Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
basis all the resources consumed and to assimilate all the wastes produced
by a person living at a given geographic location. For instance, it is around
0.8 global hectares (gha) in India and greater than 10 gha in the United
States. By most estimates, the footprint of the population has already
exceeded the capacity of the planet to support it. In 2008, the EF of the 6
billion people was estimated at 2.7 gha/person, already well over the global
biocapacity of approximately 1.8 gha/person in the same year (Grooten,
2013)! In North America, Scandinavia, and Australia, the footprint is
of the footprint is availability of sufficient vegetation to sequester carbon
emissions from burning fossil fuels.
Figure 1.3
The ecological footprint of nations (hectares required per
person) versus the per capita GDP of the nation.
Source: Reproduced with permission from Granta Design, Cambridge, UK.
Plastics, being a material largely derived from nonrenewable resources such
as oil, are not immune from these same considerations. Their production,
use, and disposal involve both energy costs and material costs. The process
also invariably yields emissions and waste into the environment that can
