Source Reduction of waste – Stopping waste before it starts – way to enhance environmental cleanliness:

Source Reduction of waste – Stopping waste before it starts – way to enhance environmental cleanliness:

Source reduction, also known as waste prevention or pollution prevention, is the elimination of waste before it is created. Source reduction is decreasing the amount of materials or energy used during the manufacturing or distribution of products and packages. It basically involves the design, manufacture, purchase or use of materials and products to reduce the amount or toxicity of what is thrown away. Source reduction means stopping waste before it happens.

Because it stops waste before it starts, source reduction is the top solid waste priority of environmental protection agencies of many of the developed countries. These innovations conserve resources and reduce packaging waste, while continuing to provide performance, value and convenience to the consumer.

Source reduction is not the same as recycling. Recycling is collecting already used materials and making them into another product. Recycling begins at the end of a product's life, while source reduction first takes place when the product and its packaging are being designed. In fact, the best way to think about source reduction and recycling is as complementary activities - combined, source reduction and recycling have a significant impact on preventing solid waste and saving resources.
Importance of source reduction of waste:

(a) Source reduction conserves raw material and energy resources. Smaller packages and concentrated products typically use fewer materials and less energy to manufacture and transport.

(b) Source reduction reduces releases to air, land and water. For example, it takes less fuel to transport lighter weight materials.

(c) Source reduction cuts back on what has to be thrown away. That helps keep solid waste disposal costs down, which is good for municipal budgets and consumers.

(d) Source-reduced products take up less space, and are more efficient and easier to use.

Source reduction is the highest goal in the solid waste management hierarchy - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. As explained above, by itself, recycling does not address the issue of wasteful product use. When recycling is coupled with source reduction, however, wasteful purchase and use of products is minimized. Whenever possible, reduce or reuse first, then recycle. The practice of source reduction benefits the environment through reduced energy consumption and pollution, conservation of natural resources, and extension of valuable landfill space. It can also have economic benefits by reducing costs associated with transportation, disposal or recycling of waste. Plus, source reduction can save you money every day. Everyone can participate in source reduction. REDUCE OR REUSE FIRST, THEN RECYCLE.

Suggestions for better waste management: You can help reduce waste at home by learning basic waste-saving habits. You can buy products that come in concentrated forms or products that use minimal packaging. And you can reuse, repair, recycle, or compost products that would otherwise be thrown away. REDUCE * Buy the largest size package and products that do more than one thing; for example, shampoos that include conditioners. * Buy concentrated products or compact packages, such as frozen juices and fabric softeners you mix with water at home. * Look for products with minimal packaging. You will be using fewer natural resources, and you will have less to throw away. * When you mow your lawn, leave grass clippings on the ground instead of bagging them. Grass clipping decompose quickly, adding nutrients to the soil. REUSE * Buy reusable products such as rechargeable batteries. * Pass on magazines, catalogues, and books to neighbors, hospitals, schools, and nursing homes. * Reuse plastic or glass containers for food storage, nails, and so on. * Reuse plastic shopping bags, boxes, and lumber. * Reuse wrapping paper, gift bags, and bows. Use the Sunday comics for wrapping children’s birthday presents. REPAIR * Try to repair before you consider replacement of lawn mowers, tools, vacuum cleaners, and TVs. * Donate items you can’t repair to local charities or vocational schools. * Keep appliances in good working order. Properly maintained appliances are less likely to wear out or break and will not have to be replaced as frequently. RECYCLE * Shop for items that are recyclable or are made from recycled materials. * Recycle newspapers, plastics, glass, and cans. * If a recycling program does not exist in your community, contact community officials to see if it would make sense to start one. COMPOST * Compost yard and kitchen waste. Compost makes an excellent fertilizer and improves the soil. * If there’s no room for compost pile, offer compostable materials to community composting programs or garden projects near you.

Office waste reduction – Enhances profitability and promotes greener environment:

Office waste reduction – Enhances profitability and promotes greener environment:

Most offices have potential to reduce the volume of waste generated, or establish better uses for the waste they produce. Office waste minimization schemes are relatively simple to implement and can result in cost savings through the reduction of materials consumption and in waste disposal costs.

