many of us have been bothered about the March 14 tragedy but there was always something missing, a huge part, from the whole story that did not make it to the mainstream media,” he said.
“The film captures the complex situation and makes a powerfully successful attempt to fill some good part of the gap. What is shocking is the manufacture of consent for the indictment of the Left Government in West Bengal and demonisation of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and the CPI(M). All kinds of people landed there without any thought about the implications of what they were doing. There was just one-sided grief, completely ignoring the plight of 3,500 people who were forced to become internal refugees,” Mr. Ram said.
Saturday, June 23
EU parliament's resolution on banning Mercury trade welcomed
New Delhi: Hailing the passing of a resolution to ban mercury trade by the European Union Parliament, Delhi-based Toxics Link has urged the Indian Government to take a cue from the move against the lethal heavy metal by banning its import and phasing out its usage in the country.
Commenting on the resolution that was passed this Wednesday, Ravi Agarwal, Director Toxics Link, said: "India should take the opportunity to become a world leader in supplying alternative mercury free technologies such as digital thermometers instead of the global hotspot for mercury Europe has been the largest exporter of mercury, which figures on the top of the list of deadly contaminants considered serious hazard to health and environment. Therefore this development is nothing short of a watershed and India being the second largest user and importer of the heavy metal, after China, needs to phase out use as well."
Earlier this year, Toxics Link joined a large number of non-governmental organisations to call upon Governments across the globe to place a ban on mercury exports in a bid to check increasing mercury pollution at the 24th United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Governing Council meeting held from 5th to 9th February 2007.
India, which has no regulatory mechanism on mercury import, has emerged in the recent years as one the leading user of mercury thus contributing substantially to its increasing emission. There has been a growing shift of mercury demand towards the developing nations.
A recent study, Mercury in hospital indoor air: Staff and Patients at risk, by the environmental group has found high concentration of mercury in hospital indoor air, revealing the serious threat it poses to hospital staff and patients alike. The study was done in Delhi.
Earlier, a detailed national study, Mercury: Poison in Neighbourhood released, had shown that mercury, which is a neurotoxin and crosses blood/placental barriers and can cause developmental disorders, is being used in a large number of sectors, ranging from healthcare institutions to school labs, from ritualistic objects to medicines. It was also observed that the deadly heavy metal is finding way into municipal waste.
In July last year, State Minister for Environment and Forests Namo Narain Meena had said that though the government was aware of the health hazards that the neurotoxin liquid metal causes, yet there was no 'proposal' to curb its current free import and trade.
The EU resolution has placed 2010 as the deadline, a clause that has been criticised by campaigners as according to them each day counts.
Monday, June 18
Thomas and Friends' toys withdrawn due to high lead content
Around 1.5 million Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway toys have been recalled from the stores because of high amounts of lead in the paint the toys are coated with, which could be harmful for children’s health if taken in by them, as announced by The US Consumer Product Safety Commission and toy company RC2 Corp on Wednesday.
The authorities are suggesting that the toys, including 90,000 in Canada, should not be used and be returned to the company for replacement. The announcement specifically mentions toys marked with manufacturing codes WJ or AZ, which can be located on the bottom of the product or inside the battery cover, do not fall under the banned category. Only the wooden vehicles, buildings and other parts for the Thomas and Friends train set which has the logo "Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway" in the top left hand corner of the package made in China and sold during January 2005 to June 2007 for amounts between $10 and $70 US at various places in Canada and US are a part of this recall.
The complete list of the RC2 recall includes the following products:
• Red James Engine & Red James' #5 Coal Tender.
• Red Lights & Sounds James Engine & Red James' #5 Lights & Sounds Coal
Tender.
• James with Team Colors Engine & James with Team Colors #5 Coal Tender.
• Red Skarloey Engine.
• Brown & Yellow Old Slow Coach.
• Red Hook & Ladder Truck & Red Water Tanker Truck.
• Red Musical Caboose.
• Red Sodor Line Caboose.
• Red Coal Car labelled "2006 Day Out With Thomas" on the Side.
• Red Baggage Car.
• Red Holiday Caboose.
• Red "Sodor Mail" Car.
• Red Fire Brigade Truck.
• Red Fire Brigade Train.
• Deluxe Sodor Fire Station.
• Red Coal Car.
• Yellow Box Car.
• Red Stop Sign.
• Yellow Railroad Crossing Sign.
• Yellow "Sodor Cargo Company" Cargo Piece.
• Smelting Yard.
• Ice Cream Factory.
Although no injuries have been reported so far, the step taken is a precautionary measure taken in light of previous similar instances. Other China made products, including pet food contaminated with melamine and toothpaste contaminated with DEG are some of the health scares currently faced by Canada. Since last year six other toys, including bracelets, charms and army toy sets, have been removed from Canadian stores.
