Plastics, which are infinitely useful materials, are ever present in our lives today. A quick look around one’s house, whether in a city or in a village, will confirm this…
Where do solar modules go when they are no longer in use? What happens when a wind turbine finishes its lifecycle? Or an electric car battery stops working? The first…
Most of us forget about our waste once it is discarded into dustbins or municipal garbage trucks. Municipalities and waste management companies are only at the tip of an iceberg…
As the COVID-19 pandemic brought sweeping changes to lifestyles, it also altered an important but seldom thought-of aspect of human existence – trash. The pandemic has drastically changed the types and…
Over the last decade, the waste industry has been quietly growing. Given the growing rates of trash generation, this is hardly a surprise. In 2012, the world generated 1.3 billion…
Around 20 years ago, Karmo Devi, a resident of Majra village in Himachal Pradesh’s largest industrial area, Nalagarh, dug a well for drinking water. For 20 consecutive years, she and…
The Indian government’s pollution watchdog has proposed new guidelines to steer decommissioning of coal-based power plants in the country, suggesting a range of measures including an Environmental Management Plan (EMP)…
Plastic is a boon to many industries as a versatile material that can be moulded into myriad products from simple packaging bags to life-saving medical devices. When a plastic product…
Bhaulal Kushwaha grew up around banana plantations, playing hide-and-seek amidst rows of plants while helping his parents. Growing bananas is now his profession and also his passion. But for the…
Every summer, the population in the northern union territory of Ladakh swells significantly. With a local population of about 274,000 people, the number doubles as around 300,000 tourists visit the…
When Sowete-ü K. Letro was growing up in Dimapur, a town in the northeast Indian state of Nagaland, she had a habit of collecting things. The 27-year-old Letro recalls how…
Bihar’s capital Patna will soon get a plastic waste processing plant, according to the recommendations of the Fifteenth Finance Commission. Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Varanasi are the other cities selected for…
Though still a niche market, “environment-friendly chocolates”, which are being developed with low-waste processes and social consciousness, are gaining a steady, loyal customer base in India. For Nitin Chordia, the…
The new vehicle scrappage policy announced by Nitin Gadkari, Road Transport and Highways Minister on March 18, has left Zafar Miyan clueless. Zafar owns two trucks both little more than…
How much menstrual waste does India generate? A 2018 report by WaterAid India and Menstrual Hygiene Alliance India (MHAI) states that there are 336 million menstruating women in India, out of which…
Living in Haryana, the hills of Himachal Pradesh were a distant dream for young Pradeep Sangwan. He attended a military school in Ajmer, Rajasthan where he lived a disciplined life…
In 2016, the Government of India (GOI) launched a policy for city waste management. The plan was simple yet innovative − to convert the organic kitchen waste into manure for…
Goa, famous for its beaches, has always been a tourism hotspot. The state has a steady footfall of tourists throughout the year. The image of Goa, in popular media, as…
Dive into the clear, shallow waters of the Gulf of Mannar and you'd be met with more than a hundred species of corals. Among these vivid corals of varying shapes…
It was a proud moment for India when in October 2020, the government announced that close to 99% of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and 100% of rural India have achieved…