This story comes the NW Examiner in the Northwest Neighborhood of Portland, Oregon.Hexavalent chromium accumulates in organisms and does not break down in the environment. No level of human exposure is considered safe.The EPA says that the respiratory tract is the major target organ for chromium 6 toxicity, both for acute (short term) and chronic (long-term) inhalation exposures. Shortness of breath, coughing and wheezing were reported from a case of acute exposure to chromium 6, while perforations and ulcerations of the septum, bronchitis, decreased pulmonary function, pneumonia and other respiratory effects have been noted from chronic exposure. Human studies have clearly established that inhaled chromium 6 is a human carcinogen, resulting in increased risk of lung cancer.Most of the of the 64 toxic substances emitted by ESCO have multiple health consequences. In addition to seven substances known to cause cancer, another 12 are suspected carcinogens.ESCO is increasingly the topic of discussion among anti-toxics groups in Oregon., the, and now the are all taking note of ESCO's toxics emissions. Please join these groups to help put pressure on the DEQ to do its job.sumber: http://www.theenvironmentalblog.org. Assalamualaikum dan salam sejahtera,Alhamdulillah syukur kepada Tuhan kerana Program sambutan Minggu Alam Sekitar Malaysia Peringkat Negeri Melaka 2009 anjuran bersama JAPERUN Pantai Kundor dengan kerjasama Majlis Bandaraya Melaka Bersejarah, Jabatan Kerja Raya Negeri Melaka, RTM (Radio Melaka FM), Jabatan Hal Ehwal Negeri Melaka, Rumah Ku Syurga Ku, Petronas Penapisan Malaysia, Syarikat Meriahtek (M) Sdn.
- Kesan Positif Amalan Kitar Semula La Di Sekolah
- Kesan Positif Amalan Kitar Semula La Di Negara Lain
- Kesan Positif A Malan Kit Ar Semula
Maka dengan kitar semula kertas kita dapat menyelamatkan dan mengurangkan penebangan pokok yang menjadi sumber oksigen untuk kehidupan semua makhluk serta mengurangkan kesan rumah hijau keatas bumi ini. Kitar semula juga menyumbang kearah mengurangkan kemusnahan dan pencemaran disamping memeliharaan alam semulajadi yang semestinya untuk.
Bhd dan Polis Diraja Malaysia berjalan lancar.Program ini dirancang bagi meningkatan kesedaran awam dan pembabitan masyarakat JAPERUN Pantai Kundor khususnya. Program sambutan ini dilakukan selama 2 hari dengan tujuan merapatkan jaringan perhubungan antara masyarakat dengan kakitangan Jabatan serta golongan pemimpin kawasan tersebut. Hundreds of companies and laboratories are racing to find an economical way to make “green crude” from algae. The biofuel industry is grappling with a series of hurdles, which players readily recognized at a and we cover.One question asked by one of the sector’s early leaders is will biofuel from algae look like Big Oil or Big Agriculture.Steve Mayfield, who directs a, believes it should be more like.“We’re not going to grow it in the lab We are going to grow it on rice patties,” Mayfield said at the Algae Biomass Summit in San Diego.Mayfield also helped found, a privately held company that has pulled in $100 million from venture capitalists. The company is looking at gene-based techniques to create a strain of algae that can be grown and harvested on a massive scale.“What we need to do is domesticate algae.
We are taking wild type strains and asking them to do what never was asked to do or evolved to do in the wild,” Mayfield said, pointing to how genetic changes have boosted crop yields.Photo credit: Reuters. Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown speaks at the Major Economies Forum in central London October 19, 2009. Britain urged world leaders on Monday to turn up in person to salvage a U.N. Climate deal in Copenhagen in December, as Australia and India outlined steps to rein in their greenhouse gas emissions. (REUTERS/Kirsty Wigglesworth/Pool)British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told representatives of 17 major emitters meeting in London that success was still within reach for 190-nation talks in Denmark from Dec.