The recall Hotline numbers where the buyers of these toys can ask for a replacement are:
(US numbers): Firm's Recall Hotline: (866) 725-4407; CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772.
Lead poisoning levels are higher in children as compared to adults because babies and young children often put their hands and other objects in their mouths and these objects can have lead dust on them. They also absorb it more easily. Lead is also capable of causing brain damage. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 1 million US children under 5 have high levels of lead in their blood, and more than 20 per cent of African American children living in old houses built before 1946 have high levels of lead in their blood.
In the US lead poisoning is formally defined as having at least 10micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. (The average level of lead, for people ages 1 to 70, is 2.3 micrograms). Last year, Health Canada set limits for lead content in children's products at less than 600 milligrams of lead per kilogram of metal.
The lead may come from lead-containing paint, leaded gasoline, some types of batteries, water pipes, and pottery glazes etc. Lead was used in household paints until 1978. Lead exposure in homes can also occur through water, food, household dust and soil.
Exposure to high levels can cause vomiting, diarrhea, convulsions, coma or death. Symptoms include anemia, appetite loss, abdominal pain, constipation, fatigue, sleeplessness, irritability and headaches.
It can be diagnosed by blood tests where a Blood lead level of 10 ug/dL or greater are dangerous to children, even if the person has no apparent symptoms.
A high iron and calcium diet can help protect people against absorbing lead. It can be treated by the chelation therapy in the hospital. The treatment only prevents further damage to the brain but does not repair the injury already caused.
One must be very cautious about the presence of Lead in their surroundings. If you feel that your home is exposed to high levels of lead then you must take the following precautions:
• Even if your children seem healthy, have them tested for lead.
• Wash children’s hands, toys, bottles etc. very often.
• Include low-fat, healthy foods in your children’s meals.
• Get your home checked for lead hazards and clean floors, window sills etc
regularly.
• Do not stand peeling wall surfaces.
• Always dust off soil from your shoes before entering the house.
Tree puts Delhi Ridge on the edge
begins with pruning the Kikars and simultaneously planting
new trees.
New Delhi: The Ridge is Delhi's pride. It is the green lung that fights urban chaos and concrete jungles. But experts say that the Ridge simply looks green and that it takes more than it gives.
The problem lies with a tree called the Prosopis Juliflura or Vilayati Kikar. Delhi's Ridge forest area is spread over close to 8000 acres, and the Kikar occupies 70 per cent of that area.
Experts say it's an invasive species that has gradually killed the native vegetation in the Ridge.
Says botonist, C R Babu, "Prosopis cover is not providing even 1/100th ecological services that it should provide."
The Kikar has a wide canopy, but unlike native trees like the Mohua or the Berna, it can't control dust storms or help prevent soil erosion or bring down temperatures.
It also uses up a large amount of underground water, killing all undergrowth and grasses near it - something that's worrying environmentalists and even the state government.
Says Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dixit, "Somehow the Kikar grew, but we are very keen and conscious of the fact that there should be a mix of all kinds of tress."
The process of restoring the Ridge begins with pruning the Kikars and simultaneously planting new trees near the pruned tree, something that will take at least 15-20 years.
Improper waste disposal a big hazard
Hindu,
A recent survey by Toxics Link, a non-government organisation, found that every household in the city has some hazardous products stored inside and that ...
Tuesday, June 12
The truth about recycling
From The Economist print edition
As the importance of recycling becomes more apparent, questions about it linger. Is it worth the effort? How does it work? Is recycling waste just going into a landfill in China? Here are some answers
IT IS an awful lot of rubbish. Since 1960 the amount of municipal waste being collected in America has nearly tripled, reaching 245m tonnes in 2005. According to European Union statistics, the amount of municipal waste produced in western Europe increased by 23% between 1995 and 2003, to reach 577kg per person. (So much for the plan to reduce waste per person to 300kg by 2000.) As the volume of waste has increased, so have recycling efforts. In 1980 America recycled only 9.6% of its municipal rubbish; today the rate stands at 32%. A similar trend can be seen in Europe, where some countries, such as Austria and the Netherlands, now recycle 60% or more of their municipal waste. Britain's recycling rate, at 27%, is low, but it is improving fast, having nearly doubled in the past three years.
Even so, when a city introduces a kerbside recycling programme, the sight of all those recycling lorries trundling around can raise doubts about whether the collection and transportation of waste materials requires more energy than it saves. “We are constantly being asked: Is recycling worth doing on environmental grounds?” says Julian Parfitt, principal analyst at Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), a non-profit British company that encourages recycling and develops markets for recycled materials.
