Quantifying plastic waste generation in Aizawl city, India: waste management and its impact on human and environmental health.

Plastic wastes in recent years have become a menace owing to population pressure and high demand of various plastic products in daily use. A study was conducted in Aizawl city of northeast India for a period of 3 years to quantify various types of plastic wastes. Our study found that a present plastic consumption of 13.06 g/capita/day although low when compared to developed countries continues; the generation will be doubled after a decade as the population is projected to double specially due to migration from rural areas. The plastic waste was contributed more by the high-income group of the population with a correlation factor of r = 0.97. Among the total plastic waste, packaging plastics contributed maximum with an average of 52.56% and carry bags among the packaging contribute maximum with 32.55% in the three sectors, namely, residential, commercial, and dumping sites. The result leads to a maximum contribution by the LDPE polymer with 27.46% among seven categories of polymers.

Carbon storage and sequestration potential in aboveground biomass of bamboos in North East India.

The Northeastern hilly states of India harbor nearly 90 species of bamboos, 41 of which are endemic to the region. Estimation of C-storage and C-sequestration in aboveground biomass of two common bamboo species namely Bambusa tulda and Dendrocalamus longispathus was carried out in Mizoram-one of the eight states of Northeastern India. Recording of density of culms was done by quadrate method and harvesting of culms was done to estimate the aboveground biomass. C-storage in different components of the culms was found out for three age classes namely 1, 2 and ≥ 3 year old culms. Aboveground biomass ranged from 73.58 to 127 Mg/ha in Bambusa tulda and 115 to 150 Mg/ha in Dendrocalamus longispathus. Culm density and aboveground biomass were maximum in the ≥ 3 year age class in both the species. C-storage ranged from 36.34 to 64.00 Mg/ha in Bambusa tulda and 50.11 to 65.16 Mg/ha in Dendrocalamus longispathus. Although having lower aboveground biomass the rate of C-sequestration was higher in Bambusa tulda with 27.79 Mg/ha/year than Dendrocalamus longispathus which have 15.36 Mg/ha/year. The reason was attributed to higher increment of culm density and DBH of the older age class in the second year study period in Bambusa tulda.