7 to 18, up to now intended as a gathering for environment ministers.' We must frankly face the plain fact that our negotiators are not getting to agreement quickly enough,' he said.' Leaders must engage directly to break the impasse,' he told the two-day talks ending on Monday. 'I've said I'll go to Copenhagen, and I'm encouraging them to make the same commitment.' Talks are bogged down in disputes between industrialised and developing countries over how to share out curbs on emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels.
Just one week of formal talks remains before Copenhagen, in Barcelona in early November.The two-year U.N. CARREFOUR recently invited popular award winning film actress and nature lover, Maya Karin to witness the kick start of a 100-day countdown to end free distribution of plastic bags at the checkout counters of its newest outlet in Bandar Tun Hussein Onn, Cheras.The beneficiary of this campaign are the Irrawady River dolphins that are often sighted along the coasts of Sarawak and Sabah.Carrefour, in association with the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), decided that it was timely to raise awareness to protect the dolphines as their natural habitat had been seriously jeopardised by plastic bags.
ROSNANI (dua dari kiri) bersama Nur Saidah Nor Mohamad (kanan), N. MUHYIDDIN berkata sesuatu selepas memberi ucapan pada Perhimpunan Bulanan Jabatan Perdana Menteri di Putrajaya, semalam. Turut kelihatan, Koh (tiga dari kanan), Jamil Khir (kiri), Liew (dua dari kanan) dan Idris.UTRAJAYA: Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin mahu dasar dan program pemuliharaan dan pemeliharaan alam sekitar dipertingkatkan bagi menjamin khazanah kepelbagaian bio yang dimiliki negara dipertahankan untuk generasi akan datang.Timbalan Perdana Menteri berkata, usaha itu juga penting bagi mengelak bencana alam melanda negara ini.' Walaupun sudah ada pelan tindakan yang disediakan, kita masih melihat sikap dan rasa kurang bertanggungjawab mengenai alam sekitar yang masih berlaku.' 'Gunung dan bukit kita ditarah, hanya tinggal pohon-pohon yang sudah terkulai, sungai masih terus tercemar dan tasik-tasik yang kita bangga dulu sudah dirosakkan oleh perbuatan manusia,' katanya pada perhimpunan bulanan Jabatan Perdana Menteri (JPM) di sini hari, semalam.Hadir sama tiga Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri, Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, Datuk Jamil Khir Baharom dan Datuk Seri Idris Jala. Turut serta Timbalan Menteri di JPM, Datuk Liew Vui Keong, Datuk SK Devamany, Datuk T Murugiah dan Ketua Setiausaha Negara, Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan.Timbalan Perdana Menteri berkata, memandangkan Malaysia adalah sebuah daripada 10 negara di dunia yang kaya dengan kepelbagaian bio yang tinggi nilainya, perhatian yang istimewa seharusnya diberikan untuk memastikan keadaan alam sekitar sentiasa dilindungi dan dipulihara.'
JPM yang terbabit secara langsung dan tidak langsung bagi memastikan langkah pemuliharaan dan pemeliharaan kepelbagaian bio itu dapat dilaksanakan dengan berkesan,' katanya.Timbalan Perdana Menteri berkata, rakyat juga perlu berusaha untuk mengurangkan gas rumah hijau dan mengurangkan pencemaran serta mengambil langkah untuk menjimatkan penggunaan tenaga khususnya di bangunan kerajaan.' Putrajaya mungkin boleh jadi contoh,' katanya.Sementara itu, Muhyiddin berkata, Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak sudah menyatakan komitmen Malaysia untuk menghulurkan apa saja bentuk bantuan dan pertolongan diperlukan bagi meringankan beban usaha menyelamat yang sedang dijalankan akibat gempa bumi yang melanda Padang, Indonesia. Jeeves Malaysia CEO Jeffrey G. Walmsley says the Green Earth dry-cleaning machine uses the same process as traditional drycleaning, but eliminates the environmental and health concerns associated with the use of perc.The use of perc can be safe if dry cleaners take the necessary precautions, like keeping machines in pristine condition so that minimal perc residue is left in clothing.There is, however, no way to completely eliminate this. Operators should also store, transfer and dispose of perc responsibly in order to minimise its release into the environment.There is, however, a sore lack of enforcing these practices in Malaysia.While used perc is a scheduled waste that comes under the Department of Environment, laundries and dry cleaners fall under local authorities.The usage of perc itself, however, does not seem to be monitored as such. Bigger laundry operators seem to self-regulate, while the smaller outfits simply do so on an ad hoc basis.Green and cleanSo what options do consumers have to clean “dry-clean only” clothes, while also protecting themselves and the environment?
