Type: Prelims Only

Central idea: The article highlights the issue of plastic waste generated by e-commerce giant Amazon and the need for a biotransformation technology that can make plastics biodegradable and its potential applications in reducing plastic waste in various industries.

Amazon’s Plastic Waste Problem

• Amazon generated 321 million kilograms (709 million pounds) of plastic from packaging waste in 2021.
• The amount of plastic waste generated by Amazon in 2021 is enough to circle the Earth over 800 times as air pillows.

What is Biotransformation Technology?

• Biotransformation technology is a novel approach to ensure plastics that escape refuse streams are processed efficiently and broken down.
• The technology was co-developed by Polymateria and the Imperial College in London, UK.
• Plastics made using this technology are given a pre-programmed time during which the manufactured material looks and feels like conventional plastics without compromising on quality.
• Once the product expires and is exposed to the external environment, it self-destructs and biotransforms into bioavailable wax, which is then consumed by microorganisms, converting waste into water, CO2, and biomass.
• The technology is the world’s first that ensures polyolefins fully biodegrade in an open environment without causing any microplastics.

Need for Biotransformation Technology

• India generates 3.5 billion kgs of plastic waste annually, and a third of it comes from packaging waste.
• In 2019, plastic packaging waste from e-commerce firms was estimated at over a billion kilograms worldwide.
• Amazon generated nearly 210 million kgs (465 million pounds) of plastic from packaging waste in 2019.
• Up to 10 million kgs (22.44 million pounds) of Amazon’s plastic packaging ended up in the world’s freshwater and marine ecosystems as pollution in 2019.

Application of this technology

• The food packaging and healthcare industries are the two prime sectors that could use this technology to reduce waste.
• The increase in cost is relatively small compared to conventional plastic which does not contain this technology.
• Some well-known Indian firms in the food and packaging industries deploy such technologies.
• Within healthcare and pharma industries, this technology provides biodegradable solutions for non-woven hygiene products like diapers, sanitary napkins, facial pads, etc.

India’s initiatives to tackle plastic pollution

• Phased elimination: The Indian government launched a plastic waste management gazette to help tackle the ever-growing plastic pollution caused by single-use plastics. The government imposed a ban on single-use plastics last year to bring a stop to its use in the country.
• National Dashboard on Elimination of Single-Use Plastic and Plastic Waste Management: It brings all stakeholders together to track the progress made in eliminating single-use plastic and effectively managing such waste.
• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) portal: It helps in improving accountability traceability, and facilitating ease of compliance reporting in relation to EPR obligations of the producers, importers, and brand-owners.
• Lifecycle monitoring: India has developed a mobile app to report single-use plastics grievances to check the sale, usage, or manufacturing of single-use plastics in their area.

Alternatives to Reducing Plastic Waste

• A switch to jute or paper-based packaging could potentially cut down plastic waste.
• Wooden packaging is yet another alternative, but that will make the packaging bulkier and increase the cost.
• The alternatives can be made using coir, bagasse, rice and wheat bran, plant and agricultural residue, banana and areca leaves.

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Finland has successfully installed the world’s first sand battery that can store heat from various energy sources for months.

What is the Sand Battery System?

• The battery is a massive steel silo, 7 m tall and 4 m wide with 100 tonnes of sand, and was installed in Finland’s Kankaanpaa town in June 2022.
• It is connected to the town’s centralised heating network that keeps buildings and public water systems warm.
• The storage system has three main components:

1. Sand silo,
2. Electrical air heater, and
3. Air-to-water heat exchanger

Working principle

• For charging the sand silo, air is heated to 600°C in the electrical air heater.
• The hot air is then circulated inside the silo using a heat-exchange pipe and blowers to raise the temperature of the sand at the silo’s core to 600°C.
• When the storage enters the discharging stage, the blowers are used to pump air into the pipe inside the sand silo.
• Once the air reaches 200°C, it is transferred to the air-to-water heat exchanger, where it is used to boil water.
• It is then sent to the heating network.

Electricity Requirements and Capacity of the Battery

• The storage system requires electricity at all times to charge the battery, monitor the temperature during standby, and run the blowers when the battery is used.
• The installed battery can store 8 megawatt-hours (MWh) of energy and release heat at 0.1 MW, which is enough to provide heating and hot water for about 100 homes and a public swimming pool.

Advantages of Sand as a Heat Storage Material

• The Finnish researchers replaced water with sand in the battery system because of its advantages.
• Sand can be heated up to 600 degrees Celsius (°C), whereas water starts to boil at 100°C.
• It also has low heat conductivity, which reduces energy loss.

Importance of Heat Energy

• Heat accounts for half of the world’s energy use, followed by transport (30 per cent) and electricity (20 per cent), as per the International Energy Agency (IEA).
• Currently, 80 per cent of the world’s energy comes from dirty fossil fuels.

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Central idea: Google and Microsoft have added generative AI to their search engines and browsers, as well as to consumer products such as Gmail, Docs, Copilot 365, Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, and more.

What is Generative AI?

