32 CARBON FOOTPRINT AND THE 3R’S POLICY

B. Loganayaki

epgp books

 

 

 

 

Introduction:

 

 

Atmospheric concentrations of both the natural and man-made gases have been rising over the last few centuries due to the industrial revolution. As the global population has increased and our reliance on fossil fuels (such as coal, oil and natural gas) has been firmly solidified, so emissions of these gases have risen. While gases such as carbon dioxide occur naturally in the atmosphere, through our interference with the carbon cycle (through burning forest lands, or mining and burning coal), we artificially move carbon from solid storage to its gaseous state, thereby increasing atmospheric concentrations

 

Carbon foot print is the amount of carbon emission by any activity or industry. One can compare ecological foot print with the other elements of human demand. Human demands include our food sources, requirements of resources for consumption of goods, land used for building, roads etc. More than 50 percent of ecological foot print is due to rapidly growing needs of human beings. It also means the impact created by the environment due to human activities. Greenhouse gas footprint, refers to the amount of GHG that are emitted during the creation of products or services. It is more comprehensive than the commonly used carbon footprint, which measures only carbon dioxide, one of many greenhouse gases. Hence it is most necessary to reduce the carbon foot print produced by humanities.

 

Mention the sources of carbondioxide emissions

 

Natural-decomposition, ocean release and atmosphere respiration Human-Activities like burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) 87. /.emission, deforestation, 9 percent, industrial process-cement production, brick manufacturing etc, 4. Hence co2 emission from combustion of fossil fuels is the largest human source. Energy released by burning of these fuels is turned into heat, electricity or power for transportation. In 2011, use of fossil fuel created 33.2 billion tones of co2 emissions worldwide. Coal is the largest fossil fuel produces approximately 2.5 tonnes of co2 for every tone of coal burned. Anything that involve fossil fuel has co2 emission.

 

What are the ways an individual release carbon in the environment?

When we quote phone as an example, when it is used, It runs through electricity, and electricity is made from burning coal or natural gas.

 

Objectives:

  • To use energy efficient appliances for reducing carbon foot print
  • To adopt the 3R policy of reduce, reuse and recycle to minimize the carbon emissions
  • To assess the sources and ways in which an individual release carbon emission.
  • To reduce carbon foot print for protecting the environment

 

How will you calculate your carbon foot print?

 

Carbon foot print is the sum total of CO2 emitted out of our activities in a given time. It is usually calculated for a year. In other words it is the total amout of green house gases produced. Co2 is a greenhouse gas which causes global warming.

 

A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the green house effect. The primary greenhouse gases in earths atmosphere are watervapor, carbondioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone. Without greenhouse gases, the average temperature of earths surface would be about −18 °C (0 °F), rather than the present average of 15 °C (59 °F).Since the beginning of Industrial Revolution human activities (taken as the year 1750) have produced a 40% increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, from 280 ppm in 1750 to 400 ppm in 2015.

 

The first step to go green is to understand your carbon footprint. Whether it’s for your or your workplace, it’s important to understand how much Carbon Dioxide you are generating per year so you know what to focus on. Once you understand your carbon footprint, you’re ready to start your Carbon Diet! Due to the complexity of this subject, we have divided the process of how to go green into five subject areas. Experts suggest we need to reduce our carbon footprint by as much as 80 percent to effectively reverse global warming. Discover what factors contribute to global warming and then do your part by measuring and reducing your carbon footprint.

 

Reduction of Carbon Footprint is necessary to save environment:

 

 

Environment protection, Global warming and climate change are most priority of everybody – nations’, companies’ and individuals’. Reducing carbon foot prints is the topmost concern.

 

A. Carbon footprint is a ‘measure of the impact of human activities leave on the environment in terms of the amount of green house gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide’. It is meant to be useful for individuals and organizations to conceptualize their personal or organizational impact in contributing to global warming.

 

Reduce your carbon footprint. Whether in coal, oil or gas, carbon is the essential ingredient of all fossil fuels. When these fuels are burned to provide energy, carbon dioxide (CO2), a “greenhouse gas”, is released to the Earth’s atmosphere.

 

As we’ve become more dependent on carbon-based fuels, we’ve seen a rapid increase in the atmospheric concentration of CO2; from around 280 parts per million (ppm) before the industrial revolution, to 370 ppm today. If current trends of fossil fuel use continue the concentration of CO2 is likely to exceed 700 ppm by the end of this century. According to experts, this could lead to global warming of between 1.4 and 5.8°C, which may results in more frequent severe weather conditions and damage to many natural ecosystems. Many believe that it is realistic to promote actions that ensure stabilization of atmospheric CO2 concentrations at around 500-550 ppm. This is a considerable challenge, given that global energy demand is expected to double between 2000 and 2050. To achieve carbon stabilization, we need to ask ourselves some tough questions:

 

Reducing carbon foot print save the Planet-Justify this statement.