One lesser known but effective process is wet-cleaning. Admittedly, the idea of putting clothes labelled specifically for dry-cleaning through a wet process might turn off many customers. Wet-cleaning, however, is actually a viable alternative for most types of garments.In wet-cleaning, computer-controlled washers and dryers are used to simulate the motion of a very gentle hand wash (to compare, a washing machine would rotate clothes a few dozen times a minute, while wet cleaning machines can spin as slowly as six times per minute). These machines can also be programmed for variables such as time, temperature, and mechanical action, allowing the wash to be tailored to the type of fabric.
The cleaning agents used are simply detergents and softeners, similar to the ones we use at home.The pre-washing process forms an important part of wet-cleaning. Here, spotting agents are used to remove stains from the garments. This removes the need for a strong wash. The clothes might then go through finishing (pressing or stretching) in order to retain the original shape and fit. Through these methods, wet-cleaning is able to tackle almost any type of clothing that should supposedly only be dry-cleaned, including leather, suede, woollens, silk and rayon.Many people are not aware that wet-cleaning is actually available in Malaysia. Peggy Liew, whose company Kraft Trading brought in the Seitz wet-cleaning technology, shares that they have outfitted 124 laundries nationwide with the system.“The chemicals used in the wet-cleaning process are completely biodegradable. Even our detergents are fruit acid-based,” Liew says, adding that the used detergent can go down the drain.
She further explains that unlike when handling perc, laundry workers don’t need any protective gear while wet-cleaning.She further claims that wet-cleaning is considered more hygienic in comparison to perc, which is distilled and reused. For garments used for prayers, for example, wet-cleaning might be preferable for this reason.Zarina Ismail, who owns the Drop & Wash laundry chain, says wet-cleaning is the safest alternative to dry-cleaning, as it is a water-based cleaning process that does not generate hazardous waste nor pollute the surrounding environment. Utilising the Lagoon technology that incorporates washing, drying and finishing processes in one machine, Zarina currently operates five outlets in the Klang Valley and is offering their licensee package nationwide.Providing optionsFor those who still prefer dry-cleaning, perhaps the alternative would be to use a perc-free service.
Jeeves Malaysia does dry-cleaning using GreenEarth, an inert and non-toxic solvent made from silicone.Chief executive officer Jeffrey G. Walmsley believes that while wet cleaning is effective, it is best to have more than one tool in the toolkit. He says certain garments may require proper dry-cleaning, such as those which aren’t colourfast, those that might lose their shape or finish (such as sunray skirts with many pleats), and certain fabrics like chiffon that are prone to shrinking in water.The GreenEarth dry-cleaning process is similar to that using perc, except that the solvent itself poses no discernable threat to either the environment or health. Made from pure liquid silicone, or as Walmsley describes it, “liquefied sand”, GreenEarth breaks down into sand and trace amounts of water and carbon dioxide. Liquid silicone is also the base ingredient in many shampoos, conditioners and lotions, which makes GreenEarth safe to come in contact with the human body.Consumers who think they may have to fork out exorbitant amounts for wet-cleaning are in for a surprise: it actually costs the same to wet-clean and dry-clean.Walmsley, on the other hand, acknowledges that cleaning with GreenEarth is slightly more expensive.
