The UK consumes an astonishing 165 million cups of tea every day, but most of the teabags that go to making the nation's favourite hot drink still end up unnecessarily in landfill.

Now manufacturing giant Unilever has teamed up with two Essex councils, Brentwood and Chelmsford, together with Wrap the government's advisory body on waste, to encourage people to compost their teabags with their food waste.

Unilever UK is the manufacturer of tea brand PG Tips, while the group is the largest tea buyer in the world, buying about 12% of the world's tea supply of black tea.

The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has ordered the Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine and the Director of Medical and Rural Health Services, Chennai, to enquire into and send a report about the alleged dumping of bio waste on the main road at Tiruvallur.

In his order on a complaint, SHRC Acting Chairperson K. Baskaran stated that the report should be filed within four weeks. The complainant, K. Sudhan, an advocate, stated that while he was on his way to Tiruttani he noticed the bio waste dumped by the Government Hospital, Tiruvallur, piled up near the hospital entrance.

KOCHI: Expressing concern over the increasing incidents of fish deaths in the Periyar River, environmentalists brushed aside the claims made by Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) that the fish had died due to oxygen starvation. “It is common for the levels of dissolved oxygen (DO) in the water to go down gradually when the high-level of biodegradable waste in a water body. Under such circumstances, the aquatic organisms living in the region migrate to places where the DO is adequate, rather than dying out.

National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST) here has developed a compact digester for treating biomass wastes at origin.

NIITST is a constituent laboratory under the Council of Science and Industrial Research (CSIR).

The digester doesn't cause environmental pollution but recovers biogas. It also converts biomass wastes to compost slurry with a higher content of stable solids.
SOIL MANURE

The stabilised compost slurry from this biogas plant is excellent soil manure for agriculture applications.

A city based engineering major has inked an agreement with a Denmark-based firm and the Defence Research Development Establishment (DRDE) to develop ‘green toilets’ for railways to keep trains, platforms and tracks clean and free from filth and corrosion.

“Under the railways ambitious green toilet scheme, two types of toilets based on vacuum and bacteria technology would be installed in trains in order to keep them green and clean,” Daulat Ram Industries Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Satish Sharma, said here today.

In a first of its kind, bio-toilets are making their way into train coaches. Following an innovation by the Railways in collaboration with the Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE), a revolutionary design of bio-toilets are being installed in trains. The new toilet has a collection tank provided with anaerobic bacteria to decompose fecal matter and only a colourless, odourless liquid that does not pollute the environment is released from the tank.

The Shillong bench of Gauhati High Court has given another month’s time to the Meghalaya government to file an affidavit explaining the steps initiated to check air, water and waste pollution in the state. On Friday, a division bench of Justice T. Vaiphei and Justice S.R. Sen passed an order by granting the government another four weeks to submit its affidavit.

KOCHI: In an effort to encourage Kochiites to treat biodegradable waste at the source itself, Kochi Corporation and Yashoram Charitable Trust have launched an ‘Organic Garbage Degradation and Organic Farming’ drive in the city on Thursday.

The drive involves utilisation of degraded organic garbage as manure for fruiting plants and vegetables. “Though the process might look tedious, it is actually very practical.

All houses to be brought under waste management network

The first of the source-level waste processing schemes, declared in the annual budget of the State for 2012-13, will come up in Pala municipality. Speaking at the meeting called to discuss the issue at Pala on Tusday, Finance Minister K.M. Mani said all the houses within the municipal area would be brought under the waste management network within two months.

BHUBANESWAR: As the anti-polythene consciousness has begun to take root with cities like Cuttack and Bhubaneswar prohibiting use of such hazardous items, an environment friendly bio-polymer alternative is now at hand. The HaritaNTI Ltd, an international bio-plastics producer, has joined hands with cty-based Zillion Resources Pvt Ltd to launch 100 percent compostable plastics and polymer solutions in Orissa.