URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

Consumerism and Waste Products

EVS

Digital Assignment Submitted On: 13 Sept 2015

Submitted By-

Vinit Shahdeo

URBANISATION and it’s

IMPACT OVER

ENVIRONMENT

SOLUTION APPROACH

CONSUMERISM

CAUSES OF

CONSUMERISM

PROBLEMS CAUSED BY

CONSUMERISM

SOLUTION

APPROACHES

WASTE PRODUCTS

DIFFERENT TYPES OF

WASTE PRODUCTS

PROBLEMS CAUSED BY

WASTE PRODUCTS

SOLUTION

APPROACHES

B.TECH-IT

VIT University

Urbanisation

Urbanization is a process that leads to the growth of cities due to

industrialization and economic development, and that leads to urban-

specific changes in specialization, labor division and human behaviors.

The population is growing at the rate of about 17 million annually which

means a staggering 45,000 births per day and 31 births per minutes. If

the current trend continues, by the year 2050, India would have 1620

million populations. Due to uncontrolled urbanization in India,

environmental degradation has been occurring very rapidly and causing

many problems like shortages of housing, worsening water quality,

excessive air pollution, noise, dust and heat, and the problems of disposal

of solid wastes and hazardous wastes.

IMPACT OF URBANIZATION OVER ENVIRONMENT

Probably most of the major environmental problems of the next century

will result from the continuation and sharpening of existing problems that

currently do not receive enough political attention. The problems are not

necessarily noticed in many countries or then nothing is done even the

situation has been detected. The most emerging issues are climate

changes, freshwater scarcity, deforestation, and fresh water pollution and

population growth. These problems are very complex and their

interactions are hard to define. It is very important to examine problems

trough the social-economic-cultural system. Even the interconnections

between environmental problems are now better known, we still lack

exact information on how the issues are linked, on what degree they

interact and what are the most effective measures. One problem is to

integrate land- and water use planning to provide food and water security

(UNEP 1999).

Impact of Urbanization over environment

1. Impact on atmosphere and climate Creation of heat island.

Change in air quality.

Change in patterns and precipitation.

2. Impact on lithosphere and land resources Erosion and other changes in land quality.

Pollution

3. Impact on hydrosphere and water resources

Flow of Water into Streams. Flow of Water through Streams.

Degraded Water Quality.

4. Impact on biosphere Modification of Habitats.

Destruction of Habitats.

Creation of New Habitats.

Types of problems?

Loss of public space. The majority of roads are publicly

owned and free of access.

Increased traffic has adverse impacts on public activities

which once crowded the streets such as markets, agoras,

parades and processions, games, and community

interactions.

These have gradually disappeared to be replaced by

automobiles.

In many cases, these activities have shifted to shopping

malls while in other cases, they have been abandoned

altogether.

Traffic flows influence the life and interactions of

residents and their usage of street space. More traffic

impedes social interactions and street activities.

People tend to walk and cycle less when traffic is high. Environmental impacts and energy consumption.

Pollution, including noise, generated by circulation has

become a serious impediment to the quality of life and

even the health of urban populations.

Further, energy consumption by urban transportation has

dramatically increased and so the dependency on

petroleum.

Accidents and safety. Growing traffic in urban areas is

linked with a growing number of accidents and fatalities,

especially in developing countries.

Accidents account for a significant share of recurring

delays.

As traffic increases, people feel less safe to use the

streets.

Land consumption. The territorial imprint of

transportation is significant, particularly for the

automobile.

Between 30 and 60% of a metropolitan area may be

devoted to transportation, an outcome of the over-

reliance on some forms of urban transportation.

Yet, this land consumption also underlines the strategic

importance of transportation in the economic and social

welfare of cities.

Freight distribution. Globalization and the materialization

of the economy have resulted in growing quantities of

freight moving within cities.

As freight traffic commonly shares infrastructures with

the circulation of passengers, the mobility of freight in

urban areas has become increasingly problematic.

City logistics strategies can be established to mitigate the

variety of challenges faced by urban freight distribution.

SOLUTION APPROACH

Learn to love nature and environment.

Applied learning is necessary from the teen age.

Proper connectivity of environmental law and its application to

the civic society.

Expand the periphery of environmental impact assessment to

different disciplines like vehicle market and buyers, urban

activities etc.

Reduce personal traffic and make public transport popular.

Make Go Green concept universal for all the activities.

Improve the governance structure to make it more efficient.

Make urban planning more inclusive. Use GIS, MIS and other

technology for more accuracy and efficiency. People moving

from the rural area to the urban area causes problems.

There is concrete evidence that overwhelming numbers of

people are leaving rural areas in hope of finding better a job and

enhancing their life. According to the annual statistics report,

city population grows five percent each year as a result of

migration of rural dwellers to cities.

The report of 2005 stated that although migration to cities may

benefit the rural people in terms of job opportunity and

improved life style, the problems of this migration cannot be

overlooked.

These problems can be classified as those which affect cities in

short-term, such as air pollution, and those with their profound

effect on the whole society, such as loss of rural cultures. This

essay examines rural migration related issues and provides

solution for each kind.

Nowadays, one of the most important issues in cities is air

pollution. Without a doubt, the more densely populated a city

is, the more air pollution would be brought about.