“The solvent is much more expensive than perc, and it is also more complicated to use, requiring more people and expertise. However, we believe that the benefits to our customers and their clothes are worth it. But the more consumers know about the cleaning processes, the better equipped they are to choose what’s best for their clothes, their health and the environment,” he says.Liew agrees, saying consumers should ask more questions and be open to suggestions when dropping their clothes off for cleaning.“Some operators say they are dry-cleaning when they are actually using wet-cleaning, simply because customers refuse to understand what wet-cleaning is. They assume that the only thing that will work is (perc-based) dry-cleaning, without realising how harmful it can be,” she says.The Star. All across China, villagers are suffering the consequences of the country’s economic boom.ONE needs to look no further than the river that runs through Shangba to understand the extent of the heavy metals pollution that experts say has turned the hamlets in this region of southern China into cancer villages.The river’s flow ranges from murky white to a bright shade of orange and the waters are so viscous that they barely ripple in the breeze.
In Shangba, the river brings death, not sustenance.“All the fish died, even chickens and ducks that drank from the river died. If you put your leg in the water, you’ll get rashes and a terrible itch,” said He Shuncai, a 34-year-old rice farmer who has lived in Shangba all his life. “Last year alone, six people in our village died from cancer and they were in their 30s and 40s.”. Highly polluted: Heavy metals contamination has coloured this lake near Dabaoshan in north Guangdong, a sick red.
Pollution has turned hamlets in this region of southern China into cancer villagesCancer casts a shadow over the villages in this region of China in southern Guangdong province, nestled among farmland contaminated by heavy metals used to make batteries, computer parts and other electronics devices. Every year, an estimated 460,000 people die prematurely in China due to exposure to air and water pollution, according to a 2007 World Bank study. He Kangcai, 60, who is suffering from stomach cancer, at his home at Shangba village, north Guangdong.
Kerajaan negeri sedia gudang khas untuk kegunaan projek akan datangMELAKA: Selama ini, banyak tanah bukit berharga di negeri ini dipercayai 'hilang' begitu saja apabila pemaju projek yang membangunkan sesuatu kawasan memunggahnya keluar tanpa membayar wang permit kepada kerajaan.Amalan kontraktor yang lazimnya membuang atau menjual semula tanah milik kerajaan itu kini dihentikan apabila Ketua Menteri, Datuk seri Mohd Ali Rustam campur tangan dan mahu sistem itu diubah.' Setiap lori yang membawa keluar tanah dari tapak sesuatu projek mesti ada permit dan tanah berkenaan mestilah disimpan di dua kawasan milik kerajaan tanpa dikenakan sebarang bayaran,” katanya.Justeru beliau mengarahkan tanah bukit yang diratakan atau tanah biasa di negeri ini disimpan sebagai stok kerajaan di dua lokasi iaitu di tanah lapang di belakang Pusat Dagangan Antarabangsa Melaka (MITC) dan Kampung Tun Razak di Ayer Keroh.' To most of us, that old mobile phone languishing in the drawer is practically worthless. But to an electronic waste recycler, it is quite literally as precious as gold.AS I held that bar of pure gold in my hand, it was hard to imagine that the precious 1kg ingot had been produced from thousands of unwanted mobile phones.
Kesan Positif Amalan Kitar Semula La Di Sekolah
Yes, there’s gold in your mobile phones, as well as other electronics. Being an excellent conductor of electricity and also extremely resistant to corrosion, the metal is commonly used in communication equipment, electronics cables, motherboards and of course, mobile phones.But before you start harbouring dreams of raking in the bucks by selling your old mobile phones and PCs, be warned – there is only a minuscule amount of gold in them. In fact, says John Ashok, deputy managing director of electronic waste recycling company, TES-AMM, one needs more than 200,000 mobile phones or three tonnes of electronic waste (e-waste) to produce a single 1kg gold ingot. Trash to treasure: A TES-AMM employee separating a pile of used mobile phones according to their various main components such as batteries, phone, wires and headset.Besides, recycling e-waste isn’t just about gold prospecting – such waste has lots of other useful stuff that can be extracted too. Almost 97% of a mobile phone, for instance, can be recycled for plastic, ferrous metals and lithium, among other things. Only its LCD screen is non-recyclable because of its heavy metals content.Recycling e-waste is vital not only for the environment but for the manufacturing industry as well. Not only does it prevent e-waste from ending up in landfills and contaminating the environment with toxic and heavy metals, it helps reduce the need to create or mine raw materials for new products, which also reduces manufacturing costs.So what happens when mobile phones and other electronic items are brought to an e-waste recycling plant?