A. The best way to reduce office waste is not to produce it in the first place. Before making a purchase, ask yourself if you need to buy the goods or materials, or if you are buying more than you need. Minimize the amount of waste you produce. This can be done by using items as many times as possible and recycling what you can after items have been reused. This will enable you to make significant savings on waste disposal costs and reduce your business' impact on the environment.

B. Office waste management helps you green your operations and reduce costs from paper, equipment, fertilizer, cleansers and more. Some of the suggestions for promoting better office waste management and promoting greener environment:

(a) Reduce Packaging. Ask suppliers to use less heavily packaged products or ask them to take away excess packaging when they deliver. Select products from suppliers and manufactures that use minimal packaging.

(b) Reuse or recycle paper, printer toner and ink cartridges you would normally throw away.

(c) Change your printers' settings to print in double-sided format.

(d) Cancel junk mail and unwanted publications - contact the sender directly and ask them to remove you from their mailing list.

(e) Use electronic communication where possible to reduce printing and faxing - encourage staff not to print out documents and emails unless absolutely necessary;

(f) Reuse paper that has only been printed on one side for draft or scrap message pads;

(g) Reuse envelopes if possible, for example to send internal mail;

(h) Look for the type and the amount of recycled content in anything that you buy;

(i) Intersperse regular use of strong cleaners and solvents with less toxic and water based cleaners - everything from process machinery to toilets needs to be cleaned occasionally, but if you clean regularly, you don't need to use the strongest chemicals known to humankind each and every time. A growing practice is to use the strong stuff about every fourth time, and use milder alternatives in between.

(j) Donate surplus card or colored paper to your local school or nursery.

(k) Publicize your waste prevention efforts. In brochures and advertisements that you print, discretely display a small paragraph somewhere that tactfully boasts of your office waste prevention practices. Many of your clients will be favorably impressed.

(l) Educate your fellow employees about your green and sustainable systems and policies.

C. Setting up a paper recycling scheme in the office:

(a) Let staff know the benefits of waste management and the consequences of poor practices. For example, by recycling paper waste the overall costs of waste disposal are decreased.

(b) Position containers or storage boxes in easily accessible locations; e.g. next to photocopier or printer.

(c) Label paper waste containers or use special containers provided by the paper recycling company collecting the waste.

(d) Allocate storage space for full paper waste containers until collection takes place.

(e) Don't forget to tell the cleaners that there is a paper recycling scheme in place and that segregated paper should not be disposed of as general waste.

(f) Monitor progress and provide feedback to staff on the success (or lack of success) of the scheme.

D. In addition, ensure that you do not leave lights, heating and equipment on unnecessarily. This adds significant costs to your business. Avoid wasting water as this can also lead to significant extra costs for your business.In other words, office waste is both an environmental burden and cost for companies. You can easily reduce your office costs by putting key systems in place to save materials and recycle, reduce and reuse everything from paper to worm castings!

Waste reduction in production process and reduction in use of raw materials gives significant effect on profitability and promoting cleaner environme

Waste reduction in production process and reduction in use of raw materials gives significant effect on profitability and promoting cleaner environment:

Waste arising out from production processes can have a significant effect on your profitability. The challenge is to reduce this waste without undermining the effectiveness of the process. The reduction of waste generation also mitigates the wastes disposal and recycling problem; thereby improving the environment standard.

A. During the production process some typical problems include the excessive consumption of energy or raw materials, losses in the production process itself, rejection at the inspection stage and failure when the customer is using the end product. In order to reduce waste you have to be very much conversant with the process. To know where waste is arising, you need to understand your processes and technology used. To do this, you could produce a flowchart of your operations. You can then discuss the process with your employees and get their feedback on where waste is occurring, and what you can do to reduce it. This approach helps you focus on the most important areas, with more detailed analysis of the operation at various segments of the process, if necessary.

B. Common things you might do to improve the efficiency of production processes and reduce waste include:

(a) reusing rinse water in cooling systems;

(b) regularly checking that equipment is correctly calibrated;

(c) reducing unnecessary stoppages in the production line;

(d) upgrading or replacing old equipment;

(e) minimizing spills or leaks;

(f) using sealed systems to allow all the waste to be collected in one place, without leakage, so that as much waste as possible can be reused, recycled or disposed of correctly.

C. An effective waste minimization program scrutinizes the whole business from suppliers to product design, production practices to disposal. It will also enable you to minimize the different input resources, including water and energy, chemicals and solvents, and paper and electrical equipment.