 

Ways to reduce Carbon Foot Print

 

The most common way to reduce the carbon foot print of humans is to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. In manufacturing, this can be done by recycling the packing materials. It is best to recycle the disposable items properly after use. If the household recycle at least half of their household waste, they can save 1.2 tons of carbondioxide annually. Other methods to reduce carbon foot print is shown below:

 

Reducing carbon foot print at home

 

Today’s lifestyle is much depended on more usage of electrical appliances. Use of electricity, coal, gas and oil are the major cause of carbon foot print. On the use of computer for every 32 hours,1 kg co2 is emitted into the air. Refrigerators, dryers, ovens, washing machines also emit co2. Reducing the use of these appliances or energy efficient appliances can decrease carbon foot print. So make energy efficiency a primary consideration when choosing new electrical appliances. Products bearing the ENERGY STAR label are recognized for superior efficiency.

 

Turn off lights when you leave the home. Replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent or LED. Do not set the thermostat too high or low. A programme model can be installed to turn off the heat/air conditioning when you are not at home. Setting the thermostat 2degrees low during winter and higher in summer could save about 1 ton of carbon dioxide each year.

 

Install solar panels to the roof of your home, which costs little more than other one. But avail subsidies by the manufacturing agencies. This will reduce the electricity bill or even earn money by selling electricity back to the grid.

 

Read your electric meter. Each day record your kilowatt-hours (kWh) used. Every kilowatt-hour produces 1.5 pounds of CO2. But for every kilowatt-hour used, 2.2 are wasted, or lost, during transmission over electrical lines. Therefore, small changes can have a big impact. Reduce your usage by replacing standard light bulbs to compact fluorescents. Keep in mind, fluorescent light bulbs contain mercury so proper disposal at your local recycling center is a must. Turning off computers when not in use can reduce their carbon footprint by 50 percent.

 

The major influence on a persons carbon foot print is choice of diet. Animal protein especially red meat, rice which is produced in high methane emitting paddies ,foods transported from long distance and heavily processed and packaged fods are the major contributors to a high carbon diet. Scientists at the University of Chicago suggest that by replacing one third of the animal protein in average Americans diet with plant protein eg beans,grains can reduce the diets carbon foot print by half a tone.

 

The more you drive the car, the more carbondioxide your car emit into the atmosphere. For each gallon of gas used, co2 emitted is 8.7 kg. Public transportation used reduce co2 emissions. Electric cars emit no carbondioxide if they are charged with clean electricity (home’s solar panels).

 

Other ways to reduce carbon footprint

 

Always purchase water efficient shower heads ,faucet heads,toilets,dishwashers and washing machine. By installing drip irrigation in the garden , plants receive only what they need. Large amount of potable water is consumed for non essential purposes. It is advisable to collect and use rainwater for most of our activities other than drinking. One has to minimize the usage of water to reduce carbon footprint.

 

Whenever possible follow clean alternatives to fossil fuels, such as wind, solar, geothermal and appropriately designed hydroelectric and biomass energy projects.

 

Buy locally grown food- This will reduce the food miles. By eating seasonal and locally grown vegetables we put less stress on the earth. If purchased at farmers market and specialty local food shops , we not only consume locally grown foods but also cut the travel significantly.

 

So what is 3Rs? Is it just an acronym for better waste management?

Solid waste is explained as thrown off and unwanted material. Global warming and environmental problems are caused by wastes. Wastes are categorized into several types such as commercial waste, solid waste, construction waste and medical waste. Waste management is currently one of the most important factors in each society that should be paid attention. In traditional concept waste has no value and is unavoidable (Shen et al., 2002). Growing population and rapid urbanization in each country, increases solid waste products. Basically, generated solid waste is related to the population’s lifestyle and the economic situation in which the people are engaged. Most of the people’s concept originated from this idea that it is the liability of the government to handle the waste cycle (Hezri, 2010). Each local authority should keep its area clean; for example, factories, municipalities and some other organizations have to offer some methods about the participation of people or other propose innovations for Reduce, Reuse and Recycle waste. Management method of generated waste is affected by solid waste generation(Serpell, 1998). Since the encouragement to response to sustainable development, traditional waste management system has changed to a new waste management system; that is, from singular selection support on the places of the waste to more concepts of waste is called 3R concept. Reducing waste, Recycling and Reusing resources are three components of 3R concept. Reducing means choosing and utilizing factors to decrease the produced waste value. Recycling means using waste as a resource. Reusing involves using the waste that still has useable situation. Reduce is the most important factors compared to Reuse and Recycle for minimizing the waste.

