Today’s program will be presented in Hindi and English, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mongolian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

Everywhere in the world, we can observe and be touched by acts of kindness. People from all walks of life, faiths, and cultures extend themselves beyond the call of duty to help others unconditionally. Through their noble deeds, humanity as a whole is elevated.

To commend virtuous actions and encourage more people to be inspired by their examples, Supreme Master Ching Hai has lovingly created a series of awards, including the Shining World Leadership Award, Shining World Compassion Award, Shining World Hero and Heroine Awards, Shining World Honesty Award, Shining World Protection Award, Shining World Intelligence Award, and Shining World Inventor Award, to recognize some of the most exemplary, generous, caring, and courageous people who walk amongst us.

Plastic has brought us great convenience in daily life since its invention in the 19th century. It is widely used to make everyday items, medical equipment, parts for our vehicles and buildings, and more. However, it also causes detrimental impacts on the environment as it takes an enormous amount of time to disintegrate plastics, sometimes up to a few hundred years. Moreover, during the decomposition process, it releases toxic substances threatening the health of humans, animals, and the environment.

I think because they take a very, very long time to degrade, they remain in the environment for very long, so they cause problems to the flora, fauna. Both in the soil, also when they dispose it in the marine, they cause quite a lot of problems. Sometimes animals think it’s food and they consume it, so they get choked. Birds do that same thing. And then fishes get entangled in this plastic waste, so they get hurt as well.

Number two, many compounds or chemicals which are added inside the plastic to keep it longer lasting also start coming out and they start creating toxic problems to the flora and fauna. So these are the two major problems of plastics, when disposed of in the open environment.

There are different types of plastics, such as polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, polypropylene, and polycarbonate. Among them, polycarbonate is used to produce several items we use on a daily basis, such as hard plastic bottles, baby bottles, CDs, and DVDs.

However, one of the major ingredients of polycarbonate is a very harmful chemical, bisphenol A, also known as BPA, which can cause health issues such as reproductive disorders and breast cancer.

Currently there are around 3.2 million tons of polycarbonate being produced annually. And of that, only 5 to 10% is being recycled. So, rest of around 90% nearly is being dumped.

BPA is one of the ingredients for making polycarbonate. And BPA is also known to cause some toxic problem and it’s an endocrine disorder chemical. USFDA (United States Food and Drug Administration) has found many serious implications of exposure of BPA and use of BPA.

Being concerned about the environmental and human health adverse effects posed by plastics, Dr. Mukesh Doble and Dr. Trishul Artham from the Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India, have been searching for safe ways of decomposing plastics.

As scientist and technologists I feel it’s our duty also to find out some solution for the problem they are creating once they are disposed of. And that’s how we started looking at plastic degradation.

Dr. Doble and Dr. Artham have invested years of effort in identifying microorganisms in soils and oceans which decompose plastics.

Here, we’re also looking at several other polymers, and see how it interacts with the environment. This is a polyester and we’re seeing whether it’s degrading if we put it in soil or in the ocean. These are other type of fungi which can degrade a large number of plastics. So one of the type of work which we do is also identifying microorganisms, fungi which are available in nature, which can help in the degradation of all these polymers.

And we look through the microscope trying to characterize the organism, and tell what type of organism it is and so on. We are looking at polymers, how they interact with organisms, what’s happening to the polymers when they’re exposed to fungus, when they’re exposed to bacteria, and in turn, what is happening to the bacteria when it is in contact with these polymers. When we throw the polymer in the open, and then there is a lot of sun rays, solar rays come in.

So in order to simulate that, we have a UV (ultraviolet) chamber where we can put our polymer for 10 days, 20 days, 30 days and see what happens to the polymer. It’s trying to simulate the open dump yard where the waste polymers are disposed currently. So these are UV chambers.

Through years of research, the scientists found two fungal types from soil and one commercial organism called white-rot fungus that can decompose plastics with no release of BPA. The plastic is pretreated with ultraviolet light, which makes it easy for fungus to digest. Then as time goes by, the plastic is degraded without releasing harmful chemicals.

This fascinating study was published in the American Chemical Society’s monthly journal “Biomacromolecules” and it is believed to be a key that leads to innovative, eco-friendly ways of disposing plastics.

We isolated these two fungal straints which are capable of degrading the polycarbonate without releasing monomer called bisphenol A.