Preventing waste from occurring in the first place is the most efficient solution. Constant monitoring of your production processes and preventive maintenance can ensure waste is avoided before it occurs.

D. Reduce your use of raw materials at the fullest extent - Given current levels of consumption; recycling rubbish isn't sufficient to tackle the amount and type of waste produced. Waste needs to be designed out of the system at source, and what cannot be designed out should be reused.

(a) Developing better "closed loop systems" - where waste is treated as a resource - eliminates the need for unused resources and waste disposal.

(b) If you're a manufacturer, using raw materials more efficiently can bring significant cost savings and environmental benefits. To do this, you should look at all aspects of your production process, including transportation and warehousing.

(c)Try to ensure you don't over-order materials for one-off or bespoke jobs. Check how you handle and store raw materials. Even failing to empty all bags and containers properly could lead to significant amounts of waste.

(d) Look carefully at the waste you're disposing of. Could any of it be reprocessed and put back into the production process? Could it be reused for another purpose? For example, packaging from suppliers can be reused to transport your own products. Also, waste water from manufacturing processes could be reused for low grade purposes.

(e) Another important area to consider is product design. Are there ways of designing your product so that it uses fewer raw materials? Try to use materials that have already been recycled or that are easier to recycle.

(f) Issues such as raw material use, waste production, energy consumption and emissions to the atmosphere should be considered at each stage of the product lifecycle.

Waste reduction, reuse, and recycling allow us to use fewer raw materials and conserve natural resources, preserving landfill space and minimizing energy use. The impact is difficult to ignore.

Sustainable packaging and packaging waste reduction – means to promote cleaner environment:

Sustainable packaging and packaging waste reduction – means to promote cleaner environment:

Packaging is used in business to contain and promote finished products for consumer sales and also to transport them to the point of sale safely. The function of packaging includes protecting products in shipping, offering consumers information, providing a branding billboard and giving us a way to carry things home. The most commonly used packaging materials are paper, fiberboard, plastic, glass, steel and aluminum.

A. A high proportion of waste is actually packaging.

Innovative packaging design can mean that the amount of materials used is reduced and that all packaging can be reused or at least recycled. In other words, it is nothing but creating more ‘sustainable packaging’. Using the minimum and most efficient packaging will increase your competitiveness and save you money, as well as attracting environmentally-aware consumers.

Fortunately, everyone from the retail behemoth Wal-Mart to start-up companies and boutique design shops are beginning to look for ways to reduce the volume of stuff we throw away. However, even the most green-sympathetic designer will quickly find there are no easy answers or quick fixes when it comes to sustainable packaging. Even defining the term poses difficulties.

B. ‘What’s a sustainable package?’ Now, the question becomes not how to do away with packaging, but how to use less of the less-harmful materials. To become more sustainable, designers must consider and improve each step along the entire product journey. Packaging, like any other design problem, will need to be rethought with a sustainable systems approach. Designers should expand and evolve creative processes to include strategies like

(a) optimizing material and energy resources;

(b) sourcing materials that are produced responsibly with environmental best practices, fair labor and trade;

(c) choosing materials that are nontoxic, bio-based and made from renewable resources; and

(d) designing for resources recovery or reintegration back into nature after end use.

C. Sustainability criteria for packaging:

1. Is beneficial, safe and healthy for individuals and communities throughout its lifecycle;

2. Meets market criteria for performance and cost;

3. Is sourced, manufactured, transported and recycled using renewable energy;

4. Maximizes the use of renewable or recycled source materials;

5. Is manufactured using clean production technologies and best practices?

6. Is made from materials healthy in all probable end-of-life scenarios;

7. Is physically designed to optimize materials and energy;

8. Is effectively recovered and utilized in biological and/or industrial cradle-to-cradle cycles.

D. The 5 Rs of creation of sustainable package - Designers dedicated to fostering environmental sustainability—offers some practical advice:

Restore by using materials and supporting firms that reduce or improve our natural capital;

Respect what we have by examining all the impacts that packaging may have;

Reduce the amount of materials, layers of packaging, weight of package, fuel used in transport, etc.;

Reuse something that’s already been made, and make your package easy and desirable to reuse; and

Recover the materials used through recycling, composting or reusing.