 

In different countries all over the world energy has been considered as a very vital factor for different social and also economic developments in a country. Different people are concerned with the concept of the energy in their daily life. Malaysia as country which is located in the Equator area has different resources of renewable energies which have not been used yet namely solar, hydro, wind and also biomass. In the field of construction usually three different kinds of energy are concerned namely the energy that is used in the homes, embodied kind of energy in the materials, and finally inherent energy (Norman et. al, 2006). Usually energy in relates to the type of energy that is going to be used by the inhabitants of the buildings like lights and heating the water. On the other hand embodied energy relates to the amount of energy which is essential for the final product in the construction sites like gathering required raw type of the materials, producingand also processing the required materials in the site, carrying the materials to the site and also collecting different required items. And finally last category relates to the inherent type of energy in which, materials will have different combustion or different chemical procedures may happen which may release energy Malaysian context. To this aim different construction waste sources and the way of its management in the context of Malaysia has been reviewed. Usually the carbon footprint relates to the Greenhouse Gases (GHG) that has been distributed in the air by different people, factories and also products (Rahman et. al, 2010). The primary components of the GHG in the earth atmosphere consist of vapour of the water, dioxide of the carbon, methane, nitrous oxide and also ozone (Kasbon et. al, 2010). The most important GHG relates to the Carbone dioxide (CO2) which has more than 50% of the Greenhouse consequences (Vujatovic & Lai, 2003

 

The popular and well-known concept of “3R” refers to reduce, reuse and recycle, particularly in the context of production and consumption. It calls for an increase in the ratio of recyclable materials, further reusing of raw materials and manufacturing wastes, and overall reduction in resources and energy used. These ideas are applied to the entire lifecycles of products and services – from design and extraction of raw materials to transport, manufacture, use, dismantling/reuse and disposal.

 

These 3R concepts are to evaluate our consumer consciousness. That is to buy less products. Use more of what you have already and discard without causing any impact to environment.

 

More supermarkets and ecofriendly shops give the consumers discount for using their own reusable canvas shopping bags Reduce your accessibility, repair if something is broken and reuse it instead of just throwing out.Also encourage others to use the recycled products.

 

One can plan garden to grow their own vegetables. Planting more number of trees will purify the air and bring down the carbon emission rate. By planting more trees, the temperature comes down as it counterbalances the greenhouse gases and reduces the carbon footprint.

 

Recycling is an environmental virtue but it is always better to reduce or reuse rather than recycling. Recycling also reduces energy, water and pollution related to manufacturing. Manufacturing of new paper, mental or glass from recycled material saves 70./. to 90./. of energy and pollution, including CO2. Recycling also keep the materials out of landfills and incinerators. Interms of appearance ,performance and cost, there is no difference between recycled and virgin –content products. So one can buy recycled content.

  In 1999, recycling and composting activities prevented about 64 million tons of material from ending up in landfills and incinerators. USA recycles 28 percent of its waste, a rate that has almost doubled during the past 15 years. 42 percent of paper, 40 percent of plastic soft drink bottles, 55 percent of aluminum beer and soft drink cans, 57 percent of steel packaging, and 52 percent of major appliances are now recycled.

Local farmers grow healthy, delicious fruits and vegetables. As an environmentally conscious consumer, make the best green purchasing decision. This will reduce the eclological foot prints. Some hints for recycling is given below:

 

  • Make it a habit to sort recyclables from the trash
  • For materials like fluorescent lights, batteries ,electronics contact the recycling department located in your locality
  • The manufacturing companies make decision to make products to be recycled,and take back their old products for recycling when we are ready to replace these items. As many companies are redesigning things to be easier on the planet, they are making reduction in our ecological footprints.

 

Reduce – in a simple way it means reducing what we buy and use. While purchasing spent on durable items, which may cost high due to its quality. How to reuse the materials that we have already?

 

Worn out cloth materials s doormat/door curtain

 

Old bottles could be used for storage of other food items.

 

Sullage water diverted to kitchen garden

 

Kitchen waste can be converted as compost for garden

 

Can you tell other greenhouse gases emitted by the humanities:

 

Methane and Ozone- These greenhouse gases are also taken into consideration for the carbon footprint. is a hydrocarbon, a primary component of natural gas. As it is a greenhouse gas its presence in the atmosphere affects the earths temperature and climate system. Methane is emitted from human and natural sources. Human sources include landfills, agricultural activities, coal mining, stationary and mobile combustion, waste water treatment and certain industrial process, transportation and use of fossil fuels. The main natural sources include wetlands, termites and oceans. These sources create 36 percent of methane emissions.

 

Human related sources create the majority of 64 percent methane emissions (major human activities like fossil fuel and intensive farming).

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