• Like other forms of artificial intelligence, generative AI learns how to take actions from past data.
• It creates brand new content – a text, an image, even computer code – based on that training, instead of simply categorizing or identifying data like other AI.
• The most famous generative AI application is ChatGPT, a chatbot that Microsoft-backed OpenAI released late last year.
• The AI powering it is known as a large language model because it takes in a text prompt and from that writes a human-like response.

Generative AI products offered by Google and Microsoft

• Google and Microsoft have added generative AI to their search engines and browsers, as well as to consumer products such as Gmail, Docs, Copilot 365, Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, and more.
• In Google’s Gmail and Docs, generative AI can help users write documents automatically, such as a welcome email for employees.
• Copilot 365, a feature of Microsoft 365 apps, can generate spreadsheets on command or even write an entire article on Word, depending on the topic.
• Both companies are making generative AI platforms and models a part of their cloud offerings, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

What are Google and Microsoft offering?

• In Google’s Gmail and Docs, generative AI will help users write documents automatically.
• For instance, an HR executive can simply ask the AI app to write a welcome email for employees, instead of typing out the document.
• Similarly, Microsoft has ‘Copilot 365’ for its Microsoft 365 apps, which includes Teams, Outlook, Word and Excel.
• Here, AI could generate a spreadsheet on command, or even write down an entire article on Word (depending on the topic).
• Copilot can also match entries on Calendar with emails, and generate quick, helpful pointers that a person should focus on in their meetings.

How can these developments impact human workforce?

• The technology is currently not very accurate and often provides incorrect responses, despite being popular.
• During the initial demonstrations of these products, Google and Microsoft were found to give inaccurate responses.
• While these products may have utility, they are not yet capable of replacing humans in the workplace.
• Humans are better suited to check information generated by AI.

Various challenges posed

• Bias: The data that is used to train generative AI systems can be biased, leading to biased outputs.
• Misinformation: Since generative AI systems learn from the internet or training data which itself may have been inaccurate, they could increase the spread of misinformation online.
• Security: Generative AI systems could be used to create deepfakes or other forms of digital manipulation that could be used to spread disinformation or commit fraud.
• Ethics: There are ethical concerns around the use of generative AI, particularly when it comes to issues like privacy, accountability, and transparency.
• Regulation: There is a need for regulatory frameworks to ensure that generative AI is used responsibly and ethically, and that it does not have any negative impacts on society.

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Central idea: The article discusses a pan-India study conducted by scientists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) which found that background radiation levels in parts of Kerala are nearly three times more than what’s been assumed.

What is Background Radiation?

• Background radiation is a measure of the level of ionizing radiation present in the environment at a particular location which is not due to deliberate introduction of radiation sources.
• Background radiation originates from a variety of sources, both natural and artificial.

How is it measured?

• The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) specifies maximum radiation exposure levels and this has also been adopted by India’s atomic energy establishment.
• Public exposure shouldn’t exceed 1 milli-Sievert every year, those who work in plants or are by virtue of their occupation shouldn’t be exposed to over 30 milli-Sievert every year.
• Generally it is measured in nanogray per second. A (nGy/s) is a decimal fraction of the SI-derived unit of ionizing radiation absorbed dose rate.

Natural sources-

1. Cosmic radiation
2. Environmental radioactivity from naturally occurring radioactive materials (such as radon and radium)

Man-made sources-

1. Medical X-rays,
2. Fallout from nuclear weapons testing and nuclear accidents.

Factors affecting such radiation

• Natural background radiation is all around us.
• Background radiation varies from place to place and over time, depending on the amount of naturally occurring radioactive elements in soil, water and air.
• Weather conditions also affect radiation levels, as snow cover may shield these elements, and radioactive particulates can wash out of the air during rain storms.
• Cosmic radiation from the sun, our galaxy, and beyond is constantly around us and contributes to natural background radiation.
• Altitude and latitude can also influence the level of background radiation at any one site.

How threatening is it?

• All rocks and soils contain some trace amount of natural radioactivity and can sometimes be ingested or inhaled if disturbed.
• Radon is a gas that can concentrate indoors and be inhaled, along with its decay products.
• We can also ingest radioactivity from the food we eat and the water we drink.
• A number of factors determine the annual dose you and your family receive from background radiation.
• Typically, Gamma rays are a type of such radiation that can pass through matter unobstructed, and are harmless in small doses, but can be dangerous in concentrated bursts.

Findings of the BARC Study

• The study found that the average natural background levels of gamma radiation in India was 94 nGy/hr (nano Gray per hour) (or roughly 0.8 millisievert/year).
• The last study conducted in 1986 computed such radiation to be 89 nGy/hr.
• The study found that the levels in Kollam district, Kerala were 9,562 nGy/hr, or about three times more than what was assumed.
• This computes to about 70 milliGray a year, or a little more than what a worker in a nuclear plant is exposed to.
• This however does not necessarily mean that those at Kollam are being exposed to dangerous levels of radiation, as past studies have not found any higher rates of cancer or mortality.

Reasons for Higher Radiation Levels in Kerala

• The higher radiation levels in Kollam are attributed to monazite sands that are high in thorium, which is part of India’s long-term plan to sustainably produce nuclear fuel.
• Southern India has higher levels of radiation due to the presence of granite and basaltic, volcanic rock, which contains uranium deposits.