FACTS ABOUT SILK

A silkworm multiplies it weight 10,000 times from time it is hatched until about 1 month
later when it has enough energy stored to start spinning its cocoon.

The fluffy white cocoon spun by a silkworm is one long continuous silk filament that
when unwound is usually between 600 and 900 meters long or as long as 1,600 yards.

It takes around 30,000 silkworms to produce 12 pounds of raw silk.

Sleeping on a silk pillowcase is said to cause a delay in a person getting wrinkles because
of the essential amino acids in silk bedding.

Silk is cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It's a naturally self adjusting fabric.

At one point in history, the Chinese authorities were so adamant about protecting their
secret about silk that anyone giving the secrets away or smuggling out silkworms or their
cocoons was punished by being put to death. That may be why the secret of silk is said to
be the most zealously guarded secret in history.

The silkworm female deposits around 400 eggs at a time. In an area the size of your
monitor screen, about 100 moths would deposit more than 40,000 eggs, each about the
size of a pinhead

One hectare of mulberry trees yields about eleven tons of leaves, producing around 450
pounds of cocoons, but just about 85 pounds of raw silk

About 2,000 to 3,000 cocoons are required to make a pound of silk. One pound of silk
represents about 1,000 miles of filament (about 5500 silkworms to produce 1 kg (2.2lb)
of raw silk!)

The annual world production represents 70 billion miles of silk filament, a distance well
over 300 round trips to the sun

Silk fibers are very fine, about 10 nanometers (1/2500th of an inch) in diameter

Current world silk production is estimated to be around 125,000 metric tons. China
produces about 80% of the world’s silk; and India over 10% but then also United States is
the largest silk importer in the world.
 Plastic A Boon Or A Bane

Boon
Please don't mind if I ask you:
Can you tell you are a bane or a boon to persons surrounding you?
Its the way we use a thing that makes it a boon or a bane.
Like plastics are useful as toys,carrying things,water pipes but they do cause damage to
the ozone layer when prepared in the factories.The fumes left by them makes the ozone
hole grow bigger which causes global warming.
BUT,
They make kids smile as Toys.You have water through Pipes.Provide you raincoat and
umbrellas while raining and for the summer.Your tooth brush is plastic isin't it? your soap
box is plastic and so is your lunch box.And what about the mops and the vessel cleaners
and the taps and the...
So ITS YOU who DECIDES whether you make it a boon or a bane.

plastics have many uses but it has only one problem that it pollutes the environment.This
problem can be solved by recycling.Since it has many uses i prefer it as a boon.

Plastic is light-weight, durable, low-cost, and has a wide variety of application ranging
from a pen, which you use to write on the paper, to the waste paper basket, into which
you throw the paper. Plastic undoubtedly has been the one of the greatest achievements
by man. (Well, not comparable to the wheel though!) Anyhow, plastic has proved to be a
boon in various ways. When you enter a hospital, you can never fail to notice plastic
vials, bottles, syringes, tubes, and many more articles made of plastic; those which are
used to save many lives everyday all around the globe. As I did mention above, plastic
has replaced metals and glass as the primary material used in the manufacture of pens. To
use metals to manufacture pens would be costly and using glass, though cheap, it is not a
durable material. Plastic is used in the manufacture of thousands of home use articles
such as boxes, cases, bottles, containers, tumblers, chairs, tables, and many more. It also,
in some way or the other forms a part of almost all electrical equipment, be it the
sheathing of a wire or a plug casing, or even the keys of your cell phone. Plastic finds
itself in automobile, and aircraft parts; in kids’ toys, and everyday articles like a brush or
a comb.

Its a boon for mankind and bane for the environment....overall its still a boon...Plastic is a
by-product of crude oil and it is extensively used in every modern equipment,medicine,
and anything you can think off..
People who are for clay and coconut shell must stop using their laptops and
cellphones....modern life with out plastic and crude oil is impossible to imagine

• Avoid accepting plastic bags when you finish shopping. Instead, carry a paper or
a jute bag with you when you go shopping.
 • Avoid disposing of plastic along with organic wastes. Do not throw waste food in
plastic bags or containers. You might just save a life.
• Avoid using plastic chairs or tables, you could use wood/metal instead.
• Plastic is made from crude oil. So lesser usage of plastic also means lesser
demand for crude oil products.
• Keep plastic articles and toys (with small parts) away from the reach of little
children. Always supervise kids when they are working with such potential plastic
articles.
• Do not dispose plastic which can be recycled. That’s another means to reduce
production of more plastic

Bane
In the last few decades, plastic use in North America has risen dramatically. Plastic is probably the
most popular with the on-the-go society of today but also most costly to the environment. There
are good reasons why it's so popular -- it's lightweight, waterproof, strong and break-resistant. But
plastics are made from petroleum and most don't decompose for a long time. In 1987, the US used
almost one billion barrels of petroleum just to manufacture plastics. That's enough to meet U.S.
demand for imported oil for five months. We can save that oil, and the disposal problems of plastic
by recycling it.

The extent of exploitation of plastic is unimaginable and never-ending. We have become

exceedingly dependent on plastic, which is produced in large quantities every single day
to suffice the demands for it. Plastic, though seems a very useful material, it has a very
dangerous string attached to it. It is non-biodegradable; which means, it cannot be broken
down further or changed in anyway by any organism acting on it. If you bury a leaf and a
plastic article under the earth for hundred years; the leaf would have turned to humus and
would have fertilized the earth whereas, plastic on the other hand would remain in the
same state however long you wait for it. To put it in simple words, plastic once
manufactured cannot be destroyed in any way.

Plastic was thought to be a boon but it turned out to be a curse. Plastic can be very
harmful as it produces harmful gases when it is burned. As it is non bio degradable, it is
harmful to the soil and takes hundreds of years to degrade or decompose. Once animals
have eaten it due to chocling the die.

• Plastic waste accumulated in land fills amount to a lot of soil pollution over the
years since they are non-biodegradable.
• When plastic is burnt, the harmful fumes enter into the atmosphere and has direct
effects upon someone who breathes it. And so, NO! we cannot eliminate plastic
by burning it.
• Plastic also finds its way into drains and sewage pipes, clogging them; more often
than not, this may lead to water pollution directly and/or indirectly.
 • Animals sometimes, feed on plastic and die painfully as plastic chokes their
digestive and respiratory tracts. This is a very serious concern in many countries
worldwide.
• There have also been incidents of little children suffocating while playing with
plastic bags and toys.

Facts
 Incinerating 10,000 tons of plastic waste creates 1 job, landfilling the same amount
creates 6 jobs while recycling the same 10,000 tons creates 36 jobs.
 Plastic bags and more than 45,000 tons of plastic thrown into the ocean kill as many
as 1,000,000 seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals annually.
 Since 1950, we have consumed as much as all the generations before us combined
 The energy saved by recycling 1 bottle will power a computer for 25 minutes.
Recycled plastic uses 88% less energy.