Studies that look at the entire life cycle of a particular material can shed light on this question in a particular case, but WRAP decided to take a broader look. It asked the Technical University of Denmark and the Danish Topic Centre on Waste to conduct a review of 55 life-cycle analyses, all of which were selected because of their rigorous methodology. The researchers then looked at more than 200 scenarios, comparing the impact of recycling with that of burying or burning particular types of waste material. They found that in 83% of all scenarios that included recycling, it was indeed better for the environment.Based on this study, WRAP calculated that Britain's recycling efforts reduce its carbon-dioxide emissions by 10m-15m tonnes per year. That is equivalent to a 10% reduction in Britain's annual carbon-dioxide emissions from transport, or roughly equivalent to taking 3.5m cars off the roads. Similarly, America's Environmental Protection Agency estimates that recycling reduced the country's carbon emissions by 49m tonnes in 2005.
Recycling has many other benefits, too. It conserves natural resources. It also reduces the amount of waste that is buried or burnt, hardly ideal ways to get rid of the stuff. (Landfills take up valuable space and emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas; and although incinerators are not as polluting as they once were, they still produce noxious emissions, so people dislike having them around.) But perhaps the most valuable benefit of recycling is the saving in energy and the reduction in greenhouse gases and pollution that result when scrap materials are substituted for virgin feedstock. “If you can use recycled materials, you don't have to mine ores, cut trees and drill for oil as much,” says Jeffrey Morris of Sound Resource Management, a consulting firm based in Olympia, Washington.
Extracting metals from ore, in particular, is extremely energy-intensive. Recycling aluminium, for example, can reduce energy consumption by as much as 95%. Savings for other materials are lower but still substantial: about 70% for plastics, 60% for steel, 40% for paper and 30% for glass. Recycling also reduces emissions of pollutants that can cause smog, acid rain and the contamination of waterways.
A brief history of recycling
The virtue of recycling has been appreciated for centuries. For thousands of years metal items have been recycled by melting and reforming them into new weapons or tools. It is said that the broken pieces of the Colossus of Rhodes, a statue deemed one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, were recycled for scrap. During the industrial revolution, recyclers began to form businesses and later trade associations, dealing in the collection, trade and processing of metals and paper. America's Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), a trade association with more than 1,400 member companies, traces its roots back to one such organisation founded in 1913. In the 1930s many people survived the Great Depression by peddling scraps of metal, rags and other items. In those days reuse and recycling were often economic necessities. Recycling also played an important role during the second world war, when scrap metal was turned into weapons.
As industrial societies began to produce ever-growing quantities of garbage, recycling took on a new meaning. Rather than recycling materials for purely economic reasons, communities began to think about how to reduce the waste flow to landfills and incinerators. Around 1970 the environmental movement sparked the creation of America's first kerbside collection schemes, though it was another 20 years before such programmes really took off.
In 1991 Germany made history when it passed an ordinance shifting responsibility for the entire life cycle of packaging to producers. In response, the industry created Duales System Deutschland (DSD), a company that organises a separate waste-management system that exists alongside public rubbish-collection. By charging a licensing fee for its “green dot” trademark, DSD pays for the collection, sorting and recycling of packaging materials. Although the system turned out to be expensive, it has been highly influential. Many European countries later adopted their own recycling initiatives incorporating some degree of producer responsibility.
In 1987 a rubbish-laden barge cruised up and down America's East Coast looking for a place to unload, sparking a public discussion about waste management and serving as a catalyst for the country's growing recycling movement. By the early 1990s so many American cities had established recycling programmes that the resulting glut of materials caused the market price for kerbside recyclables to fall from around $50 per ton to about $30, says Dr Morris, who has been tracking prices for recyclables in the Pacific Northwest since the mid-1980s. As with all commodities, costs for recyclables fluctuate. But the average price for kerbside materials has since slowly increased to about $90 per ton.
Even so, most kerbside recycling programmes are not financially self-sustaining. The cost of collecting, transporting and sorting materials generally exceeds the revenues generated by selling the recyclables, and is also greater than the disposal costs. Exceptions do exist, says Dr Morris, largely near ports in dense urban areas that charge high fees for landfill disposal and enjoy good market conditions for the sale of recyclables.
Sorting things out
Originally kerbside programmes asked people to put paper, glass and cans into separate bins. But now the trend is toward co-mingled or “single stream” collection. About 700 of America's 10,000 kerbside programmes now use this approach, says Kate Krebs, executive director of America's National Recycling Coalition. But the switch can make people suspicious: if there is no longer any need to separate different materials, people may conclude that the waste is simply being buried or burned. In fact, the switch towards single-stream collection is being driven by new technologies that can identify and sort the various materials with little or no human intervention. Single-stream collection makes it more convenient for householders to recycle, and means that more materials are diverted from the waste stream.
