GREENING WITH
GOETHE
And our Project
on CD's and DVD's
Greening with
Goethe is an environmental project, which is based on the
guidelines of Education for Sustainable Development by the United Nations.
School-students from different countries investigate environmental issues in
their neighborhood. An international group of environmental scientists will
guide the students through the process.
We, the students of Kumararani Meena Muthiah Matriculation Higher Secondary School, are proud to be participating in Greening with Goethe, an international project on environmental protection and sustainable development. We have chosen to focus on e-waste as our contribution (Compact Discs, Hidden Risks) to the project. In particular, we will be discussing the dangers that compact discs (CD's) can potentially pose to the environment.
guidelines of Education for Sustainable Development by the United Nations.
School-students from different countries investigate environmental issues in
their neighborhood. An international group of environmental scientists will
guide the students through the process.
We, the students of Kumararani Meena Muthiah Matriculation Higher Secondary School, are proud to be participating in Greening with Goethe, an international project on environmental protection and sustainable development. We have chosen to focus on e-waste as our contribution (Compact Discs, Hidden Risks) to the project. In particular, we will be discussing the dangers that compact discs (CD's) can potentially pose to the environment.
VISIT TO BREMEN
Regarding our project, our friends Ankita and
Tasneem went to Germany. And they took part in the deliberations. There were 32
schools participating, 10 German schools and 12 Indian schools. All the
students had met for the 3rd “Greening with Goethe Environmental
Youth Conference 2013”. The conference was spread over 5 days. So the first day
they were exploring the beautiful places in Bremen. The second day they visited
the University of Bremen and did an experiment in the chemistry lab. They also
learnt how solar cells are produced and then visited the Goethe institute and
Rubenkamp School in Bremen. On the third day they had their intercultural
seminar, the welcome ceremony for all participants and the Pre-conference party
for students, teachers and scientists had taken place. And on the fourth day
they had their Poster competition and they also presented their poster. And on
the last day they had their conference in which there were 5 groups. Ankita and
Tasneem were a part of the 3rd group which was about Pollution. The
main highlight was the discussions that took place in the various groups.
Workshops
• 2053-the world in 40 years
• Personal responsibility
• Sustainability in everyday life
• Global environmental policy
They had done the presentation on CD's and
DVD's. At the
end of their conference they came out with the final declaration. And the manifesto
was sent to the worshipful mayor of Bremen and to the honourable Chief Minister
of Karnataka.
The details about the conference can be seen in the below website.
http://www.goethe.de/ins/in/lp/prj/gwg/enindex.htm
The details about the conference can be seen in the below website.
http://www.goethe.de/ins/in/lp/prj/gwg/enindex.htm
INTERVIEWS
The following
are the places we visited and interviewed: -
1. Visit to Sun Compact Disc Pvt.Ltd.
2. Earth Sense Recycling (office).
3. Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB).
4. Be Big Company (CD users).
1. Visit to Sun Compact Disc Pvt.Ltd.
2. Earth Sense Recycling (office).
3. Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB).
4. Be Big Company (CD users).
OUR EXPERIENCE IN INTERVIEWING:-
1. Sun Compact Disc Pvt. Ltd: -
We as a team went to visit Sun Compact Disc
Pvt. Ltd., a CD manufacturer. We were lead around by Mr.Vijayakumar. The main
purpose of this visit was to clear up
our doubts about the manufacturing process, about the hazards in this regard, and
also to find out if any steps were being taken by the company itself to recycle any of
the waste that they generate.
2. Earth sense:-
2. Earth sense:-
Abiraami and
Nithya of class IX and our teacher Mrs. Padma, who accompanied us to Earth
Sense Recycle Pvt.Ltd, met the proprietor, Mr. John Robert. We had an interview
with Mr. Robert regarding the CD
recycling process and its various methods.
3. Tamil Nadu pollution control board: -
3. Tamil Nadu pollution control board: -
We planned to
visit Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. Then we contacted TNPCB and fixed an
appointment with Mr.Venkatachalam on Thursday 6th February 2014. Then we went to TNPCB
but unfortunately Mr.Venkatachalam was not present there as he was called
by the minister. We also expected that the interview will be cancelled, but
after waiting for nearly half an hour we met Mr. R. Kumar who was the
additional chief Environment Engineer. Then
we explained him about our project. And we asked him many questions and we
cleared our doubts. And we also got much additional information about pollution
control.
