Will Single Use Products Lead to Sustainability?

Abstract

There has been intensification regarding environmental consciousness in recent decades with increased attention on generated waste. This might not be one of the most imperative of problems but surely is the one that is most instantaneously manageable. An individual may not be directly influenced by global climate change, the destruction of the rain forests, disasters like Chernobyl and Bhopal; nevertheless, the constant disposal of garbage is happening endlessly, immediate to us and is definitely under our control. One of the prime reasons for the tremendous increase in solid waste is disposable products, that are readily availability and disposed after a single use. Use of disposable products in all areas from food packing, product packing, hospitals, etc., continues to increase despite limited landfill space and dwindling natural resources. This has led to the term “throw-away society.” In the present article, the authors focus on such products which are growing in the market and highlight the environmental effects once they are discarded. In this context, their efforts are to make significant contributions that could be applied to the support of designing and environmental labeling disposable products. This is in an effort to promote production and consumption of product options which can be characterized for lowering environmental impacts.

Groundwater quality assessment by Water quality index (WQI) and Multivariate statistical analysis (MSA) for coastal zones of Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh

“…Even though the potassium ions are vital for human health, excess concentrations in the groundwater might harm human health, resulting in hyperkalemia, kidney disease, and dietary problems (Karnena and Vara, 2019). The potassium in the sampling sites ranged from 0.78-157 mg/L (Fig.…”

“…Secondly, they dumped the indus-trial wastewater directly into the environment and nearest body streams and improper pumping and management of the aquifers (Karnena and Saritha, 2019). In addition, solid waste disposal and single-use product disposal (Vara et al, 2019) in unengineered land is also considered a factor for groundwater contamination as the contaminates or leachate seeps from the soil to the groundwater aquifers (Girija et al, 2007). According to the WHO, 2004 nearly eighty per cent of the diseases caused by the water-born are due to the contamination of the water, which are considered waterborne diseases.…”

“…Horton (1965) was the scientist who invented the analysis, and many researchers (Karnena et al, 2022;Adimalla et al, 2022) adopted and performed these calculations to identify the groundwater quality. Later Karnena and Vara (2019) developed various models for the WQi based on the rating and weightage of the water quality physicochemical parameters obtained by the arithmetical mean. The WQi are dimensionless, and values range from 0 to 200.…”