San Francisco, which changed from multi to single-stream collection a few years ago, now boasts a recycling rate of 69%—one of the highest in America. With the exception of garden and food waste, all the city's kerbside recyclables are sorted in a 200,000-square-foot facility that combines machines with the manpower of 155 employees. The $38m plant, next to the San Francisco Bay, opened in 2003. Operated by Norcal Waste Systems, it processes an average of 750 tons of paper, plastic, glass and metals a day.
The process begins when a truck arrives and dumps its load of recyclables at one end of the building. The materials are then piled on to large conveyer belts that transport them to a manual sorting station. There, workers sift through everything, taking out plastic bags, large pieces of cardboard and other items that could damage or obstruct the sorting machines. Plastic bags are especially troublesome as they tend to get caught in the spinning-disk screens that send weightier materials, such as bottles and cans, down in one direction and the paper up in another.
Corrugated cardboard is separated from mixed paper, both of which are then baled and sold. Plastic bottles and cartons are plucked out by hand. The most common types, PET (type 1) and HDPE (type 2), are collected separately; the rest go into a mixed-plastics bin.
Next, a magnet pulls out any ferrous metals, typically tin-plated or steel cans, while the non-ferrous metals, mostly aluminium cans, are ejected by eddy current. Eddy-current separators, in use since the early 1990s, consist of a rapidly revolving magnetic rotor inside a long, cylindrical drum that rotates at a slower speed. As the aluminium cans are carried over this drum by a conveyer belt, the magnetic field from the rotor induces circulating electric currents, called eddy currents, within them. This creates a secondary magnetic field around the cans that is repelled by the magnetic field of the rotor, literally ejecting the aluminium cans from the other waste materials.
Finally, the glass is separated by hand into clear, brown, amber and green glass. For each load, the entire sorting process from start to finish takes about an hour, says Bob Besso, Norcal's recycling-programme manager for San Francisco.
Although all recycling facilities still employ people, investment is increasing in optical sorting technologies that can separate different types of paper and plastic. Development of the first near-infra-red-based waste-sorting systems began in the early 1990s. At the time Elopak, a Norwegian producer of drink cartons made of plastic-laminated cardboard, worried that it would have to pay a considerable fee to meet its producer responsibilities in Germany and other European countries. To reduce the overall life-cycle costs associated with its products, Elopak set out to find a way to automate the sorting of its cartons. The company teamed up with SINTEF, a Norwegian research centre, and in 1996 sold its first unit in Germany. The technology was later spun off into a company now called TiTech.
TiTech's systems—more than 1,000 of which are now installed worldwide—rely on spectroscopy to identify different materials. Paper and plastic items are spread out on a conveyor belt in a single layer. When illuminated by a halogen lamp, each type of material reflects a unique combination of wavelengths in the infra-red spectrum that can be identified, much like a fingerprint. By analysing data from a sensor that detects light in both the visible and the near-infra-red spectrum, a computer is able to determine the colour, type, shape and position of each item. Air jets are then activated to push particular items from one conveyor belt to another, or into a bin. Numerous types of paper, plastic or combinations thereof can thus be sorted with up to 98% accuracy.
For many materials the process of turning them back into useful raw materials is straightforward: metals are shredded into pieces, paper is reduced to pulp and glass is crushed into cullet. Metals and glass can be remelted almost indefinitely without any loss in quality, while paper can be recycled up to six times. (As it goes through the process, its fibres get shorter and the quality deteriorates.)
Plastics, which are made from fossil fuels, are somewhat different. Although they have many useful properties—they are flexible, lightweight and can be shaped into any form—there are many different types, most of which need to be processed separately. In 2005 less than 6% of the plastic from America's municipal waste stream was recovered. And of that small fraction, the only two types recycled in significant quantities were PET and HDPE. For PET, food-grade bottle-to-bottle recycling exists. But plastic is often “down-cycled” into other products such as plastic lumber (used in place of wood), drain pipes and carpet fibres, which tend to end up in landfills or incinerators at the end of their useful lives.
Even so, plastics are being used more and more, not just for packaging, but also in consumer goods such as cars, televisions and personal computers. Because such products are made of a variety of materials and can contain multiple types of plastic, metals (some of them toxic), and glass, they are especially difficult and expensive to dismantle and recycle.
Europe and Japan have initiated “take back” laws that require electronics manufacturers to recycle their products. But in America only a handful of states have passed such legislation. That has caused problems for companies that specialise in recycling plastics from complex waste streams and depend on take-back laws for getting the necessary feedstock. Michael Biddle, the boss of MBA Polymers, says the lack of such laws is one of the reasons why his company operates only a pilot plant in America and has its main facilities in China and Austria.
