1. LOW - COST BIO - ABATEMENT OF POLLUTION Mrs Almitra H Patel, MS MIT Member, Supreme Court Committee For Solid Waste Management almitrapatel@rediffmail.com

2. WASTE AVOIDED IS MONEY EARNED Pollution prevention saves inputs: Reused electroplating wash saves $$$ Nirula milkshakes from 1 st icecream rinses Pollution prevention at source is good. Better still is effluent treatment at the end of each process step.

3. AVOID MIXING YOUR WASTES Single wastes are far more cheaply and effectively handled than combinations, e.g. in canteens or quarters, * food wastes can be composted, * “dry” wastes can be recycled. Road dust collected with garbage makes both wastes useless.

4. USE UN-MIXED WASTES CREATIVELY Cigarette filter waste for moth-proof boards Carrybags in bitumen IMPROVE road quality but needs changed tender-specs to take off Change sick firms nearby into common baling/recycling units, on APGBP model

5. MINIMISE LIQUID WASTES Mixing liquid wastes can give a problem end-product Neutralised streams have high TDS and salt content Salty discharges can destroy farmland and lakes.

6. GARBAGE CAN BE YOUR FRIEND Excel Industries bio-remediates its toxic effluents on city waste : Endosulfan-tainted effluent is used on aerobic wind-rows First used at 3% dilution, then stage-wise upto 30% strength. Ask Mr Ganesan in Hyd at 98480-52725, or acs@excelind.com for help

7. AVOID RUNOFF INTO WATER-BODIES Try high-rate transpiration plantations e.g. casuarina 5’ x 3’ apart at Puri STP Coconut plantations are salt-tolerant Salt-loving salicornia grass for hi TDS

8. TRY LOW-COST ROOTZONE METHODS for NON-TOXIC EFFLUENT At IGIDR, sullage is sprinkler-fed to canna - beds surrounding a collection sump with perforated walls. Odourless water is used for gardening. Try this with salicornia or beach plants for salty effluents

9. RECYCLE WHAT IS LEFT Partly-treated water can be re-used for toilets, floor-washing, gardening: Micro-bubble aerators for quick oxidation can be decorative fountains like Calcutta 7-Star hotel’s venturi aerators Solar evaporation can give pure water for condensers RO=Reverse Osmosis can pay for itself but the brine produced must be planned for.

10. USE NALA - GARDENS TO TREAT RUN - OFF EN-ROUTE TO LAKES Waste-water treatment can be both beautiful and functional. Poplar tree bark stores nitrates and nitrazines One fern can absorb arsenic, another for traces of mercury.

11. NATURE HAS THE ANSWERS Tomato roots absorb lead, copper, zinc Mustard shoots hold lead, copper, selenium (but must be incinerated) Sunflowers thrive in radioactive enivronments, and somehow reduce harmful emissions. All this works for TRACE QUANTITIES!

12. Remember : Everything in Moderation. For your own health or nature’s, PREVENTION IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN CURE !!

13. LAKES CAN BE BIO - CLEANED Thane lake was cleaned up using mud-balls with bio-cultures + enzymes. E M = Effective Micro-organisms is a Japanese bioculture working well to reduce odours and BOD in waste-water canals, solar ponds, septic tanks.

14. LAKES CAN BE BIO - DESILTED Lake-Restorer TM deepened a US lake using a floating-doughnut island of long-rooted water-plants and an ‘air-lift’ pump to bring organic silt up past the “fixed-film bioreactor” roots. See www.oceanarks.com

15. Some Success Stories: 12 Restorers in a 36000 sq m treatment lagoon at Tyson Foods Maryland, for 5000 cu m per day. Lake at Four Seasons Resort in Kona, Hawaii. $ 1 Million project for a highly polluted canal in Fuzhou city, China

16. DO YOURSELF AND YOUR CITY A FAVOUR LEND A HAND ! Sponsor a pilot clean-up at a lake.

17. CETPs OFTEN INVITE TROUBLE Replace Akbar’s milk-collection model with Amul’s: Pay-by-pollution-level pricing. “Dilution” can be deadly ! Chrome effluent + sewage at Kanpur’s UASB = toxic Cr-6 sludge in open dumps

18. LOCALS MUST SEE BENEFITS and monitor CETPs. If not : NIMBY = Not In My Back Yard, or BANANA = Build Nothing Anywhere Near Anybody! Build enviro-costs and Timetable into product pricing. If not, “Best” will drive out “Good”, as in TN

19. ANTICIPATE THE FUTURE Polluter-Pays is here. EPR and LCA are coming soon : E xtended P roducer R esponsibility + L ife C ycle A nalysis. Think “developed”, not “developing”. Stay abreast of EU Stds to beat the competition