Mrs. Patel lives in Calcutta and makes her weekly trips to her local supermarket armed with a supply

of paper bags. Ask her why she prefers them to the plastic reusable bags given at the market and

she replies “ Someone once told me that plastic takes thousands of years to decompose. Just doing

my bit for the environment! ” Rajiv Agarwal from New Delhi has recently switched all the lights in his

house from regular incandescent ones to fluorescent bulbs. He explains “ Regular bulbs consume more

electricity and produce very little of light. “ Do a little research and we find that he`s right. Incandescent

light bulbs use up huge amounts of power and on an average, generate just around ten percent of the

energy as light. The rest is emitted as heat. Fluorescent bulbs, on the other hand, use up to sixty to

seventy five percent of the consumed energy as light.

Mr. Agarwal and Mrs. Patel are just a few examples of ordinary people “going green” in our society

today. In a era where the environment and global climate scenario has captured the attention of

the public in a big way, more and more people are coming forward with doing their bit to save the

environment. It is in this context that the term “Green Technology” was born.

Green Technology refers to the conception and application of science to curb the use of natural

resources and implement a widespread use of alternative and recyclable energy sources, and in the

process, curbing and limiting the harmful effects brought on by continued use of fuels like fossil fuels.

The primary objective behind this technology is sustainability.

This coming-of-age technology primarily inculcates two major policies at its core. One is the reduction

and negation of the effects of byproducts of traditional fuel sources. Second is the implementation of

new advances in technology and alternative energy sources to replace existing ones.

Reduction and cleaning up of waste and harmful particles in the environment encompasses factors like

Solid Waste Management, Water Purification and Sewage disposal, Item Recycling and Environment

Decontamination. Solid waste management involves handling and processing of solid garbage produced

by humans. Methods for this include incinerators, recycling and dumps. The earliest known methods

simply consisted of digging pits and burying waste. However, as society progressed and communities

became larger, the amount of waste produced increased and the space for pits decreased. In

contemporary times, public management systems have implemented regular collection and disposal of

garbage, ensuring safe elimination. Water recycling strategies involve two basic processes – recycling

without purification and recycling without purification. Recycling without purification is used for several

agricultural processes in industries and in household purposes where human consumption is not

required. A good example of this would be garden usage and irrigation. Recycling with purification clearly

indicates processing of water to be used for potable purposes. These may include drinking, cooking

purposes and others. Sewage disposal is the ultimate return of waste water to the environment. Waste

water, before disposal, is suitable treated and processed to facilitate elimination of harmful substances

that could potentially destroy the disposal points.

Development of new materials and technologies to implement changes in the consumption of existing

fuel sources has been a major turning point in the progress of biotechnology. Examples of this include

usage of materials like zirconium, yttrium, tellurium and other rare earths. A good instance would be the

widespread change from lead to lithium in batteries.

The Green revolution has triggered a lot of advancements in technology, notably in companies

manufacturing and producing eco-friendly products in the market today. A very good example is the

production of building bricks from flyash, which is a byproduct of coal-burning. This process promises

to use around 85% less energy as the contemporary sources, with an equivalent reduction of carbon

emissions. Solar energy promises a huge advantage in terms of reducing power wastage, air pollution

and carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. One producer of zero-harmful emissions is the use

of nuclear reactors. Already wide-spread in use, nuclear energy is probably the single most abundant

and potentially permanently sustainable source of non-pollutant energy today. An example of materials

science playing a part in eliminating production of green house gas causing air pollutants is in the use

of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). SOFCs are electrochemical power plants that some believe will power

automobiles in the future because they produce no air pollutants in the process. However, because they

still rely on hydrocarbons as their energy source, they do not eliminate generation of CO2 emissions.

This would require the creation of a hydrogen infrastructure which is often discussed but is not being

seriously proposed at this time due to both safety concerns and the cost to produce, store and transfer

hydrogen.

In this context, it is heartening to know that industries in India have taken a long and serious view of

going green. The oldest industrial house in India, TATA, has already made giant strides in this direction.

Chairman Ratan Tata says, “We have embarked on a group-wise initiative to create awareness and

implement eco-friendly processes wherever it is possible and, in fact, look at some of our older processes

to see how we can ensure that they are in compliance with the state-of-the-art exhibits. This is going

to be a long and expensive journey and we are fairly committed to it.” Among its ventures are its hotel

chains, which features eco rooms which will have energy-efficient mini bars, organic bed linen and

napkins made from recycled paper, and the all new Indica EV, an electric car that will run on polymer

lithium ion batteries.