One of the most important and simple ways a designer can move beyond conventional packaging solutions is to consider alternative materials. PLA (polyactic acid) is fast becoming the favored alternative to plastic. PLA is made from renewable resources such as corn, and uses fewer fossil fuels and generates fewer greenhouse gases in its production than traditional plastics and some other polymers. PLA can be composted as well. Fortunately, other materials are also coming to commercial viability.

E. The increase in online shopping has meant a rise in goods being delivered direct to customers' homes. This means that more packaging is needed to supply the goods. You can encourage customers to return your packaging to you for reuse by supplying them with a "freepost" return label.

Other ways of improving packaging use are:

(i) Using recycled materials where possible;

(ii) Designing the packaging using the least amount of materials necessary;

(iii) Reusing your own packaging to create new packaging or in other areas of your business.

Fortunately, in developed world a new movement is working to make manufacturers more accountable by pushing them to stop producing anything that can't be resold, recycled or reused. Designers have started increasingly recognizing that doing good for the planet is doing good for themselves.

Reduce waste to save environment and money:

Reduce waste to save environment and money:

Generation of waste in any industry is a result of using materials inefficiently. It costs your business money. The costs of wastes are twofold: first you fail to gain the desired benefits by using more raw materials and second, you also have to pay disposal costs for wastes. Apart, environment gets dirtier causing lot of air, water pollution and other related nuisances.

A. By reducing waste, you can automatically make your processes more efficient and more competitive. The benefits of operating your business more efficiently are clear - including reduced overhead costs, savings in time and money and increased competitiveness. Better economy is achieved as you save additional costs for maintaining pollution free environment.

Although you can sometimes use waste as a resource and save money, it is more efficient to reduce waste at the point of origination. Waste activities such as recycling and recovery use energy so the priority should be to reduce waste in the first place. Businesses that take a strategic approach to minimizing waste are likely to save the most money. Experience in many countries suggests that businesses across a range of industries can save about 10 per cent of turnover by employing waste minimization techniques.

B. Immediate cost-savings can be achieved by:

(i) Reviewing your activities and processes and making simple changes such as printing or photocopying on both sides of the paper;

(ii) Designing packaging so that it can be reused;

(iii) Reusing any waste you produce until it no longer has any value and then recycling the materials.

Customers, employees and potential investors are all becoming more aware of environmental responsibility and failure to take action could affect your business.

C. You face rising energy and waste disposal costs, increased legal obligations and higher stakeholder expectations. In some industries, producers now have ultimate responsibility for the disposal of their products, not just their creation. Adopting a waste strategy means that you will be better prepared for any new legislation for reduction as well as for better disposal of your products (finished goods and wastes).

The penalties for failing to manage environmental risks properly can also be substantial. You could experience damage to your reputation, disruption to your business or financial penalties.

"Resource productivity" means extracting the most value from resources, making the best use of renewable resources and minimizing waste produced. It has the potential to drive down costs by reducing waste and pollution and will create opportunities for growth through process and product innovation.

Plastic bags – Its recycle and reuse can mitigate the environmental problem:

Plastic bags – Its recycle and reuse can mitigate the environmental problem:

Plastic bags are popular with consumers and retailers as they are a functional, lightweight, strong, cheap, and hygienic way to transport food and other products. Most of these go to landfill and garbage heaps after they are used, and some are recycled. Once littered, plastic bags can find their way on to our streets, parks, and into our waterways. Although plastic bags make up only a small percentage of all litter, the impact of these bags is nevertheless significant. Plastic bags create visual pollution problems and can have harmful effects on aquatic and terrestrial animals. Plastic bags are particularly noticeable components of the litter stream due to their size and can take a long time to fully break down. Many carrier bags end up as unsightly litter in trees, streets, parks and gardens which, besides being ugly, can kill birds, small mammals and other creatures. Bags that make it to the ocean may be eaten by sea turtles and marine mammals, who mistake them for jellyfish, with disastrous consequences. In developed countries billion bags are thrown away every year, most of which are used only once before disposal. The biggest problem with plastic bags is that they do not readily break down in the environment. It has been found that, the average plastic carrier bag is used for five minutes, but takes 500 years to decompose.

Production of plastic bags - Plastic bags are made from ethylene, a gas that is produced as a by-product of oil, gas and coal production. Ethylene is made into polymers (chains of ethylene molecules) called polyethylene. This substance, also known as polyethylene or polythene, is made into pellets which are used by plastic manufacturers to produce a range of items, including plastic bags.

