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.

Some entrepreneurs across the country are building businesses based on the belief that garbage -- once destined to rot in a landfill -- can be repurposed into profitable products.

Americans produced about 250 million tons of trash in 2010, recycling and composting about 34 percent of that total, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Now, thanks in part to a sour economy and growing environmental awareness, a few businesses are looking for ways to turn more of the trash destined for landfills into viable products.

Rotting Veggies Greet Buyers; Market Not Cleaned In Months
New Delhi: A visit to Okhla sabzi mandi can make your stomach churn. An unbearable stench given out by rotting vegetables welcomes you to the mandi, which is the distribution point for most markets in south Delhi. If that doesn’t put you off, wading through filth and muck certainly will. And after all the hardship, when you make it to your familiar green grocer, you will find swarms of flies comfortably settled on his veggies and fruits.

Bharatiya Janata Party’s poster campaign for the MCD elections has green agencies seeing red. The party’s latest posters asking for power to be generated from waste has drawn the ire of NGO Chintan, which says BJP’s agenda is anti-public.
“The party has not yet understood the basic scientific concept of

The Oleena Mahila Samajam and Green Kerala Bioscience, both Kozhikode-based organisations, have introduced a novel method for scientific organic-waste processing with the technical support of JMS Bio Tech, Mysore.

While it seems logical that many restaurants have already begun to reap the benefits of installing onsite worm composting operations, airports may not be the first place people would think of to have such systems in place. The Charlotte Douglas International Airport will change that fact when they open a $1.1 million recycling center in February 2012, to include a vermicomposting system that will use 300 pounds of worms to chow down on up to two tons of airport patron waste per day.

Peerzada Abdul Ali Zakir Usmani, President of Anjuman Kashtkaran Punjab (AKP) has stressed the need for introduction of Organic Agriculture System (OAS) in Pakistan to bring a green revolution as organic agriculture is considered to be a holistic food production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people.

LUCKNOW: The waste recycling plant at Hardoi Road might be revived. The plant was set up in 2003 but has been lying dysfunctional since then. But now it might be revived after pumping in more capital through private investment, though the UP government is yet to give a go-ahead to the revival plan.