Students in a school listened to the news read in the morning assembly that the mountain of garbage
in Delhi, suddenly exploded and various vehicles got buried under it. Several people were also injured
and there was traffic jam all around. In the brain- storming session, the teacher also discussed this issue and asked the students to find out a solution to the problem of garbage. Finally, they arrived at two main points - one is self-management of the garbage we produce and the second is to generate lee
garbage at the individual level.
(a) Suggest two measures to manage the garbage we produce.
(b) As an individual, what can we do to generate the least garbage ? Give two points.
(c) List two values the teacher instilled in his students in this episode.
(a) Garbage can be used to landfill and can be used for making fertilizers and manure.
(b) To reduce the garbage we should follow three 'R' rule such as Reuse, Recycle, Reduce.
(c) Value of environment and healthy life.
Management of the garbage we produce and learn to generate less garbage at an individual level.
The following chart shows the time taken for commonly used materials to biodegrade:
|
Item |
Time taken to biodegrade |
|
Cotton rags |
1-5 months |
|
Paper |
2-5 months |
|
Rope |
3-14 months |
|
Orange peels |
6 months |
|
Wool socks |
1-5 years |
|
Plastic coated paper milk cartons |
5 years |
|
Leather shoes |
25-40 years |
|
Nylon fabric |
30-40 years |
|
Tin cans |
50-100 years |
|
Aluminium cans |
80-100 years |
|
Glass bottles |
1 million years |
|
Plastic bottles |
Do not biodegrade at all |
Mention some substances that are biodegradable?
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