I was given a tour of the TES-AMM plant in Seberang Prai, Penang, and shown step-by-step, how the most precious mineral in the world is extracted from an unwanted piece of junk.Collecting the wasteE-waste recycling is all about volume. The more the supply, the more raw materials you can glean from it. The bulk of TES-AMM’s supply comes from industrial and corporate sources. The old mobile phones and accessories collected by Nokia, for instance, are sent to TES-AMM for recycling.
It takes about 200,000 mobile phones to produce one 1kg gold ingot.“We simply can’t survive on public input alone,” says Ashok. TES-AMM has the means to recycle almost any electronic item. Ashok says you can even drop your old TV at the factory, though you are not likely to get much out of it besides the good feeling of having done something for the environment.Unfortunately, most people still expect to be rewarded for bringing in their electronic items. After all, if they can get a few ringgit for a pile of old newspapers, why should they get peanuts for something which they had paid hundreds if not thousands of ringgit for?“People need to understand that the reason why they have to pay so much for a new item is because of what it can do for you. Once it breaks down, it is just a worthless piece of junk made of plastic and metal,” says Ashok. “They also need to understand that we still need to foot the bill for transporting, recycling and disposing the item. However, whenever possible, we will work out some form of incentives for them, whether in the form of vouchers or a token sum for their effort.”Weighing and separatingAll the collected e-waste is shipped to the 11,220sqm TES-AMM factory and stored in a large warehouse.
As we walked into the building, we were greeted by numerous piles of electrical and electronic items – from computers to monitors, televisions, mobile phones and large industrial machinery.E-waste brought here is first weighed, verified, recorded, and then sorted manually according to type, which makes it easier to determine how best to recycle the waste. Mobile phones are then separated into components such as batteries, phones, wires, headsets and so on, after which they will be dismantled.The protection of intellectual property is an important consideration in a recycling plant.
Security is extremely tight around the plant. Nokia-related waste, for instance, is stored in a secured area. It can only be acessed under supervision by a Nokia personnel.Dismantling. At the end of the e-waste recycling process at TES-AMM, the 99.9% gold dust is smelted under a temperature of 1,200°C and processed into a gold ingot.Here, a line of workers work quickly and diligently, stripping the items down to even smaller components, and categorising them into a “waste stream” consisting of plastic, ferrous metal, electronic scraps and so on.Plastics and ferrous metals are crushed, packed and shipped to other recycling factories that specialise in such materials, as is the paper packaging waste. Even the carbon collected from printer toner cartridges is collected and sent to paint manufacturers to be reused.TES-AMM has permits from Malaysian and Singaporean environment authorities to ship items containing cobalt and lithium (such as phone batteries) to their plant in Singapore where these heavy metals are extracted.
(Permits are required as hazardous waste cannot be freely transported under the global treaty, the Basel Convention.)“At our plant, we only retain components with gold in them, such as the PCB (printed circuit boards), the PC motherboards and so on. A phone for a treeAccording to a recent global survey by Nokia, only 3% of consumers recycle their old mobile phones. Also, three out of four people do not even think about recycling their devices and nearly half are unaware that it is possible to do so.The survey also found that one of the main reasons why so few people recycle their mobile phones is because they simply don’t know where to do so.With that in mind, Nokia has set up special kiosks at four locations in the Klang Valley to make it easier for consumers to recycle their mobile phones.The programme includes a unique “recycle a phone, adopt a tree” scheme called NEWtrees. Bila negara makin pesat membangun, populasi manusia akan meningkat. Ini menyebabkan kadar permintaan manusia terhadap sesuatu keperluan adalah tinggi.
