Landfills: The Global Challenge We Can No Longer Ignore

Each year, an astonishing volume of waste is produced, and while we've embraced the concept of the 4Rs – Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, and Repair, the question remains: are we truly embodying these principles? According to a United Nations report, only a mere 20 percent of e-waste undergoes formal recycling. Meanwhile, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reports that a mere 9 percent of plastic is recycled. When we broaden our perspective globally, a mere 12 percent of textiles are recycled. So, where does the majority of this waste end up? Simple answer is Landfill.

To fully understand the scenario, it is necessary to classify the various kinds of waste that end up at landfill. This waste includes municipal waste, industrial waste ranging from e-waste to scrap materials, sanitary waste (including menstrual products, sexual health products, and diapers), agricultural waste (including empty pesticide and weedicide containers), and waste from the hospitality industry. As these diverse types of waste converge and are exposed to the cyclical forces of heat and rain, it is not uncommon for contaminants to infiltrate and affect the surrounding ecosystem. While this represents one facet of the problem, the other dimension concerns the allocation of land and space for such waste disposal.

As we commit to mitigating methane emissions, our primary emphasis tends to center around emissions stemming from agriculture, pastoral activities, and the energy industry. Technological solutions are sought to address and reduce these emissions. However, when we turn our attention to methane emissions originating from landfills, the discourse often revolves around solutions like source segregation, which is undoubtedly the most effective approach but faces significant practical challenges. Public engagement and awareness are notably lacking in this regard, and waste collection agencies often lack the necessary resources, both in terms of manpower and operational hours, to implement source segregation effectively.

Some other major issue surrounding landfills:

1. Fire in landfills (a common issue in Indian Subcontinent and African Continent): Fires in landfills can be categorized into two main types: surface fires and deep-seated fires. Firefighters often face greater challenges when dealing with deep-seated fires. An illustrative case occurred in March 2023 in Kerala, India when a landfill site in the state ignited. It took nearly 14 days for the responsible agencies to bring the fire under control. During this time, the affected districts were placed under mandatory lockdown measures, resulting in the closure of schools, workplaces, and the relocation of hospital patients to safer areas. Throughout the landfill fire incident, the Air Quality Index (AQI) soared to a hazardous level, exceeding a reading of 350, indicating that the air quality was severely compromised. Similar incident is currently happening in Bali, Indonesia.
2. Leaching of heavy metals from landfills: The decomposition of waste in landfills, often facilitated by rain and moisture, leads to the leaching of heavy metals and chemicals directly into the soil. This, in turn, contaminates groundwater and nearby water streams. For instance, the Bhalswa Landfill in Delhi, India, a 60 meter garbage mountain, conducted tests on groundwater within a 150-meter radius of the landfill. The results revealed elevated levels of heavy metals such as Lead and Cadmium. The permissible limit for Cadmium, as specified by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), is 0.003 mg/litre, but the samples showed a concentration of 0.015 mg/litre. Similarly, for Lead, the permissible limit is 0.01 mg/litre, yet the samples exhibited a level of 0.26 mg/litre. Additionally, the samples contained a significantly higher level of total dissolved solids (TDS) - four times the permissible limit, which stands at 500 mg/litre. According to medical professionals and researchers, this water is deemed unsuitable for human use. A similar environmental crisis is unfolding at the Amin bazar landfill in Dhaka, Bangladesh. As we transition towards solar energy and battery-powered vehicles, it is imperative to establish a comprehensive waste management policy that addresses this critical issue.
3. Health hazards to the waste management worker on site: Workers on landfill sites play a vital role in manually sorting through the waste for recycling. However, these dedicated individuals often find themselves at the forefront of exposure to life-threatening diseases and infections. This risk arises from the presence of medical, sanitary, and chemical waste that frequently ends up in landfills. According to the findings of the Endocrine Society and the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), plastics have been shown to release hazardous chemicals into the environment. Among these chemicals are endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs), which have been linked to a range of health issues, including reduced fertility, pregnancy loss, irregular menstrual cycles, and other conditions. Additionally, these workers typically lack access to basic facilities such as washrooms and proper hand-cleaning resources. As a result, they are constantly vulnerable to diseases and infections, particularly as they handle sanitary waste without proper sanitation measures in place.

