Environment

Alarmed by the growing environmental degradation and the attendant health problems, a small yet dedicated number of tech startups are emerging as solution providers to India’s waste crisis. For example, ‘Loopworm’ is an insect biotechnology company that grows black soldier fly larvae, growing up to 3,000 times their size in 15 days by consuming food waste or scraps. The insects and their by-products are then used to create a protein-rich feed for fish and poultry animals. However, this does not address the problems of plastic waste. India produces 27,000 tonnes of plastic waste daily, out of which only 9% is recycled while the rest is either landfilled or burned. To address this, ‘ZeroPlast Labs upcycles biomass waste into bioplastics and bio-composites.

Similarly, 'K.K. Plastic Waste Management' has been instrumental in building more than 1,200 kilometres of roads in the city of Bengaluru. Plastic is not just a boon for our roads. It can even help build an entire house. Lise Fuglsang Vestergaard, a graduate from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), devised making bricks with plastic while developing a waste collection system in Joygopalpur, a rural town in West Bengal. In a country where several rural areas still depend on houses made of clay that get washed away during the monsoons, plastic bricks could be the ideal solution to help prevent them from damage while ensuring environmental sustainability. According to a new global study from the Boston-based Health Effects Institute (HEI), air pollution was the cause of 1.2 million deaths in India in 2017. Chakr Innovation, based in Delhi, has developed the world's first retrofit emission control device for diesel generators. It captures 90% of particulate matter emissions from exhaust air while maintaining energy efficiency. The diesel soot extracted from the exhaust is used to make inks and paints. 

Plastic which can take up to 100 years to disintegrate, has become one of the most significant pollutants on the planet. Several years ago. Alternate sources of energy are one aspect that will have an immense impact on reducing our carbon footprint. One of the ground-breaking examples of harnessing alternative energy sources is the Suzlon one earth located in Pune. The building is designed to use a maximum of natural ventilation and sunlight, which ensures a minor energy requirement. 8% of the remaining need for energy is fulfilled by photovoltaic boards and windmills on-site and the rest from off-site windmills. Apart from these, a new concept of Miyawaki plantation allows the growth of urban forests in cities. The special provision in this method is that it does not need large spaces but can even be planted in spaces as small as a house's backyard. This kind of innovation is being used by development authorities to reduce the overall temperature of cities by increasing urban green. However, these examples show that they can be expanded to a larger scale to shift the significant source of energy consumption in our country and take a big step towards protecting our environment.