Much recyclable material can be processed locally, but ever more is being shipped to developing nations, especially China. The country has a large appetite for raw materials and that includes scrap metals, waste paper and plastics, all of which can be cheaper than virgin materials. In most cases, these waste materials are recycled into consumer goods or packaging and returned to Europe and America via container ships. With its hunger for resources and the availability of cheap labour, China has become the largest importer of recyclable materials in the world.
The China question
But the practice of shipping recyclables to China is controversial. Especially in Britain, politicians have voiced the concern that some of those exports may end up in landfills. Many experts disagree. According to Pieter van Beukering, an economist who has studied the trade of waste paper to India and waste plastics to China: “as soon as somebody is paying for the material, you bet it will be recycled.”
In fact, Dr van Beukering argues that by importing waste materials, recycling firms in developing countries are able to build larger factories and achieve economies of scale, recycling materials more efficiently and at lower environmental cost. He has witnessed as much in India, he says, where dozens of inefficient, polluting paper mills near Mumbai were transformed into a smaller number of far more productive and environmentally friendly factories within a few years.
Still, compared with Western countries, factories in developing nations may be less tightly regulated, and the recycling industry is no exception. China especially has been plagued by countless illegal-waste imports, many of which are processed by poor migrants in China's coastal regions. They dismantle and recycle anything from plastic to electronic waste without any protection for themselves or the environment.
The Chinese government has banned such practices, but migrant workers have spawned a mobile cottage industry that is difficult to wipe out, says Aya Yoshida, a researcher at Japan's National Institute for Environmental Studies who has studied Chinese waste imports and recycling practices. Because this type of industry operates largely under the radar, it is difficult to assess its overall impact. But it is clear that processing plastic and electronic waste in a crude manner releases toxic chemicals, harming people and the environment—the opposite of what recycling is supposed to achieve.
Under pressure from environmental groups, such as the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, some computer-makers have established rules to ensure that their products are recycled in a responsible way. Hewlett-Packard has been a leader in this and even operates its own recycling factories in California and Tennessee. Dell, which was once criticised for using prison labour to recycle its machines, now takes back its old computers for no charge. And last month Steve Jobs detailed Apple's plans to eliminate the use of toxic substances in its products.
Far less controversial is the recycling of glass—except, that is, in places where there is no market for it. Britain, for example, is struggling with a mountain of green glass. It is the largest importer of wine in the world, bringing in more than 1 billion litres every year, much of it in green glass bottles. But with only a tiny wine industry of its own, there is little demand for the resulting glass. Instead what is needed is clear glass, which is turned into bottles for spirits, and often exported to other countries. As a result, says Andy Dawe, WRAP's glass-technology manager, Britain is in the “peculiar situation” of having more green glass than it has production capacity for.
Britain's bottle-makers already use as much recycled green glass as they can in their furnaces to produce new bottles. So some of the surplus glass is down-cycled into construction aggregates or sand for filtration systems. But WRAP's own analysis reveals that the energy savings for both appear to be “marginal or even disadvantageous”. Working with industry, WRAP has started a new programme called GlassRite Wine, in an effort to right the imbalance. Instead of being bottled at source, some wine is now imported in 24,000-litre containers and then bottled in Britain. This may dismay some wine connoisseurs, but it solves two problems, says Mr Dawe: it reduces the amount of green glass that is imported and puts what is imported to good use. It can also cut shipping costs by up to 40%.
The future of recycling
This is an unusual case, however. More generally, one of the biggest barriers to more efficient recycling is that most products were not designed with recycling in mind. Remedying this problem may require a complete rethinking of industrial processes, says William McDonough, an architect and the co-author of a book published in 2002 called “Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things”. Along with Michael Braungart, his fellow author and a chemist, he lays out a vision for establishing “closed-loop” cycles where there is no waste. Recycling should be taken into account at the design stage, they argue, and all materials should either be able to return to the soil safely or be recycled indefinitely. This may sound like wishful thinking, but Mr McDonough has a good pedigree. Over the years he has worked with companies including Ford and Google.
An outgrowth of “Cradle to Cradle” is the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, a non-profit working group that has developed guidelines that look beyond the traditional benchmarks of packaging design to emphasise the use of renewable, recycled and non-toxic source materials, among other things. Founded in 2003 with just nine members, the group now boasts nearly 100 members, including Target, Starbucks and Estée Lauder, some of which have already begun to change the design of their packaging.