Indeed, the issues related to landfills are numerous and complex, encompassing environmental, health, and social concerns. Addressing these challenges calls for a multi-faceted approach. Essential efforts must be taken to mitigate the adverse impacts of landfills and transition towards more sustainable waste management practices.

Some of the tried and tested solution:

Legislative solutions 

• Imposing fines for non-segregation of waste. South Korea under its waste management rules can impose fines up to $900 on its citizen for not using officially issued plastic bags for waste disposal.
• Driving in citizens, NGOs and Private players, model as adopted by Indore Municipal organization of Madhya Pradesh, India. They successfully created a model which not provided D2D (Door-to-Door) model of segregated garbage collection but also generated energy from garbage which in turn generated revenue and reduced the landfill garbage mountain crisis.

Technological and Scientific solutions

• Waste to energy power plants.
  
  
  
• Plastic easting super worm, a research by Microbial Genomics, scientists from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. These insects can be a ray of hope in future. 
• Plastic waste pyrolysis oil plant, an South Korean model of plastic waste management.

Transnational laws on movement of garbage

• The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal serves as a crucial international treaty to regulate the cross-border movement and disposal of hazardous waste. However, there is a growing need for a similar convention dedicated to the movement of non-hazardous waste. A compelling example of this necessity is the tire graveyard in Kuwait, which imports tires from the United States and Europe. These countries resort to exporting their tires to Kuwait due to stricter environmental regulations in their own nations. By having a convention such pollution export can be handled more efficiently. 

Landfills, with their detrimental environmental, health, and social consequences, represent a critical issue that must be tackled comprehensively. By implementing legislative measures, embracing cutting-edge technology, and advocating for international cooperation, we can transition towards a sustainable future that minimizes waste and maximizes resource utilization. Our actions today will define the well-being of our planet and shape the legacy we leave for generations to come. It's time to turn the tide and pave the way for a more waste-conscious world.

From Click to Carbon: Understanding Email's Eco-Impact

In today's era, most people have at least two email addresses: one for personal usage and one for professional purposes. It's a normal practise to use our email addresses to log in to numerous online services such as meal delivery, cab booking, or online shopping. Unfortunately, we frequently ignore or fail to read and comprehend the significance of the "Opt-ins" or "Email Subscription" options throughout this procedure. As a result, we are bombarded with promotional emails from these businesses. Our standard approach to these emails is to classify them as spam or delete them. We rarely bother to unsubscribe from such email lists, largely because many unsubscribe buttons redirect us to a questionnaire page in which we are not interested to participate.

We often underestimate the environmental impact of our online actions. Every promotional mail that we get has a carbon footprint. While it may seem that a few promotional emails wouldn't harm the environment, but most of us don’t even know of how the internet operates. The fundamental infrastructure behind internet mail transfer includes data centers, satellite and submarine cable infrastructure, DNS servers, local ISP infrastructure, end-user devices, and more. The critical component in this system is the electrical power supply, which serves as its backbone. When we take a broader view of climate change and clean energy, it becomes clear that our simple actions, such as unsubscribing from promotional emails or carefully considering "Opt-in" and "Email Subscription" options, can make a significant difference.

Illustrative diagram for understanding mail transfer via internet

According to an estimate as of 2023 there are nearly 4.37 billion email users which is estimated to increase nearly to 4.7 billion email users by 2026. In 2023 nearly 347 billion emails are sent every day which is 4.23% more than 2022, i.e. in 2022 nearly 333 billion emails were sent per day and it’s estimated that by 2026 the number is set to increase upto 395 billion mails per day.  According to data from Yahoofinance nearly 85% of mail which user receive are of spam category, i.e. a staggering 295 billion mails sent per day are spam. If we dissect the information more, the numbers are quite depressing. For example, according to Mike Berners-Lee, a fellow at Lancaster University who researches on carbon footprints, the footprint of an email varies dramatically, from 0.3g CO2e for a spam email to 4g CO2e for a regular email and 50g CO2e for one with a photo or hefty attachment. Multiplying these carbon footprint figures by number of emails sent per day can be eye-opening. For example, if we assume that every email has carbon foot print of 1g CO2e, and 347 billion email are sent per day then according to this nearly 347 million kg of CO2e is emitted per day and 126.6 billion kg of CO2e is emitted per year, i.e. 126.6 million tonnes per year, so if 85% of received emails are of spam category, nearly 107 million tonnes per year is the CO2e emission from spam emails. To put it in perspective, carbon emission of world per year is 34.7 billion tonnes. If we simply read the "Opt-in" and "Email Subscription" policies carefully, we can potentially reduce 107 million tonnes of carbon emission per year which is quite a lot considering the amount of effort required for click on mouse.

