Question

Distinguish degradable pollutants from non-degradable pollutants.

Answer 1

Hint: Pollutants are substances that cause pollution. These can be naturally occurring substances or energy that become pollutants when they exceed their natural levels. For example, the sound above 80 decibels causes noise pollution. The physical, chemical or geochemical in nature and its nature and concentration determines its severity for causing pollution.

Complete answer:
Pollution is caused due to the introduction and accumulation of pollutants in the environment. These pollutants damage the environment adversely and also harm animals, plants and other living organisms.
Pollution is of various types like air, water, soil, marine pollution, etc. depending upon where these contaminants get accumulated.

Degradable pollutants:
- These are also called non-persistent pollutants as they can be rapidly decomposed by natural processes.
- This category of pollutants include sewage, paper products, vegetables, seeds, etc. that can be broken into simple substances by microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, etc. in due course of time.
- These become harmful when present in large quantities in the environment.
- The degradation of these substances is faster than non-biodegradable substances.

Non-degradable pollutants:
- These are also called persistent pollutants as they cannot be rapidly decomposed by natural processes.
- This category of pollutants includes plastics, polythene bags, DDT, insecticides, mercury, lead, etc. that cannot be broken down into simpler substances.
- The degradation of non-biodegradable pollutants is very slow and thus it is categorized as non-biodegradable.

Note: To reduce the pollution it is important to use the three R’s of sustainable living, that are reduce, reuse and recycle.
We must reduce the use of non-biodegradable substances to reduce their accumulation in the environment. Reusing and recycling of these non-biodegradable waste will also help in reducing pollution.