Ianya terjadi apabila manusia memerlukan;. tempat tinggal.
Kesan Positif Amalan Kitar Semula La Di Negara Lain
pekerjaan. bekalan air. bekalan elektrik. pengangkutan.
Kesan Positif A Malan Kit Ar Semula
makanan. dan lain-lainIni bagi memastikan mereka memperolehi kehidupan yang lebih sempurna. Namun permintaan ini terhasil disebabkan perbezaan eknomi dan keadaan.Amerika Latin, Asia Barat dan Selatan Eropah merupajkan negara yang sedang membangun dari sektor perindustrian. Apakah Peranan Pengguna?Saban hari, mesyarakat pengguna terdedah kepada pelbagai isu alam sekitar yang seringkali di muatkan dalam media massa. Peranan kita semua. Kita mesti tahu peranan positif kita sebagai pengguna yang prihatin terhadap isu alam sekitar.
Kita mesti celik undang-undang dan peraturan yang ada di negara kita. Kita mesti tahu apakah agensi utama yang bertanggungjawab dalam pelbagai aspek pengurusan alam sekitar. Sebagai Contoh, iklan di televisyen berkaitan pencemaran air sungai yang mengakibatkan kematian banyak ikan, siapa yang seharusnya dipersalahkan dan siapa yang semestinya memikul tanggungjawab untuk membenterasnya supaya tidak tidak berulang lagi?Ini merupakan sebahagian besar tanggungjawab yang dipikul oleh setiap dari kita yang bergelar masyarakat pengguna. Memandangkan dunia sedang berdepan dengan isu pemanasan global yang semakin serius masyarakat diharapkan dapat menjadi pengguna yang perihatin terhadap alam sekitar.Persoalannya, sejauh manakah pencapaian kita sebagai pengguna yang lestari? Setakat ini, tidak ramai yang begitu menitikberatkan perkara seperti penjimatan elektrik, pembaziran tenaga, pencemaran alam sekitar dan sebagainya.
Tahap kesedaran pengguna Malaysia masih rendah. Malah, mereka boleh dikatakan masih berada di peringkat awal dalam meletakkan diri sebagai pengguna lestari.Amalan pengunaan lestari sebenarnya amat mudah untuk dipraktikkan oleh pengguna. Antaranya, mereka boleh berbelanja secara berhemat, menjimatkan pengunaan sumber air, tenaga dan bahan bakar, menggunakan bahan-bahan yang tidak mendatangkan kesan negatif kepada alam sekitar serta menggunakan teknologi bersih dan juga mesra alam.Untuk menggalakkan amalan penggunaan lestari ini, masyarakat perlu belajar berbelanja mengikut keperluan mereka. Rancang dulu perbelanjaan anda. Sebaiknya, buat senarai barangan yang diperlukan dan belilah barangan hanya bila ia diperlukan.Satu kemestian apabila membeli barangan ialah membaca lebel secara terperinci. Label mengandungi maklumat asas seperti kandungan pemakanan, tarikh luput, logo-logo berkaitan alam sekitar ataupun sama ada ia diperbuat daripada hasil bahan kitar semula.Apabila membeli, lihat pada pembungkusan produk tidak kira bekas, botol atau kotak.
Beli produk yang menyokong pembungkusan yang boleh diguna semula dan dikitar semula. Cara ini dapat mengurangkan terhasilnya sisa pepejal.Ketika keluar membeli-belah juga amalkan membawa bersama beg sendiri dari rumah.
Elakkan menggunakan beg plastik terutamanya yang memakan masa untuk dilupuskan.Sebabnya, salah satu daripada sampah yang sering dibuang adalah pembungkus barangan harian yang dibeli termasuk beg plastik yang digunakan untuk membawa barangan tersebut.Mungkin tidak semua barangan perlu dibeli.