Storing a spam email in our inbox, we are potentially utilizing the cloud storage provided by the email platform. Cloud storage refers to the space allocated to users on server farms within data centers, which demand a substantial electric supply to operate smoothly. According to International Energy Agency, Data centers required around 260-360 terawatt hour (TWh) of electricity in 2022. And according to a research conducted by McAfee, 78% of all incoming mails are spam, around 62 trillion spam mails are sent every year, requiring use of 33 TWh of electricity and causing around 20 million tonnes of CO2e per year.  To put this in perspective, according to data from Statistics Finland's, greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 was 47.8 million tonnes of CO2e.

 

What can individual and businesses do reduce carbon footprint caused by email?

1. Not having multiple email accounts.
2. Reading the Opt-in and Email Subscription policies carefully to not get our email box flooded.
3. Unsubscribing spam email advertisements.
4. Having auto delete feature enabled in our spam mailbox.
5. Exploring alternate advertisement channels instead of email advertisements.
6. Employing email analytics tools to measure email engagement. This can help target email campaigns more effectively, reducing the number of unnecessary emails sent.

 

As individuals, we may have limited options to address the ecological impact of spam emails, but legislative bodies are better equipped to combat this issue, and governments are actively working to tackle it. For instance, the United States has enacted the CAN-SPAM Act, and the European Union has established the ePrivacy Directive (ePD). While these legislations can help in reducing the problem, but its essential to recognize that spam email is a global issue, and therefore, the solutions must also have a global reach.

International organizations such as the United Nations and the World Economic Forum play a crucial role in addressing global challenges. Their involvement is crucial in coordinating efforts to combat spam emails and their associated environmental impact on a worldwide scale. By fostering collaboration and setting international standards, these organizations can help create a more sustainable and effective framework for email communication that benefits both individuals and the environment.

Is Renewable Energy a viable solution?

 

With the recent carbon net neutrality pledges, the debate of sustainability of renewable energy and its supply chain has come in light. When we talk about renewable energy, it simply means the energy which is derived from natural sources such as solar rays, wind or tidal power. However, we usually miss its supply chain discussion, i.e. the process through which the raw material is extracted to make components for renewable energy industry. Magnets for wind turbines, photovoltaic cells for solar energy, and lithium batteries are examples of these components. Rare earth metals are made up of seventeen chemical elements, including 15 lanthanides (lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium), scandium, and yttrium.

 

Despite the name rare earth metals, these are abundantly present in earth, however the process to mining these minerals is difficult, polluting and costly. Extraction of these minerals involves land exploitation, environmental degradation and labour exploitation to say the least. Example, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) mines around 50% of world’s Cobalt supply. One of the largest mineral processors in the country is Huayou Cobalt subsidiary CDM. Huayou Cobalt gets more than 40% of its cobalt from DRC. According to Amnesty International at least  80 artisanal miners had died between 2014 and 2015 in underground mining, child labour is rampant and were paid 2 dollars per day or even less and approximately (as of 2015) 40,000 children were employed in these operations, if we factor in the long term health hazards according to CDC guidelines on  Workplace Safety & Health Topics: Cobalt, long term cobalt exposure can lead to respiratory sensitization, asthma, shortness of breath, and decreased pulmonary function. Sustained skin contact with cobalt can also lead to contact dermatitis. The provided example was specific to one country and one of the numerous rare earth minerals. This serves as a snapshot, the broader global perspective may reveal a much more alarming and disturbing situation.

 

According to India’s NTPC to produce 1 megawatt of energy from thermal power plant we require around 0.7 to 0.8 acre of land, similarly 1 megawatt of solar energy plant would require around 1.5 to 2 acre of no shadow land depending upon the technology and a wind farm would require at least 1 hectare to produce the same. So the question again arises, is the renewable energy really a viable solution?

