Is your Summer Vacation a Carbon Emissions Nightmare?
We love vacations, We love travelling to new lands, exploring new vistas, mingling in a new culture, and relishing new cuisines.
Why? Because it takes us away from our mundane routine, brings freshness into our lives, and prepares us strong to come back and face our daily challenges head-on.
However, due to Covid, there was a long lull in the tourism sector until recently. With restrictions now being lifted, there is a new buzzword in the air –“revenge travel”. Just because Covid forced people to be at home for the last two years, now, we all want to “rebel” and travel each time without fail.
The tourism sector is slowly recovering as there are already signals that many people will be travelling across India this summer. However, due to excessive heat on the plains, a lot of people will head to the mountains. Already our mountains are reeling under the wrath of global warming and with more tourists this year, the situation may worsen.
The hotel industry will have to cater to more tourists. This will lead to more plastic packaging consumption, and food wastage, causing higher garbage generation. Also, since mountain roads are narrow, there is a possibility of endless traffic jams leading to fuel wastage and higher exhaust emissions. Moreover, hills always have water shortage due to lower underground water levels. This means that water would also be brought from the plains in water tankers and will be sold at a higher price on the hills. Eventually, all these issues are slowly pushing mountain ecology to the limit. The events which unfolded at Kedarnath in Jun 2013 are still afresh in our memory.
For those who are not aware of the tragedy, on June 16-17, 2013, Kedarnath was hit by a devastating natural disaster in the form of torrential rains of unprecedented magnitude. The banks of the Chorabari lake in Kedarnath collapsed due to a cloudburst that caused a significant flash flood in Uttarakhand, causing widespread destruction and heavy losses to infrastructure, agricultural lands, and human and animal lives. The official death toll is 6054, but the unofficial figure is around 25000.
Our mountains have fragile ecology and there is no shortcut solution to reduce the crowds during summers or to decrease pollution and waste generation. It can only be managed effectively by using modern technologies and efficient processes.
The generated waste needs to be appropriately segregated as plastic & metal waste and organic waste. While the non-organic waste can be recycled, the organic waste can be used to generate compost which can be utilized for hill plantations.
Alternatively, this organic biomass can be transported for processing into biofuels. This is a newer technology by Shell, the Netherlands, which can convert biomass like municipal waste, wood, cellulose, etc. to gasoline, jet, and diesel range hydrocarbon fuels and other blended stocks. The technology is still in the pilot plant stage but is also making great strides on the commercial front.
Environment-conscious organizations like Evirocor can immensely aid this chain. Consider a scenario where the food is packed in eco-friendly Oko packaging and is served to customers instead of using plastic containers. The waste can be efficiently segregated and converted to compost or recycled in a biofuel plant for conversion to hydrocarbon fuels.
Oko sustainable food packaging
Biofuel can be stored, combusted, and pumped in the same manner as any other hydrocarbon fuel. It can also be used safely in blended or pure forms. It will facilitate fuel economy because it is nearly identical to petroleum fuel and can be used in all applications.
This would be a win-win situation for all. Less littering, lesser plastic, least pollution, and a chance to convert waste to fuels.