Plastics can be broadly split into two groups, those that consist of long strands (thermo softening) and those that also contain short cross-links (thermosetting). Thermo softening plastic will deform when heated and can be remolded into new shapes. Thermosetting plastics are much stronger, but once they have been formed into a shape, they will hold that shape indefinitely, and if heated they will merely burn.

Recycle and reuse of plastic bags - Recycle and reuse of plastic bags can mitigate the environmental problems. Some of the ways of recycle and reuse of plastic bags are suggested:

1) Re-Use as a grocery bag. 2) Re-Use as packing material. 3) Re-Use them as trash bags. They are perfect to line small household waste baskets. 4) Cut into strips to make into a washable placemat or rug. 5) Storage bags. Simply store and hang items you need to put away. 6) Make Into rope by Finger Crocheting. You can use this rope for a clothes line, or a child's jump rope. 7) Hanging Planter. There are expensive plastic bags on the market which are just plastic with some holes speared in them. You can hang the plant anywhere. Just use two or three plastic bags together for strength and then fill with dirt and plants. Water regularly. 8) Emergency Rain hats. Tie one over your coif for rain protection. 9) Washable Shelf Liners. Cut and tack for a nice washable shelf liner.

If you be creative, you can reuse recycle of plastic bags in more attractive way.

You can also refuse using plastic bags. When out for shopping you can take bags with you, rather than using the ones provided by the shops.

The greatest adverse impact of Deforestation is Greenhouse effect:

The greatest adverse impact of Deforestation is Greenhouse effect:

As described earlier, an approximate area of more than thirty five football grounds of rainforest are deforested all over the world in every minute. The main area attacked for deforestation is the tropical rainforest – situated in on and around equator.

A. The main reason for deforestation is the demand for fuel, wood and paper products, cattle ranching, farming, mining and road construction.

a. Fuel: Half of all the trees cut down in the world are used for fuel. Burning wood is common in developing countries where there are often no readily-available alternatives. Most of the trees cut are not replaced, causing the problems.

b. Wood and Paper Products: The use of wood and paper is a huge factor driving deforestation all over the world. Hardwoods like mahogany are sought after for furniture and are consequently very valuable. Some time, for small number of mahogany, whole forest area is often cut down for those few trees.

c. Cattle-ranching: Areas of rainforest, generally in developing countries, are cleared by cutting down all the vegetation and then burning it. Pastures of grass are then grown and used for grazing cattle. As soon as the cattle are a certain age, they are slaughtered. Although some of the meat goes to the locals, a lot goes to the cheap meat industries in countries such as the UK, USA, and China etc. After a few years, all the nutrients have been removed from the already poor soil and the land is useless, so another area of rainforest has to be cleared.

d. Farming: Large areas of rainforest are cleared for farmland all over the world. In developing countries there are two main types of farming: (i) 'Slash and Burn' and (ii) 'Subsistence Farming'.

(i) Slash and Burn: Areas of forest are cleared to grow crops for a couple of years, then left for a few years for the rainforest to recover, then the process starts again. Slash and burn is the most sustainable of the farming methods, but only if the population in the area is low, because as soon as you get more people in an area, there is less land available for each person and areas of land don't have enough time to recover, so the soil is quickly exhausted. Slash and burn also increases air pollution.

(ii) Subsistence Farming: Small areas of land that have been cleared are farmed. The produce is used to feed the family and provide a small surplus to buy other goods. The problem with this method is that the soil is quickly exhausted of its few nutrients and they are not replaced. This means that the farmers have to rely increasingly on fertilizers before eventually being forced to move.

e. Mining and Infrastructure: Minerals such as gold, bauxite (aluminium ore) and iron ore are often discovered in areas of rainforest. To mine them huge portions of rainforest are cleared, not just the area where the mine is, but also routes for roads and areas for storage of equipment and housing for men. In places where there are large rivers running through rainforest, deforestation often takes place in order to build hydroelectric power stations. The resulting dams cause enormous amounts of flooding behind the walls and large areas of drought downriver.

f. Population Increase: The world population is increasing day by day. With this explosion of population the amount of land needed for humans to live on also increases exponentially. More and more forest areas are being cleared to provide living space. This is known as ‘urbanization’.