 

According to Internal Energy Agency, in the year 2000 solar energy output was around 1.4GW which in 2020 has jumped to 760GW. A solar photovoltaic cells which is made up of crystalline silicon have a life span of about 30 years. According to International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), by 2030 panels waste is forecasted at 8 million metric tonnes, which is projected to go up to 80 million metric tonnes by 2050.

 

Do we have technology to treat the waste produced from renewable energy?

Yes, we do have technologies which involves physical to chemical processes to recycle solar panels. However, the unit economics for recycling solar panels is not attractive, according to IRENA, recycling cost of a solar panel can go up to $25 whereas dumping it on landfills cost a meagre 2 to 3 dollars, due to which nearly 10% of solar panel waste never reaches the recycling market.

 

Certainly there are many issues with renewable energy which needs to be addressed, but it is also comparatively much cleaner and green when compared to thermal energy. India’s E-Waste Management Rules 2022 and Europeans Unions Waste Electrical and Electronic equipment (WEEE) rules are few of rules and regulations which can serve as guiding principles for solar waste management and make the recycling technology cost efficient and uniform.

 

Endless wars: Role of Mercenaries in modern conflicts

 

As of 2022, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, more than 50 states around the world were experiencing armed conflicts. Many of these conflicts are more than a decade old, such as the Yemen crisis, the Syrian civil war, and conflicts in the Sahel region.

When we examine these conflicts more closely, we can identify that multiple parties are involved in these crisis. These parties include the government of the state in question, factions supported by external powers, and interest groups. These interest groups often engage in activities like smuggling contraband items and drug trafficking.

In trying to comprehend why these conflicts have lasted for so long, despite the presence of governments actively working to quell violence, arms embargoes designed to limit the flow of weapons into conflict zones, and the existence of institutions such as the United Nations and regional bodies like the African Union's ECOSOCC dedicated to resolving disputes, the simple answer lies in the involvement of mercenaries.

 

Why are mercenaries hired in modern warfares?

1.      The USA faced intense domestic pressure during the Vietnam Crisis, which finally forced the country to withdraw its military from the conflict. When nations use mercenaries in  situations like these, they frequently enjoy a degree of impunity and protection from public scrutiny.

Due to their status as independent contractors driven largely by financial gain, mercenaries may be less influenced by public opinion than normal armed troops. Governments may benefit from some flexibility in their foreign policy choices as a result, enabling them to pursue their objectives with fewer domestic limitations.

2.      Mercenaries are not regular army soldiers engaged in a conflict, they don’t fall under any definitions of United Nations convention like the Geneva Convention or Paris Principle, this creates loopholes that benefit countries employing mercenaries.

3.      Mercenaries are used to protect critical assets or investments of countries in conflict zones. They are often called as corporate mercenaries. Example, Evro Polis is a private military company employed by Syrian government to protect its oil field in conflict regions, they are paying this group with 25% of oil revenue of oil field.

4.      Cyberspace has evolved as a latest arena of warfare, countries are hiring CyberMercenaries to steal critical data of countries without having to take blame for it.

5.      Mercenaries function as freelance entities, typically charging around $500 to $1000 per day per person. This cost-effective approach offers regular armies relief from becoming overstretched.

 

 

Will the endless wars ever end?

Machiavelli held the belief that mercenary armies were inherently unreliable, a concept he referred to as "bloodless wars." His rationale behind this perspective was that mercenary armies, driven by self-interest, were often hesitant to completely defeat their opponents. The reason for this hesitancy was the fear of eliminating a potential employer.

If we go by this view today, it’s very much evident as long as mercenaries are involved these endless wars are never going to end as it might put them out of work. Wagner group can be seen as example in this case, they tried attacking their employers when few demands of their were not met by Russian Government, due to which military advantages were gained by Ukraine which indirectly has prolonged the war.

War is one of oldest business in human history to remain in power, today mercenaries industry has become a multi billion dollar industry employing more than 5 to 7 lakh fighters (example G4S Security has more than 6 lac employees and Wagner group has around 50000 fighters), even if nations try to reduce their dependence, will they be able to do so is a big question.