Sustainable packaging not only benefits the environment but can also cut costs. Last year Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, announced that it wanted to reduce the amount of packaging it uses by 5% by 2013, which could save the company as much as $3.4 billion and reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by 667,000 tonnes. As well as trying to reduce the amount of packaging, Wal-Mart also wants to recycle more of it. Two years ago the company began to use an unusual process, called the “sandwich bale”, to collect waste material at its stores and distribution centres for recycling. It involves putting a layer of cardboard at the bottom of a rubbish compactor before filling it with waste material, and then putting another layer of cardboard on top. The compactor then produces a “sandwich” which is easier to handle and transport, says Jeff Ashby of Rocky Mountain Recycling, who invented the process for Wal-Mart. As well as avoiding disposal costs for materials it previously sent to landfill, the company now makes money by selling waste at market prices.
It does get recycled, honestEvidently there is plenty of scope for further innovation in recycling. New ideas and approaches will be needed, since many communities and organisations have set high targets for recycling. Europe's packaging directive requires member states to recycle 60% of their glass and paper, 50% of metals and 22.5% of plastic packaging by the end of 2008. Earlier this year the European Parliament voted to increase recycling rates by 2020 to 50% of municipal waste and 70% of industrial waste. Recycling rates can be boosted by charging households and businesses more if they produce more rubbish, and by reducing the frequency of rubbish collections while increasing that of recycling collections.
Meanwhile a number of cities and firms (including Wal-Mart, Toyota and Nike) have adopted zero-waste targets. This may be unrealistic but Matt Hale, director of the office of solid waste at America's Environmental Protection Agency, says it is a worthy goal and can help companies think about better ways to manage materials. It forces people to look at the entire life-cycle of a product, says Dr Hale, and ask questions: Can you reduce the amount of material to begin with? Can you design the product to make recycling easier?
If done right, there is no doubt that recycling saves energy and raw materials, and reduces pollution. But as well as trying to recycle more, it is also important to try to recycle better. As technologies and materials evolve, there is room for improvement and cause for optimism. In the end, says Ms Krebs, “waste is really a design flaw.”
Friday, June 8
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Friday, May 18
450 more trees to be cut in Delhi
This tree is one of many hundred that are planned for felling. A distraught graphic designer Pooja, took picture of this one...it is painful to see the lush green tree that housed birds and squirrels...provided shade to pedestrians...struck down from the middle...
Wednesday, May 9
Death of reason defines decision of keeping trees out of Delhi's transport planning
The campaign to bring city trees back into the discourse of transport and urban planning has grown stronger in the past two months. Citizens and civil society organisations of Delhi have joined forces on the specific issue of felling of hundreds of neighbourhood trees to make way for the High Capacity Bus Corridor (HCBS). The fact that the trees that people have lived around for decades and depended on them for protection in this semi-arid area has outraged them.
The fact that close to 30,000 trees have been axed in the past few years for moderninsing and decongesting transport in the National Capital Region seems too much to be swallowed without any reasoning. The question that has been haunting people, who are faced with these broad daylight murders and mutilations in their neighbourhood, is whether any thought was given to the trees while planning these projects.
Or how difficult is the decision to chop a tree? Is anyone negotiating this life and death situation? Should these plans be treated as the final word and a case of the death of imagination of experts in finding innovative solutions?
Questions like these has got people together, not against any particular project or mega plans, but against the death of reason. The commonsense of the argument and support of promiment citizens moved something, somewhere in the Government. Trees for Delhi, a platform of individuals and organisations, got invited to the Chief Minister's Office following a candle-light vigil on a busy roadside and media uproar.
But in the backdrop of a growing support for the trees, a parallel and much practiced discourse of development versus trees was being whipped-up. Letters were sent out to prominent citizens by the Chief Minister's Office, stating that the trees are being cut by a Government that have green credentials and the damage to the green cover will be compensated by planting sapling in city's outskirts.
But these messages did not even make even a single mention of the neighbourhood trees, which is the core issue. There wasn't even a pretence of addressing issues highlighted through a signed by academics, experts, students and housewives.
On 10th of April 2007, the forum made a joint presentation with a plea to Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit to protect the neighbourhood trees by facilitating a mandatory and dedicate tree lane on the roadside. They also presented a primary tree audit of the first stretch of the HCBS project that showed that the ground situation was a free play against trees. The trees on the ground were fewer than listed in the official count. The ones that were to be saved had been cut. Branches from the old trees were planted in the name of re-plantation and those that were still standing were tarred and chocked.
The Chief Minister gave a patient hearing, but had come prepared to stick to the line of steering clear of the main demand. She said a dedicated tree line will not be granted. The issue of so-called compensatory forestry was the peg. No matter what, the official position was to equate these old native trees with sapling that would some day see the light of the day.