B. The adverse effects of deforestation:

(i) Immediate effects of deforestation include the washing away of soil in the monsoon season. This is because trees are no longer anchoring and binding the soil and so mud slides take place. The earth is leached of minerals by the large amounts of water. The lack of vegetation also means that there will be very few animals in the area. The lack of decomposing vegetation and animals means that the nutrients are not replaced and the area quickly becomes infertile.

(ii) Rivers often silt up as soil is moved downriver and deposition takes place. Fish and plants relying on clear water die as the river becomes more and more clogged. This has a knock-on effect through the entire food chain.

(iii) If large areas of rainforest are cleared, the pattern of precipitation may change. This is because less evapotranspiration (evapotranspiration is a term used to describe the sum of evaporation and plant transpiration from the earth's land surface to atmosphere. Evaporation accounts for the movement of water to the air from sources such as the soil, canopy interception, and water bodies) takes place due to the lack of trees. Water is also not delayed before making its way through the ground because of the lack of trees, shrubs, and leaf litter.

(iv) Another very worrying effect of deforestation is global warming (please refer ‘description on global warming’ in the box below). The Earth is made habitable by a process called the greenhouse effect. Gases, mainly carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and water vapor (H2O), are found in the atmosphere. The effects of global warming are already showing themselves; the polar ice caps are melting and if this continues we are set for a significant rise in sea level, flooding many places.

C. How to help in mitigating the global warming:

(i) We should turn off the light when we do not require, and to use more energy-efficient bulbs. While energy-efficient bulbs are expensive, they do last longer. Not only will this save money, but it reduces the amount of electricity that needs to be generated and so less fossil fuels have to be burned.

(ii) Use public transport, walk, or cycle if possible. It is said that the bicycle is the most efficient form of transport known to man. Only travel in a car when necessary or share with some body to save petrol. This reduces CO₂ emissions.

(iii) Try to buy paper or wood products that are certified by the Forestry Commission as being from sustainable, managed woodlands. Using recycled paper and its promotion help in reduction of destruction of forest.

(iv) Avoid excess printing of documents from the computer. Print non-presentation documents on the draft ink setting. If possible print on both sides of sheets of paper, thus saving both paper and money.

(v) Recycle as much as possible. This is not just limited to paper, but can include glass, plastic, metal, and a number of other things. Many councils run recycling collection services.

(vi) Encourage people you know to do any or all of the things above.

Description on Greenhouse Effect: Consider a glasshouse in the open air - greenhouse works because of the glass panels that line the roof and walls. The glass is transparent to the visible light from the sun, so sunlight can shine in and warm things inside the greenhouse. Now a body at about 35°C emits mostly infrared radiation. (On the other hand our sun, with a surface temperature of about 5500°C, emits mostly visible light.) The glass panels are opaque to infrared light. The result is that the glass lets the energy of the sun in, but won't let it back out. This keeps the inside of a greenhouse warm. Replace the greenhouse with Earth and glass panels with atmosphere in the above example, and that is how the Earth's greenhouse effect works. Now to show why the greenhouse effect is a very good thing here are examples from our solar system. (i) Mercury: Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, so you would expect it to be hot. It is, but only on the day side. During a Mercurian day temperatures reach 464°C, but because there is no atmosphere to cause a greenhouse effect, temperatures drop to -183°C at night. That's cold enough to warrant an investment in triple-paned windows. (ii) Earth: Our greenhouse effect keeps our night side almost as warm as our day side, allowing life to flourish and keeping the world's collective heating bill manageable. (iii) Venus: Venus is an example of having a greenhouse that is too good at trapping in the heat. Even though Venus is twice as far away from the Sun as Mercury, Venus is the planet with the hottest surface temperature day or night. At about 484°C, lead melts on the surface at any time of the day. The reason why this doesn't happen to Earth is due to the fact that Venus has a much thicker atmosphere with many different kinds of gases. Earth's atmosphere is full of gases that trap infrared radiation (so-called greenhouse gases), but they only trap certain wavelengths at a certain efficiency. In other words, a lot escapes. Venus's atmosphere is more diverse as well as denser, so it traps more wavelengths of infrared radiation at a greater efficiency, making the surface hellishly hot. That is where the greenhouse effect gets its bad reputation. We do not have a lot of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere right now, and if more is released into the atmosphere, more of the infrared radiation that it traps will be held in, making the world warmer than it is. This kind of global warming is a bad thing.