4. Be Big:-
4. Be Big:-
As a part of our
program this is our 4th visit for an interview with CD users. We met Mr. Murali of "BE BIG
Company" who is manufacturers and suppliers of medical equipment for
cancer hospitals and they are
also users of CD's. So here we got healthy information that how they dispose the
unwanted or remaining CD's; like dumping in their old cupboards.
5. A visit to a local CD shop:-
Madhu, Nive and Niyaz
visited a local shop selling CDs and enquired with them regarding our project.
The following are the questions which we asked :-
1)
Where do you get CDs
from?
We
get it from the Paris corner.
2)
How many costumers do you
have?
50 costumers.
3)
How many CDs do you sell
per year?
500
4)
How do you dispose the CDs?
He
said that he will break it and throw it in the trash.
5)
How much does one CD
cost?
30 rupees.
OUR RESEARCH
MANUFACTURING
PROCESS
The following are various steps in this
manufacturing process.
1. Pre-mastering
2. Glass
mastering
3. Photo
Resist mastering
4. Dye-Polymer
mastering
5. Post
mastering
6. Electro Farming
7. Replication
process
8. Testing
9. Packaging
USAGE
AND DISPOSAL
CD's should be used properly without causing
damage to it and be disposed off safely or it should be recycled, as these CD's
do not decompose naturally.
The following are the proper steps for usage
and disposal of CD's;
· Keep CD's away from
direct sunlight.
· CD's should be kept
inside the covers.
· Use the best quality
disc. They will be less likely to corrupt your data.
· Use re writable CD's
and DVDs.
· The unwanted CD's
should be wrapped and put into a separate trash can.
· It should be sent to
the recycling center.
RECYCLING PROCESS
WHY
SHOULD WE RECYCLE CD'S AND DVD'S?
WHERE TO RECYCLE CD'S AND DVD'S?
1.
CD's and DVD's are made up of a variety of materials such as
poly carbonate, aluminum and paint. All of these materials if buried in landfill
not only become "lost" resources but may also cause a significant
environmental impact and take a long time to break down. Recycling makes
environment and economic sense. Recycling reduces the need for raw materials
and using recycled products requires less energy.
2.
Save your unwanted CD's
and DVD's and take them with you on your visit to your local household waste recycling
site or to our school where a blue wheel bin is provided for CD's and DVD's.
3.
CD's and DVD's cannot be placed in your recycling
bin at home.
THE HAZARDS IN THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS IN CD'S:
·
Silver: It
causes cancer and brain damage and may cause irritation in skin, throat and eyes for people with allergy.
·
Poly Carbonate: There is a basic chemical
compound in poly carbonate
called as bisphenol (BPA) .If this BPA leaches from the poly carbonate which is in our CD's, through water or food it can surely harm us in many ways.
·
Aluminum: While
handling with aluminum in manufacturing process of CD's, workers over there
will surely get irritation of throat or continuous dry coughing.
·
Acrylic: When
acrylic compounds gets in contact with the skin, allergic
reactions may be caused.
·
Nickel: Nickel
induced toxicity can lead to tissue damage in eyes, irritation of skin and eye, inflammation of lungs and there are chances for lung and nose cancer.
·
Indium: It can
be toxic to kidney and additionally to heart.
·
Tellurium: Irritates
eye and respiratory tract and causes damage for central nervous system.
·
Antimony: It
leads to non-significant differences in tissue concentrations in the liver and kidneys and the other effects are diarrhea, cardiac toxicity and abdominal cramps.
NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
Information that we got from various newspapers: In an article entitled 'Think before you
throw away' which appeared in "The Hindu" newspaper the following appeared.
*There is a man on a mission. Matthew 26 runs "Paper Man" an NGO that
has been campaigning since 2010.They do this by creating an organized system
of 120 kabbadiwallas for customers who are looking to recycle and recycle rs.
* Future US exports of e-waste may end up in India, UN warns:
We got an article about us e-waste been dumped in India. It also said "UN
has warned that it is likely that future US exports of e-waste will end up
in India.
Information that we got from various newspapers: In an article entitled 'Think before you
throw away' which appeared in "The Hindu" newspaper the following appeared.
