[HN Gopher] Plastic is now a geological phenomenon
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Plastic is now a geological phenomenon
Author : Brajeshwar
Score : 48 points
Date : 2023-12-21 16:08 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.zmescience.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.zmescience.com)
| injeolmi_love wrote:
| https://archive.is/jUS6z
| throwup238 wrote:
| _> The world produces a whopping 380 million metric tons of
| plastic annually, and a large part of that plastic ends up in the
| world's oceans and rivers._
|
| That's an average of about 50 kg of plastic produced per person
| per year which is insane but I wonder what the median is and what
| the distribution looks like. How much plastic does a person in
| the US go through compared to someone in a developing country?
| How much of that plastic is used in industrial settings to
| support our infrastructure compared to plastic we actually touch?
|
| This is horrible but now I really want to add some plastistone to
| my mineral specimen collection.
| tnmom wrote:
| Very likely the plastic used by first world people is much
| more, but much less of it ends up in waterways.
|
| At least for me, it's an order of magnitude easier to throw
| plastic into a trash bin than to drive down to the river and
| dump it in.
| buro9 wrote:
| Where do you think your trash goes?
| tnmom wrote:
| I really doubt the municipal trash service dumps it in the
| river.
| foobarian wrote:
| Yeah they burn it :cry-blood:
| buro9 wrote:
| Exactly this.
|
| Waste incineration to create electricity, and also
| (according to those companies) to reduce emissions from
| landfills, and the need for land for waste.
|
| Even if you think it's going to landfill, a lot is not.
|
| And when it's burned, plastics are released into the
| environment, if not immediately then over shorter time
| than if they were left intact and buried.
| datadrivenangel wrote:
| Appropriate incineration should have exhaust controls
| that minimize the amount of particulate emissions,
| including residual plastics.
| buro9 wrote:
| Agree, but now you have microplastic particulates to
| dispose of, and containing these long term is a far
| harder problem than containing the original larger
| plastics.
| margalabargala wrote:
| It goes to the landfill 10 miles from my house. And there
| it stays.
|
| Recycling, who knows. But trash, I know exactly where it
| goes.
| wedernoch wrote:
| We put it in trash bins. Companies with contracts collect it.
| It get's shipped to asia or africa for recycling. _Job done.
| Recycled_ ... It is dumped where ever it is convinient for
| the contracting company
|
| But I totaly undersand your point. For me, it would also be
| real work to not put waste in the trash bin, but to drive
| somewhere to dispose it
| margalabargala wrote:
| > We put it in trash bins [...]
|
| This isn't the case, at least in the US. Trash from trash
| bins is almost exclusively dealt with locally, whether in
| landfills or incinerators. Essentially zero US household
| trash is shipped internationally.
|
| Recycling is another matter. Plastic recycling frequently
| does follow the path you mentioned.
|
| For this reason it can sometimes be more environmentally
| friendly to throw away plastic waste, sequestering it in
| your local landfill, than "recycling" it into the Pacific
| ocean.
| wedernoch wrote:
| > This isn't the case, at least in the US. Trash from
| trash bins is almost exclusively dealt with locally,
| whether in landfills or incinerators.
|
| It's exactly the same in Germany. I was talking about
| plastic.
|
| In germany we recycle paper and "some" plastic. But all
| I've seen/read is, it's a miniscule amount. Like
| greenwashing. Most of it get's just shipped somewhere
| else with some super shady "we recycle it for you, so you
| can can wash you hands in innocence" deals. And IIRC it's
| the same for the US. During Covid there were numerous
| chinese container ships waiting on the US coast after
| unloading, to load "recycling material", because waiting
| was cheaper than driving back empty. (they just dump it
| somewhere in the end)
| adonovan wrote:
| About a third of all marine plastic comes from one country:
| the Philippines, which has essentially no landfill capacity.
| One would hope that this concentrated hot spot (to use
| profiling terminology) makes it "low-hanging fruit" for
| intervention, but that hasn't happened yet.
| userbinator wrote:
| Plastic is just highly refined oil. It's merely going back where
| it came from ;-)
| defrost wrote:
| Not all the way back, it's not even returning into pre-oil
| plant matter let alone heavy elements floating about in young
| stars.
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