Air pollution as a byproduct of human activities has left its

fingerprints on all aspect of the human life.

According to health experts, the rates of lung cancer and heart

disease have increased rapidly in recent years. In a study

performed on two populations of urban and rural area, with

300,000 participants, it was concluded that city-dwellers are

two times more likely to suffer lung cancer.

The study also provided hard evidence on the causative role of

air pollution for this cancer. This devastating issue of air

pollution, which is a direct result of urban overpopulation due to

rural shift to cities needs to be resolved.

One solution could be providing rural areas with better facilities.

Constructing well-equipped hospitals and creating job

opportunities in these regions would encourage rural-dwellers to

live in these areas.

A further problem that is hardly noticed is cultural negative

effects which this kind of migration brings about.

Each country is represented by its cultures, mostly originate

from rural areas.

Villager have their own customs and hold traditional ceremonies

and rituals specific to their region.

However, with more migration of rural residents to cities, we

would be at the threshold of losing many old villages; therefore,

valuable parts of our national culture would be forgotten

gradually.

It is recommended that governments set limits on migration laws

of rural people so that less people tend to leave villages.

Moreover, rural people can be encouraged to hold their

traditional ceremonies and rituals by inviting more tourists to

this areas.

This would partly keep rural cultures alive for years.

CONSUMERISM

Consumerism is related to the constant purchasing of new goods,with

little attention to their true need,durability,product origin,or the

environmental consequences of their manufacture & disposal..

What causes

Consumerism?

Means to an End

Habitual Consumerism

Emotional Regulation

Emotional Instability

Early years

Pleasure And Pain

Two types of conditions of population

and consumerism exist:

People over-population:

Excessive population pressure causes degradation of the limited

resources, and there is absolute poverty, undernourishment and premature

deaths. This occurs in less developed countries (LDCs)

Consumption over-population:

This occurs in the more developed countries (MDCs). More the

consumption of resources more is the waste generation and greater is the

degradation of the environment.

What are the problems created by

consumerism..?

Today’s many products produced are luxurious and are

non-degradable which takes years to be decomposed.

A high rate of consumption leads to pollution and waste

product.

How to solve these problems…??

Population: We need to control population growth.

Consumption: Once we control population growth, the

consumption rate would fall down itself.

Technology: We should stop at this stage some of the irrelevant

and unimportant products, in order to stabilize the environment.

3’R METHOD

WASTE PRODUCTS Any material that is unused and rejected as worthless or unwanted

In consumer society, people replace their goods with newer ones. They

purchase goods, use them and throw them away. In consumer society,

people replace their goods with newer ones. They purchase goods, use

them and throw them away. One of the main reasons behind the

consumerism in india is IMBALANCE in demand and supply of

commodities leading to hoarding,black marketing ,profiteering.

Low literacy levels and lack of awareness of rights encourages

businessmen to be indifferent to consumers.

Waste products create various harmful

products effecting environment

1. Chemical wastes

2. Plastic materials

3. Electronic wastes

4. Nuclear wastes

Chemical wastes created by excessive production damage soil’s fertility

, water resources.

Plastic and non-degradable products are disposed in surroundings in large

scale

Electronic waste is rapidly increasing as mobiles, old televisions ,……so

on are replaced by new gadgets .

Nuclear disposal on environment is very harmful and its high production

for consumerism is dangerous

How to control this consumerism

and redundant waste products ??

WASTE MINIMISATION It is a process of elimination that reduces the amount of waste

produced in society and helps eliminate the generation of

harmful and persistent wastes, supporting the efforts to promote

a more sustainable society.

Waste minimisation involves

redesigning products or changing societal patterns,

concerning consumption and production, of waste

generation,

to prevent the creation of waste.

efforts to minimize resource and energy use during

manufacture.

For the same commercial output, usually the less

materials are used, the less waste is produced.

Waste minimisation usually requires knowledge of the

production process, cradle-to-grave analysis

Measures to control :

• Resource optimization

• Reuse of scrap material

• Waste exchanges

• Durability

1. Resource optimization Minimizing the amount of waste produced by

organizations or individuals goes hand-in-hand with

optimizing their use of raw materials

For example, a dressmaker may arrange pattern pieces on

a length of fabric in a particular way to enable the garment

to be cut out from the smallest area of fabric.

2. Reuse of scrap material Scraps can be immediately re-incorporated at the

beginning of the manufacturing line so that they

do not become a waste product. Many industries

routinely do this.

For example, paper mills return any damaged rolls

to the beginning of the production line, and in the

manufacture of plastic items, off-cuts and scrap

are re-incorporated into new products

3. Waste exchanges

This is where the waste product of one

process becomes the raw material for a

second process.

Waste exchanges represent another way of

reducing waste disposal volumes for waste that

cannot be eliminated.

In this way waste exchange practices are high

on the waste hierarchy.

4. Durability

Durability means your product needs long

term needs resisting damage and stays relevant

to users.

Improving product durability can reduce

waste and usually much improves resource

optimisation

But in some cases it has a negative

environmental impact. older vehicles consume

more fuel and produce more emissions than

their modern counterparts.

Presented By

Vinit Shahdeo 15BIT0335