F.4 Biology Group Investigation

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F.4 Biology Group Investigation

• Land Pollution
• Group 5

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Members List

• Chan Sze Chun ( 2)
• Tong Shing Chung ( 17)
• Lee Suen Kwan ( 32)
• Leung Wan Iu ( 33)
• Wong Lok Sze ( 40)
• Wong Wing Yi ( 41)

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Definition of Land Pollution
What is Pollution?
Pollution is the addition to the ecosystem of
something which has a detrimental effect on it.
Then, What is means by Land Pollution?

• Land pollution is the degradation of the Earth's
  land surface through misuse of the soil by
• poor agricultural practices
• mineral exploitation
• industrial waste dumping and
• indiscriminate disposal of urban wastes.
• It includes visible waste and litter as well as
  pollution of the soil itself.

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Importance of land
The land gives us food, Lumber, paper, glass,
metals etc. Everything you see started in the
soil or rocks. Land is very precious, it is
something that should be cherished and protected.
But we waste everything the land provided for us
so that the land must produce even more.
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Sources of pollutants
One of the most important causes of pollution is
the high rate of energy usage by modern,
growing populations.

Many commercial activities result in the
production of large volumes of solid waste
material. Also, the construction activities and
domestic households produce large amounts of
non-recycled wastes
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Composition of domestic waste disposed of at
waste facilities (percentage by weight)
The community of Hong Kong disposes about 25,000
tones of solid wastes every day.
It was found that plastic, paper and metals
contributed about 40 by weight of the domestic
waste.
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Problems caused by land pollution

•   ?The increasing amount of solid waste and its
  disposal
• ? Leading to visual pollution ,public health
  hazards, and water and air pollution.  
• ? The problem of litter and waste spoils the
  beauty of our environment .
• ? The discarded solid waste , if untreated, will
  decay, producing bad smells and polluting and the
  sea.
•   
• ? Soil erosion happens in many ways such as
  draining
• of fens and bogs, but mainly through the
  introduction and intensification of agriculture.

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Heavy Metal
Heavy metal additions to soil can affect
fertility and agricultural productivity. The
soil acts as a long term sink for heavy metals
such as zinc, copper, nickel and cadmium, which
have residence times ranging from hundreds to
thousands of years, depending on the element and
soil properties.
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Health, safety, and environmental threats

• Fire and explosion
• Inhalation of toxic gases
• Injury to children playing on or around the dump
  site
• Disease carried by mosquitoes, flies, and rodents
  
• Contamination of streams, rivers and lakes
• Contamination of soil and groundwater
• Contamination of drinking water
• Damage to plant and wildlife habitats
• Decrease in the quality of life to nearby
  residents and the local community
• Open dumps create a public nuisance, divert land
  from more productive uses, and depress the value
  of surrounding land.

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Severity of Land Pollution

• Hong Kong generates several different types of
  waste, and those rubbish are then put into the
  landfill sites which are shown below.

From the pictures above, landfill sites are
expected to be fully filled, however, rubbish are
non-stopped to produce. Therefore if we dont
stop such a behavior, in one day, we need to
store our rubbish at home.
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The Capacity of Landfill
From the above graph, we can observe that the
landfill sites will be fully filled till the
year ended 2015, therefore we should stop the
problem without further continues serious.
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Government now doing

• The Legislative Council passes the
• Waste Disposal Bill 2003
• To impose charge on the disposal of
• construction wastes at landfills,
• sorting facilities and public fill
• reception facilities

• The graph nearby shows that the government
  successfully lows down the production of wastes
  through Achievement of Waste wise Scheme.

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Suggestions to government

• Education
• advertisements and exhibitions can help enhance
  citizens awareness of environmental protection.
• Give financial support to Recycling Company
• The recycling industry is a land-hungry one.
• Since land is expensive in Hong Kong, the
• government can try to identify affordable
• options for recyclers
• Encourage the producer to produce degradable
  substances
• As some of the substances can decompose
  naturally, they can reduce the pressure on land
  and thus, the land pollution can be solved.

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Suggestions to Citizens

• Encourage people to use recycled substances
• recycled substances e.g. recycled paper,
  battery etc. can decrease the production of
  wastes and thus lows down the pressure on
  landfill sites.
• Reduce and reuse the food wastes
• Yet this waste can become a resource by
• turning it into compost, animal feed or
• other useful products.
• Following the 4R Principle
• Since this principle can greatly reduce the
  production of wastes efficiently, it can lows
  down the cost of disposal of wastes

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4Rs' concept (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Replace)
The 4Rs' concept in waste management helps in
minimizing waste, reducing demand for scarce
landfill space and saving resources. Discarded
items such as newspaper, office paper, aluminum
cans, glass containers and certain plastic items
can be collected for reusing or recycling.
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Recycle

• Recycling is a great way to made a positive
  impact on the environment. Take most of product
  packaging such as plastics, glass, cardboard
  (including unbleached paper towel rolls
  cereal-type boxes), tin and aluminum, as well as
  newspapers, magazines
• and phonebooks to the nearest recycling unit.

Replace
Replace means find other things instead of the
original things. For example, use towel instead
of tissues.
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Reuse

• Reusing means try using  again the item you were
  planning to throw away, perhaps for some other
  purposes, or give it to someone else who could
  use it.

Reduce

• We bring lots of stuff to home. Before
• bringing them  to your home, think carefully
  whether you really need it. Then think about what
  else you're bringing home with it. (For example,
  is it triple-wrapped in plastic or smothered with
  bulky, unnecessary packaging?)

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The End

• Thank you for attention