A release was faxed by her media managers, even as the meeting was being wrapped up, stating mostly the same things that she had in response to the petition said. She directed a symbolic body of NGOs and implementing agencies, named as the Tree Monitoring Authority. The members returned to the project site barely 48-hours later and this time had some officials to give then company under the summer sun to assess the status of trees. The findings and the engagement once again convinced them about the apathy towards trees. Follow-up meetings that were promised by the Chief Minister have not happened till date, while the defensive interpretation of Delhi's green cover are being churned out in the media.
Incidentally, despite all the coverage and discussion, the issue of neighbourhood city trees is yet to be engaged with by those implementing the project.
Questions have been raised on the lack of transparency that marks the environmental aspect of the project. There is no Environmental Impact Assessment available on the HCBS project. But when you consider the fact that the agencies and experts involved do not even know the role that neighbourhood trees play in an urban setting like Delhi, it becomes easy to understand why they are talking about saplings as forest and aggregate numbers as opposed to specific micro-environments.
A clichéd response that government resorts to is that the trees that are being felled are absolutely necessary. This is not convincing to those who have been following media reports from the gorenment's side. Let's just take the example of the project at hand, the first phase of the five phased 100-km dedicated bus corridor.
When the issue started gaining support and public interest, an official statement was issued saying that of about 3,000 trees that were to felled in the first stretch only 1,800 will now be axed. This was taken with a pinch of salt, considering that even a botanical paradise that houses this city's tree history, the Sundar Nursery, is being eyed for making a tunnel that will de-congest traffic.
However, this statement, and many such that are being made in recent weeks, is a confession that uncovers the stark apathy towards trees and thus the need to re-look at the whole issue. The planners, in a single stroke of pen, can bring down the number of trees to be cut by almost 50 per cent! This means trees could have been saved in the very first place had they been part of the planning.
The issue of compensatory afforestation has little relevance in the context of neighbourhood trees. By virtue of being in the urban setting, these trees play a more immediate role, like shade, blocking of dust, providing habitat to birds and small animals, keeping water table stable and aesthetic relief. In other words, they allow people who are not in air-conditioned vehicle to walk, cycle and wait for buses. A large number of vendors depend on these for operation. Besides in an era of global warming a large tree is sacred. How do you even compare a promised sapling plantation with diverse native urban trees. Should we then expect all the birds and small animals to wait or keep their lives on hold till plantations can support them.
It is easy to draw from all this that the city trees need an epistemic break so far as our transport plans are concerned. A tree is a negotiable element and will continue to be so till trees are integrated into plans and projects through a legislation. Campaigners have been talking about a 2.5 meters of non-negotiable treeline. Make as many roads and expansions as the agencies feel the city requires, but have a treeline alongside.
At the meeting with the Chief Minister, the representatives made some significant recommendations for addressing the issue of destruction of the neighbourhood trees. The key among these is that of a dedicated corridor for trees. The recommendation reads: "A dedicated row/lane or green belt of 3 metres width should be included in planning and implementation. There should be rows of existing and planted native trees, on both sides of the road. This tree row/lane must be protected and inviolate to all inimical uses, like the dedicated lanes being proposed for cyclists, buses, cars etc. This tree row/lane also ideally serve the needs of all road users (especially pedestrians and cyclists) for shade and climate moderation. Planning the cycle row behind the tree row will additionally provide a natural protection between cyclists/pedestrians and motorized vehicles in the other lanes. This row/lane/belt would also provide a critical buffer between busy traffic and the adjoining homes areas, minimizing pollutants and noise. Hence it will harmonize various critical considerations."
The image of a neighbourhood without trees has spurred reactions in far greater forms and depth than our urban planners would have expected. Two of India top academic institutions, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Delhi University, have witnessed sign-on campaigns by faculty members requesting their Vice Chancellors to address the issue of cutting of trees and loss of green cover. Resident Welfare Associations are thinking of ways to join forces and get their opinions across.
Don’t axe the tree, integrate it with transport
Roadside and neighborhood trees in cities like Delhi have been part of the contemporary urban landscape for over a century. They have more than an aesthetic value. On any summer’s day, the red light or the bus stop automatically ‘shifts’ below the nearest tree for scooterists or for pedestrians. Waiting below them is an obvious choice as temperatures can be several degrees lower here. Besides, on pavements, hawkers and water sellers cluster below their shade for some relief from the scorching heat. Semul, dhak, jasmine or jacaurnada bloom at different times (along with bird nesting), jamuns or imli for fruit, or neem etc. for leafy shelter. Several species of birds - sparrows, pigeons, kites, sunbirds, barbets, even hornbills - all nest in them, and form micro ecologies. All provide a welcome barrier between people’s homes and the road. Yet today they are dispensable in the eyes of the transport planner.
