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MINERALS

 

The burden of the social and ecological rucksack of some products we use...

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A copper mine in the US has 40 billion litres of acid water


OUR CELLPHONE NEEDS COLTAN WHICH COMES FROM CONGO
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AND IT IS  FUELLING CONFLICTS IN AFRICA

Coltan or columbite-tantalite is found in large quantities in Congo. Workers dig large craters in streambeds and put the slush and mud in large tubs, where the heavy coltan settles at the bottom. Coltan yields tantalum, a heat-resistant powder that can hold a high electrical charge, critical for mobiles, laptops, pagers and other electronic devices.

Forces from neighboring Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi are involved in smuggling coltan from Congo. They use the money made from smuggled coltan to fund conflicts in their countries. By one estimate, the Rwandan army made at least $250 million over a period of 18 months through the sale of coltan, even though no coltan is mined in Rwanda.

OUR SOFT DRINK CAN NEEDS ALUMINUM WHICH COMES FROM BAUXITE MINES

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AND IT IS UPROOTING PEOPLE IN ORISSA

Congo's national parks have also been ravaged to get at coltan, endangering elephants and gorillas. In one national park alone, the gorilla population has been cut to nearly half due to clearing out large areas of forests for coltan mining. "Much more forest has been destroyed in the last three years than in thirty years," said one African official.

This problem was highlighted in a controversial UN Security Council report and some companies have already banned coltan from Congo, though many more still continue to do so.

Since Independence, mining has displaced 10 million. Three-fourth of these are yet to be compensated. 50,000 of them are in Orissa, a state rich in bauxite mines. Most of them are on tribal land. Annually, the world's aluminum industry uses an estimated 290 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. That's enough to power all of Africa!

In Orissa, the aluminum industry consumes as much as one-thirds of the state's power.

DOING MORE WITH LESS

dot.gif (88 bytes)RECYCLE: A product is broken down to its constituent materials and used again. Aluminum, copper and brass are easily recycled — in fact, 70% of the world’s copper being used is recycled.

dot.gif (88 bytes)RE-USE: This means extending the life of a product through maintenance or re-conditioning.

dot.gif (88 bytes)RE-MANUFACTURE: This is the process of "disassembly". Parts are cleaned, repaired or replaced, and then re-assembled to work again. Xerox claims that 90% of its office equipment can be re-manufactured.

dot.gif (88 bytes)DEMATERIALISATION: This is the reduction of the use of materials at every step. We have to increase the efficiency of material use at every stage. Another way to do this is by using lighter materials. Like a 110KV concrete pole requires 135 tonnes of raw material. Replacing concrete with steel would bring down the raw material requirement to less than half — 60 tonnes.

dot.gif (88 bytes)CRADLE TO GRAVE APPROACH: A product has to be accounted for from manufacture to disposal. For example if a Japanese has to throw his TV, he has to legally hand it over to his retailer and pay the recycling cost, the retailer has to pass it on to the manufacturer, who has to dismantle and recycle it ecologically.

dot.gif (88 bytes)FACTOR 10 CLUB: This group feels that we can bring down our intensity of resource consumption by a factor of 10 (down to one-tenth of the current value) in the next few decades

 
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