The study by the environmental group raises serious concern on the current focus on ‘recycling’ to address the challenges of dealing with rising e-waste volumes globally and stresses on the need to bring in holistic solutions and shift focus from mere recycling to other aspects of a circular economy like reduce and repair.
The study titled, ‘Quantitative analysis of Microplastics along River Ganga’ finds that the river is heavily polluted with microplastics. It has thrown up alarming results as microplastics were found in all the samples.The river water testing was carried out in collaboration with the National Institute of Oceanography in Goa and a set of five water samples were collected from the river at Haridwar, Kanpur and Varanasi. The samples were tested through FTIR to identify the exact type or resin core and the results show presence of significantly high (40) different kinds of polymers as microplastics in Ganga waters. Resins like EVOH, Polyacetylene, PIP, PVC and PVAL were predominant in all three locations. However, the concentration of microplastics was significantly different in different sampling sites. Locations with higher population density and greater industrialisation (textile, tannery, etc.,) etc.,had a higher microplastics concentration in the river.The study findings indicated higher microplastic levels in the samples collected from Kanpur and Varanasi in comparison to Haridwar. Among the three cities, Varanasi showed the maximum load of microplastics in the Ganga waters as compared to the other two cities.
This study is an indication on the overall status of the mercury-free alternative products in India. It was found that in some of the sectors like health care and lamps, India has made considerable progress in shifting to the alternative products. However, the cost and quality of the products are the major concerns for India considering the wide diversity of the socio-economic class of people living in the country. Further information on the health hazards of mercury is low among the consumers, traders, manufacturers and the workers as well.Another important aspect of the study is that the domestic demand for mercury and mercury-free products are largely met with the import from China. Incidentally the study also reflected that with the ban on export of mercury products from China, business is getting affected particularly of health care instruments like thermometer and sphygmomanometer.Nevertheless, there are industries which are manufacturing mercury-free products in India and with suitable policy and government handholding India can become a manufacturing hub for the mercury-free products.Therefore, it’s the right time for the government to assess the current scenario and act accordingly to make it a mercury-free country and also emerge as a manufacturing hub for mercury-free products.
The study titled ‘Clean Drinking Water: A pipe dream?’, which assesses microplastics in tap water in Goa reveals that the drinking water supplied to Goan homes is contaminated with plastics. The study, which assessed tap water from Margao, Panjim, Mapusa, Marcel and Canacona and the water treatment plants in Goa found Microplastic particles in all the water samples and raises concern over increasing microplastic contamination of our water bodies.
