How does Non-Biodegradable Pollutants Deteriorate our Environment | How Pollutants Deteriorate our Environment |

 

       How does Non-Biodegradable Pollutants Deteriorate  our Environment

 Environmental deterioration by non-biodegradable pollutants

                                          

The current topic will be cover below-mentioned point and to explain all parts significantly

·         What is non-biodegradable waste

·         How does non-biodegradable waste affect the environment

·         Biodegradable and non-biodegradable pollutants

·         Biodegradable pollutants examples

·         Difference between biodegradable and non-biodegradable pollutants

·         Non-biodegradable pollutants examples

·         What is the difference between degradable and biodegradable

·         What is biodegradable

·         Biodegradable waste examples

·         Non biodegradable waste examples

·         Non biodegradable waste management

·         Biodegradable plastic

·         What are the problems with biodegradable plastics

·         Types of biodegradable plastics

·         How to make biodegradable plastic

·         Biodegradable plastic packaging

·         Biodegradable plastic bottles

·         Biodegradable plastic bags

·         Biodegradable plastic sheeting

·         Bon biodegradable plastic

 

Survival Conditions for Living Organisms

The life of all organisms in the environment depends upon balanced conditions for growth, development, and reproduction.

·         All the essential elements required by the organisms are present in the environment.

·         When the balance of the environment gets disturbed for one reason or the other survival of living organisms becomes difficult.

·         By the entrance of some harmful and unwanted components in the environment this balance of the environment may be disturbed.

·         Thus, any undesirable change which may be physical, chemical, or biological characteristics of the environment, which is harmful to human being directly or indirectly through animals, plants, industrial units or raw materials, is called pollution.

·         That the substance which contaminates air, water, and the soil is called pollutants.

 

                      

 

The pollutants can be classified into two groups

·         Biodegradable pollutants

·         Non-biodegradable pollutants.

 

Non-biodegradable pollutants

Non-biodegradable pollutants are those pollutants which cannot be broken down into simpler, harmless substances in nature itself, are called non-biodegradable pollutants. DDT, plastics, polythene, bags, insecticides, pesticides, mercury, lead, and arsenic, metal articles like aluminum cans, synthetic fibers, glass objects, iron products and silver foils are some examples of non-biodegradable pollutants.

                                   

 

Effects of Waste and non-biodegradable material on the Environment

Waste and non-biodegradable material are generally producing in all countries all around the world. Every year billions of tons of waste are producing. These wastes are due to the activities in our homes, businesses and industries and disposal of this entire large amount is an enormous environmental problem. Large scale pollution of land and water caused by Municipal, industrial, and agricultural solid waste and biomass deposits. The formation of waste causes a loss of materials and energy of our society and also increases environmental costs on society for its collection, treatment, and disposal. The impacts of landfill and incineration on human society are significant because of their potential for greenhouse gas emissions (methane, carbon dioxide) and trans-boundary migration of organic micro-pollutants (dioxins and furans) and volatile heavy metals. Problems and difficulty with waste are as old as the human race.

 

Very soon humans realized that the waste that they generate due to their activities are a potential source of diseases and infections, so they dump their waste, which was totally non-biodegradable, away from their settlements. Until the industrialization of society waste was mostly non-biodegradable so they cannot decompose naturally. Mostly because of industrialization, urbanization, and developing of consumer society amount of waste increase very fast and deteriorating our society as well

 

Municipal Solid Waste

 Municipal solid waste performs the following problems:

·         Discarded food and other organic wastes captivate insects such as flies, which in turn cause a danger to the nearby inhabitants. This also results in an outpouring of bad odour.

·         Improper disposal of plastics bags often leads to blockage of sewage pipes etc. leading to unhygienic conditions for all living beings.

·         Unintentional consumption of plastics among the solid waste by animals, thereby affecting them.

·         Improper disposal attracts dogs, cats, rats, pigs, which may lead to prevalence of diseases like brain fever and many others.

·         Ground water also contaminate by Leachate from the disposal site.

                                

Industrial Waste

·         Improper disposal is the major problem with the industrial waste which may result in the contamination of ground water.

·         It is noted that improper handling of raw materials and indiscriminate disposal of effluents in some of the Acid Slurry manufacturing units has resulted Contamination of ground water (pH and Conductivity are affected)  In a study carried out by PPCC on the impact of Acid Slurry Units on ground water.

                  

 Biomedical Waste

·         There is more harm caused in the form of emission of toxic gases including dioxins (in case of chlorinated plastics) If incinerators are not operated properly to maintain sufficient residence time, residence temperature and turbulence.

·         If the biomedical waste is not disinfected there is possibility of spread of infections among people.

·         Improper disposal of disposable syringes etc. results in illegal recycling. Similarly disposal of sharps without checking and testing often causes injuries to the persons handling the same.

                               

 Effects on Marine Life

·         Non-biodegradable plastic containers and bottles in oceans and estuaries can harm fish, seabirds and other marine life which is a basic part of aquatic ecosystem.