We already have solutions in the environment. We have to look for them, find them, and probably use them for the benefit of the society.

So, this current experiment which we have carried out took around one year for us to enhance degradation or to check whether to know and to understand the degradation. We carry out this for one year and we were able to see 5 to 6% of grametic weight loss. And that’s like quite a phenomenon for this polymer because there are not many studies available for this kind of polymer. So that’s like an initiation which we’re taking up.

To further enhance decomposition of plastic waste, Dr. Doble and his team also conduct experiments finding ways to accelerate the decomposition process.

Some of the polymers take a very long time to degrade in the environment, so if you mix them with the starch or catalyst, they can degrade much faster. In fact this one is a starch blended polymer here. And this is called a catalyst blended polymer. And what we do is we put it in the ocean for five months and then you can see how it’s getting slowly destroyed and degrading actually.

So mixing the polymer with the starch or catalyst can speed up the process of degradation. There is already some work currently being done on improving the degradability by adding this type of natural materials like starch and so on.

Apart from studying polymer decomposition, the laboratory is also looking for herbal remedies for diseases.

We’re looking at possible drugs from natural products; looking at drugs from plants, different types of drugs for bacterial infection, for tuberculosis, for inflammation, for fungal infection. So these activities are related to the drug design, we call it.

In recognition of their outstanding bioengineering research, Supreme Master Ching Hai honored Dr. Mukesh Doble and Dr. Trishul Artham with the Shining World Inventor Award. The appreciation letter partially reads:

“With billions of tons of plastic being made every year for so many purposes, your research into topics such as the Fouling and Degradation of Polycarbonate in Seawater, and methods of degrading benzene ring-containing polycarbonates will ultimately assist humanity to be free of the load of plastics presently causing environmental problems on many fronts…

…For the noble and inventive work you are doing to assist Earth and all her species to live in harmony on a clean planet, for the intelligence and dedication you show in your research and for passionately striving to bring into reality a better path for humanity to follow, we hereby applaud and celebrate the great deeds of Professor Mukesh Doble & Mr. Trishul Artham – biotechnicians for Earth! With Great Honour, Love and Blessings, Supreme Master Ching Hai”

The two scientists were presented the crystal plaque for the Shining World Inventor Award, along with gifts including Supreme Master Ching Hai’s #1 international bestsellers, “The Birds In My Life,” “The Dogs in My Life,” and “The Noble Wilds,” as well as DVDs featuring international videoconferences on climate change with Supreme Master Ching Hai.

I’m really honored to receive this award. I think as scientists, engineers, technologists, our goal is to discover, invent techniques, new technologies which are sustainable, which don’t cause harm to the environment, the flora, the fauna that we are sharing with this particular world. So all of the research should be focused in that direction. And I thank Supreme Master for recognizing our work, contribution and work. Thank you very much.

It’s a great honor for me also to receive this award. Actually I would like to say that this is actually collective work. I would be honored to share this award with all my colleagues here in the lab. I’d also wish my colleagues here to take up such projects in the future and also see that how their projects would help the environment and to themselves. So I would also thank Supreme Master Ching Hai. Thanks a lot.

Finally, the two brilliant scientists, who have long been vegetarians, share with us the benefits of their compassionate and Earth-saving diet.

By turning into vegetarian, we’re not killing animals, but we’re also becoming healthier so what we see is that lot of veg people are quite healthy. It’s a good feeling also, that I mean you will not have any guilty conscience. I’m proud being vegetarian.

I’m a vegetarian, and my wife (is) also a vegetarian. I think if somebody goes and sees a slaughterhouse or something, you feel really sad. It will automatically convert anybody into vegetarian.

I think each of us has some role to play. Like a scientist, I develop processes which are sustainable, which is not destroying the Earth. As a common man or woman they should always think about their environment, the world they live in, the animals they interact with, and not destroy us.

So I think each of us has a role to play and I think that awareness is very, very important if you want our world to remain as a beautiful place for our children and grandchildren and several generations to come by.

Our appreciation, Dr. Mukesh Doble and Dr. Trishul Artham, for your continuous efforts in searching for sustainable solutions that will help preserve our precious environment. May you and your team be blessed with evermore success.

Eco-conscious viewers, thank you for your presence on today’s program. Please keep your dial tuned to Supreme Master Television for Words of Wisdom, up next after Noteworthy News. May your life have abundant peace and fulfillment.