Zero Waste Zero Hazwaste Zero Packaging Waste Mrs

Zero Waste, Zero Haz-waste, Zero Packaging Waste Mrs Almitra H Patel, Member Supreme Court Committee for Solid Waste Management almitrapatel@rediffmail. com www. almitrapatel. com 1

ZERO WASTE IS POSSIBLE in homes, offices, businesses, factories, campuses. Haz-waste and nuisance wastes can be minimized Packaging received and shipped out should be fully recyclable CII can help promote policies for this 2

BECOME A ZEROWASTE ‘FAMILY’ ALL YOUR EMPLOYEES MUST PLEDGE HOME COMPLIANCE TOO Just keep kitchen, fruit, flower and leaf waste free of plastics and other nonbiodegradable waste. Dry waste can be stored onsite for weekly collection 3

KEEPING DISCARDS UNMIXED IS THE KEY ‘Wet’ food wastes can be fed to animals, buried in garden pits or trenches for fertilizer. Composting or biogas generation can be done at home, commercial, factory or institute level. 4

DON’T DISCARD YOUR PROFITS Dry wastes can be recycled. It helps to keep paper, plastics and other wastes separate to get better value. Suryapet, pop. 103, 000 , earned Rs 55, 000 per month in 2004 just by collecting wet and dry wastes separately and sorting dry waste before sale. 5

MINIMISE HAZWASTES BY WISE PURCHASE POLICIES Buy only LOW-MERCURY TUBELIGHTS. Or use LEDs or CFLs Specify only LEAD-FREE paints and pigments for own use or your products NO PVC FOLDERS, STATIONERY OR LABELS. PVC generates dioxins when burnt on roadside or in mixed-waste dump fires 6

MINIMISE YOUR WASTE FOOTPRINT OFF-SITE Use LOW PHOSPHORUS DETERGENTS to minimize weed growth in lakes. Phosphorus is costly and badly needed on land, but not in water-bodies Phosphate detergents are a huge cost to environment and tax-payers 7

CII MUST PLAY A ROLE Urge Consumer Affairs Ministry to mandate content labeling, so as to help consumers to make green choices: Detergent labels must show phosphorus content Fluorescents labels must state mercury content Paints must declare heavy-metals contents 8

CONSCIOUSLY MINIMISE WASTE Avoid disposable items in canteens, watercoolers, tea/coffee machines. Employees should bring their own mugs or flasks. Avoid bottled water at meetings, serve safe water in bottles or jugs instead Minimise plastic folders at meetings Give a flower, not a bouquet in plastic 9

MINIMISE PACKAGING WASTE, INWARD & OUT Make bottled drinks suppliers take back their empty bottles on return trip Ask vendors to supply you goods in returnable packaging Take back your own packaging if not easily purchased by scrap dealers Minimise needless packaging such as plastic wrappers on magazines. Use compostable plastic where reqd 10

THERMOCOLE (EPS) IS A NUISANCE WASTE It is technically recyclable but too bulky and costly to transport to recyclers Insist on thermocole-free supplies to you Avoid it in your own packaging. Use bubble-wrap, paper-pulp instead 11

REDESIGN YOUR OWN MULTI-LAYER PACKAGING FOR EASY RECYCLABILITY Post-consumer PE-Nylon-PP multifilms are not purchased or recycled because of widely different softening- and melting-points. All dumps are full of them. Change your packaging material or work with both suppliers and scrap buyers to 12 avoid countrywide pollution.