Question

To which of the following does the 4R principle apply the most?
(A) Synthetic Fibre
(B) Natural Fibre
(C) Metals
(D) Plastic

Answer 1

Hint : The 4R principle is actually carried out to reduce pollution and other environmental damages caused by man-made goods. So naturally, out of the four options given here, the most polluting of all would be our answer.

Complete step-by-step answer:
Let us first discuss the concept we have in question here- the 4R principle.
Now, we have all heard about the 3R principle which is an abbreviation for reduce, reuse and recycle. The 4R principle is actually based on this and adds just one more “R” to it, which stands for recover.
One of the major concerns of the modern world is waste management. As the size of the human population grows, we consume more products which inevitably increases the amount of waste we produce. This leads to pollution of our environment on various fronts such as, air, water, soil etc. Keeping in view of these growing concerns, steps needed to be taken so as to skilfully manage the disposal of waste.
“Reduce” is the first R and it emphasizes on the fact that our lives are quite simple and if we want we can significantly reduce the number of products we consume, hence creating less waste to dispose. “Reuse” is the second R and it states that we should keep using a product for as many times as we can. This will significantly decrease our urge to buy new ones and create more waste in the process. “Recycle” is the third R which is concerned with all those products that are eligible for the process of recycling, where one product is changed to another or given a new form and then can be used again. “Recover” is the last R and it gives importance to all that remain after recycling; for example, we can recover energy from the cow dung by burning it.
Out of the four options, plastic is the most polluting agent to our environment. It causes soil pollution if buried under soil, causes air pollution if burnt and causes water pollution if disposed of in water. We can apply the 4R principle on plastics as follows:
- Reduce the consumption of plastics by carrying cloth or paper bags.
- Reuse the high quality plastics bags and bottles we have at our homes.
- Recycling plastics into plastic bags or other products.
- Recovering energy from plastics by converting them into fuel using modern non-combustion methods.

So, the answer to this question is option (D) Plastics.

Note: The principle of 4R is also applied to all the other options but we chose plastic as our answer because it is the most polluting to our environment. Substances such as natural fibres and metals contribute much less to the damages caused by waste materials.