*There is a man on a mission. Matthew 26 runs "Paper Man" an NGO that
has been campaigning since 2010.They do this by creating an organized system
of 120 kabbadiwallas for customers who are looking to recycle and recycle rs.
* Future US exports of e-waste may end up in India, UN warns:
We got an article about us e-waste been dumped in India. It also said "UN
has warned that it is likely that future US exports of e-waste will end up
in India.
FACTS AND FIGURES
* No Disposal Units in Tamil Nadu.
* Globally every year billions of CD's are manufactured and every year
billions of these discs become outdated and unwanted.
* Every year 28,789 tones of e-waste are discarded in Tamil Nadu.
* More than 380,000 tones of e-waste are disposed off every year in India.
* CD's are just thrown away as waste and are also burnt which causes many
side effects.
* The plastic that can be obtained from recycling CD's can then be used in
a variety of ways.
* It is estimated that it will take over one million years for a CD to
completely breakdown in a landfill.
* No Disposal Units in Tamil Nadu.
* Globally every year billions of CD's are manufactured and every year
billions of these discs become outdated and unwanted.
* Every year 28,789 tones of e-waste are discarded in Tamil Nadu.
* More than 380,000 tones of e-waste are disposed off every year in India.
* CD's are just thrown away as waste and are also burnt which causes many
side effects.
* The plastic that can be obtained from recycling CD's can then be used in
a variety of ways.
* It is estimated that it will take over one million years for a CD to
completely breakdown in a landfill.
AWARENESS PROGRAMS IN OUR SCHOOL
1.
As a part of our Greening with Goethe program we
wanted spread awareness among the
students. On 4th and 5th March we conducted an awareness program in our school for 5th, 6th and 7th
STD. First we asked the students what
are CD’s? There wasn't any answer. We told
them about the manufacturing, usage, disposal, recycle and hazards of CD’s. We
briefly explained about
the recycling and what would they do with the
waste got when they are
recycling the CD's .After we finished the
explanation they themselves told
that they will get all the waste electronics to
the school and drop them in
the e waste bin which is kept in our school.
2. As a continuation of our project Greening with Goethe, we
conducted an awareness program for the students of class IX.
At the outset Abiraami & Nithya gave an
overview of the project and explained what it was all about.
Abiraami & Nithya took turns to explain
chronologically all the developments that had taken place. The students were
told about the aims and objects of the project, the agency conducting the
project, the visit to Bremen by our students, the result of the
conference. The subsequent interviews conducted by us and also about various
awareness programs. The students were also told about the blog that has been
created. The blog was actually shown and the contents there of was explained in
great detail. At the end of the session there was question/answer session.
3.
On 17th March we conducted an awareness program
to the students of class VIII-B and on 14th March for VIII-C. Madhu, Shreya,
Vaishali, Abiraami, Nithya and Niyaz explained the aims and objectives of the project.
Greening with Goethe. The blog which has been created by us was explained
and the details about the interviews conducted by us were also explained.
The harmful effects of the CDs and the problems caused to the environment
were explained. Then we had a question and answer session and the doubts were
clarified by us.
4.
We conducted an awareness program about the
project Greening with Goethe for class 8A. We briefly explained about the
harmful effects of CDs and the important of using CDs.
The following are the various competitions conducted by us…
1.
Drawing competition:-
As part of the project "Greening with Goethe". We
organized a drawing competition and the topics are as follows:
One of the major issue facing us all is the safe
guarding the environment. Electronic items like CD's generate e-waste that is
not degradable. And they pollute the environment. All e-waste should be
recycled. Draw a picture highlighting this theme.
The topics were:
1) " I love green"
2)
Recycling "e waste"
3) Nature - Preserve it
4) Danger by e waste
2.
The quiz competition:-
On 27th march 2014, a quiz
program was organized as part of the awareness campaign in the project
"Greening with Goethe". Nithya and Abiraami organized the event and
they were assisted by Madhu, Nive, Shreya, Niyaz and Vaishali.
The Quiz program consisted of 3
rounds. The first two rounds were elimination rounds and the third was the
final round. In all there were 11 participants.
In
the final round there were 4 participants.
Purab came 3rd, and
there was a tie between Poornima and Kumaran.
So there was a tie break question
in which Kumaran answered and came 1st and Poornima came 2nd.
·
The first prize went to Kumaran,
·
The second prize went to Poornima and
·
The third prize went to Purab.