·         Animals that eat plastic can strangle or experience digestion problems and some of them face serious health issues and some may die.

·         Micro plastics, tiny bits of polypropylene or polyethylene, hide beneath the water which are not seen by sea animals and pose a risk as well.

·         As of September 2014, Virginia Institute of Marine Science researchers were developing biodegradable micro beads that break down when microbes in seawater consume them and their life may be a little bit save.

 

Effects on the Land
·         As we know that our planet has already a limited amount of land, and people waste it when they dispose of non-biodegradable materials.
·         Products that do not decompose and degrade naturally may inhabit in landfills and take up space much longer than biodegradable materials.
·         When people litter, some non-biodegradable rubbish may not even make it into landfills.
·         Instead, it may make its way into forests, parks, fields, and the sea and held there for several decades.
·         Styrofoam, also known as foamed polystyrene, is a non-biodegradable substance that can cause environmental problems when it becomes litter and become a big issue for human health.
·         For instance, styrene, a neurotoxin at high doses, can leach out of polystyrene materials when temperatures climb and as we know that neurotoxins are such a big trauma for human health.
 

 

Effects on air

·         Air pollution is a major environmental problem around the world, due to rapid world population growth.

·         Industrialization and urbanization have recently made air pollution as a major environmental problem around the world.

·         The air pollution was reported to have been stimulated by dust and particulate matters (PMs) particularly fine particles such as PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ which are released mainly through natural and anthropogenic processes.

·         Dust storms, soil erosion, volcanic eruptions and rock weathering are natural processes which release particulate matters into air

·         Industrial and transportation are anthropogenic activities which makes environment unhealthy for life.

·         Skin and eyes irritation, respiratory infections, premature mortality and cardiovascular diseases are widely caused by particulate matters so that they require special attention as they can lead to serious health problems.

·         Deterioration of infrastructure, corrosion, the formation of acid rain, eutrophication and haze are some other drawbacks of pollutants.

·         Among all these problems  heavy metals  is also a serious or big  issue in these days such as group 1 metals (Cu, Cd, Pb), group 2 metals (Cr, Mn, Ni, V, and Zn) and group 3 metals (Na, K, Ca, Ti, Al, Mg, Fe) originate from industrial areas, traffic, and natural sources, respectively deteriorate the ecosystem .

 

Effect of poor disposal on human health

“Pollution slowly kills the planet”

·         The importance of human health can never be overemphasized.

·         Anything that is capable of affecting the health of man adversely should be adequately addressed.

·         One of such hazardous problems are improper to refuse disposal.

·         Improper disposal of refuse constitutes an alarming threat to human health.

·         Poor disposal of waste is a public health problem and thus impacts negatively on human health and its natural environment.

·         Heaps of improperly disposed of refuse which are lying everywhere enhances the breeding of rodents, vectors, and emission of bad odors which are transmitters of various forms of contagious diseases.

·         Where refuse are not properly stored and disposed, insects, rodents and bad odors proliferate. An annoyance condition becomes the outcome of those circumstances.

·         Empty tins, bottles, tyres, plastic containers and even drums Components of refuse.

·         All these things are capable of holding water thus serve as a very good breeding site for mosquitoes.

·         Where drains are turned into dumping grounds for rubbish, it also becomes a very good breeding ground for various kinds of mosquitoes. The result of this is human infestation with malarial parasites.

·         Vectors include flies which are involves in the transmission of feco-oral diseases, culex mosquitoes transmit microfilaria and aedes mosquitoes transmit dengue and yellow fever.

·         Diseases like plague, salmonella and leptospirosis are commonly transmitted through rodents. They are common source of these infectious diseases.

·         Rodents also attract very dangerous species of snakes whose bite can even kill especially where immediate intervention with anti-snake venom is not easy to come by.

·         Tuberculosis and other forms of respiratory tract infections are also common in the areas where pollution reaches to peak.

·         Surface or underground water which is the basic necessity of various life forms is capable of being contaminated through the washing of the rubbish and garbage by storms and floodwater into these sources of water.

·         Water becomes contaminated and unfit for human consumption also. Unfortunately in places where water supply is not proper, people will still consume this contaminated water and thereby become susceptible to one form of water borne disease or the other.

·         Those that live in the water side empty their human use that contaminated water for drinking and cooking.

·         The end result of this ignorant act is water-borne diseases.  

·         Water borne diseases include cholera, dysentery, and typhoid fever and as well as guinea worm infestations are the major problem in these areas.

·         The aesthetic aspect of poor refuse disposal cannot be missed out.

·         Heaps of improperly disposed of garbage further narrows roads, increases traffic congestion, blocks the views of drivers. This further makes human lives at risk.

 How does Non-Biodegradable Pollutants Deteriorate  our Environment

Note

This article title “Environmental deterioration done by non-biodegradable pollutants” writing credit goes to MPhil scholar Zainab Ahsan Department of chemistry, Government college women university Faisalabad, Pakistan