Over the past few years, from available figures, over 50,000 trees have already been axed in Delhi, some over 50 to 100 years old, and probably an additional similar number will go before the Commonwealth Games. The pride of Delhi, the Metro, the upcoming mass transport – High Capacity Bus Service (HCBS – 6 stretches totaling over 100 km) with dedicated corridors, new flyovers, road widening, new roads, none consider trees to be important. The transport planner considers the width between two rows of houses as ‘right of way’ and anything in-between is fair game. Hence for the purposes of ‘transport’ trees are obstructions. It is not realized that trees are an essential part of people’s neighborhoods.
It goes without saying, that transport is important, but it too needs to be sanely planned. The approach must be for integrating concerns, and not to force ‘corridors’ the city, where trees are the first casualties. The proposed road tunnel through the Sunder Nursery is a case in point. Delhi is adding over 900 cars every day to its existing over 30 million on its roads. Each car takes the space of two trees.
On the other hand less than 7,000 buses play in lieu of the needed 9,000. Obviously mass transport need to be increased and cars limited. However road plans are not accounting for this. For example after10 pm any evening, there is comparatively no traffic on Delhi’s roads, and one can drive at over 60 km per hour on many stretches. Yet transport corridors seem to be carved out for a few hours of car traffic intensity. As an engineer will confirm, ‘channel’ capacity must not be optimized for peak loads, and that any city in the world will have traffic slow downs in peak hours.
Projects like the HCBS based on dedicated corridors, need to be fully supported for their ability to transport over 10,000 office goers per hour in buses, both for their transport efficiency as well as carbon saving, but they also need to limit road space for cars, not merely expand the corridor. Roadside trees are equally important to pedestrians and cyclists since no one will use a concrete walkway in the mid-summer heat if it has no shade. Yet transport planners do not currently consider the idea of a dedicated tree line, even if it may seem logical.
These projects will take out many existing trees, and not leave or make space for new plantations. Without any un-tarred land being allotted on the ground, trees cannot be planted. In reality the city is facing simultaneous road widening, new flyovers, new metros, new bus lanes all in one go for the Commonwealth Games. There is a dire need for planning to account for existing topographies rather then impose a new barrenness onto it and integration is the answer.
Any city needs traffic management, as London has shown by taxing car entry, and cannot be open-ended. While mass transport must be brought in, simultaneously car traffic needs to be discouraged. Agencies like the ECPA (Bhure Lal Committee) have been arguing for this, but it seems the ‘car’ lobby is much stronger.
The Delhi Tree Preservation Act mandates, among other things, that for each tree cut compensatory afforestation in a ratio of 1:10 must be carried out. This though does not compensate for the ‘neighborhood tree. Even otherwise, often land is not available for it, or provided at a great distance, wrong species are planted, or survival rates are less than 50%. Inspections carried out by citizen’s groups show crowded plantation which will have to be drastically thinned once the trees become a little mature, defeating the purpose of even the 1:10 ratio. In any case, a new sapling cannot compensate for a 50-year-old tree, or for a neighborhood tree.
Each year the Government works with citizens to plant new trees. In Delhi a Greening Action Plan is prepared annually with targets and goals. Saplings are provided free from nurseries, and students partake in tree planting drives along with NGOs. However when these trees are suddenly and silently axed, they become ‘government property!’ While neighborhoods are transformed, no one is asked, told or consulted even though such transport could take years to plan. A consultative process can in fact reap good results. In cities like Pune, for example, monthly public consultations have managed to save many trees from the unnecessarily axe.
In the larger scheme of things those with powers to protect the trees such as the statutory ‘Tree Officer,’ need more teeth and budgets. In Delhi the Planning Commission has sanctioned over 9000 crores for the Commonwealth Games, half of which is for transport but it is unlikely there any money in it for ‘trees’ As a crisis response, Trees for Delhi, a new coalition of well known NGOs and citizens, says that trees are ‘not dispensable’ in their signature campaign supported by well know people.
Trees must be made a mandatory part of the roadside. Anyone who has watered or seen a tree grow will know that it takes years of sun, water, and caring for it to become what it can be. On the other hand, it takes less than minute to run a power saw through it for it to be felled. Many things can be done to improve the situation. For example old and heritage trees can be protected at the planning stage itself, and trees protected or a place made to plant them again on the edge of the road. New trees can be locally planted alongside new roads, new flyovers, or when new road widening is carried out with a dedicated tree line. Resident Welfare Associations can educate local councilors about the need to protect trees and ensure that they take this up with the Transport and Environment Departments.
In case trees have to be cut, all information of ‘which,’ ‘when’ and ‘where’ should be shared with the residents of locality and put in the public domain. Importantly, laws to restrict the number of cars on the roads, or at least stagger their use of road space is critical. Above all, tree lanes are as important as pedestrian, cycle, car and bus lanes. These need to be made integral to transport planning.