We may have fewer days than I thought!
Oct. 28th, 2007 11:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wren08This is terrifying. From zenkitty_714's journal:
http://www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/publish/travel-leisure/Our_oceans_are_turning_into_plastic_are_we.shtml
My comment:
Boy, that's a cheery article indeed! I wonder if I can still find milk in cartons without plastic caps? And where else I can take it out of my life. The odd thing is, I've always favored natural materials over plastic... wood, cotton, metal, wax. But the darned stuff is insidious as hell! I was pleased to note that the containers my salad comes in are plastic made from corn... this is a step in the right direction... but what is really needed is a way to clean up and truly destroy all those loose nurdles. Preferably while creating clean water and some energy at the same time.
Her reply:
There's already technology being developed (actually, I think it already works, but the company is reticent about it on their website, possibly because they haven't gone public yet, and their current facilities only handle agricultural waste) that can convert mixed plastics and tires into fuel. Currently, they convert agricultural waste, including carcasses, into fuel oil and clean water, safely and without waste of water and energy. It's pretty amazing.
"Post-consumer mixed plastics and tires convert into renewable fuels and recoverable minerals and metals. The major component of this feedstock is derived from crude oil; therefore, it makes technological sense that this material can be converted into renewable diesel and other products."
("Feedstock" refers to the waste material that's fed into the machine.)
http://www.changingworldtech.com/information_center/index.asp?id=5
But trying to clean up all the loose nurdles and plastic dust would be humanly impossible. We need someone to do it for us. I'm thinking plastic-eating bacteria that we could turn loose in the environment and let them do their thing (and be certain they were safe, of course). I think we already have, or are developing, such bacteria.
And my response:
I use very little plastic but it could be less. So I'm going to make it less. And Em and I have a recycling set up to go on the boards by the first of the year.
The place I notice that I could really reduce plastic is in food. Fresh food and cook it myself... least amount of plastic. And I need to find a butcher shop that still wraps things in butcher paper... or just have us go vegetarian all together. (Healthier, cheaper, better for the planet and the body... possibly the soul although I refuse to go there unless plied with much wine.)
I'm going to repost that link... every little bit helps and if we all reduce our usage, that will be something. Plus, all my friends are terribly bright and one of them may think of something I didn't and that will be something more.
Any other good ideas? Please remember that I have to live in the world, I have kids to care for and I am not only not made of money, I make very little.
zenkitty_714's journal:http://www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/publish/travel-leisure/Our_oceans_are_turning_into_plastic_are_we.shtml
My comment:
Boy, that's a cheery article indeed! I wonder if I can still find milk in cartons without plastic caps? And where else I can take it out of my life. The odd thing is, I've always favored natural materials over plastic... wood, cotton, metal, wax. But the darned stuff is insidious as hell! I was pleased to note that the containers my salad comes in are plastic made from corn... this is a step in the right direction... but what is really needed is a way to clean up and truly destroy all those loose nurdles. Preferably while creating clean water and some energy at the same time.
Her reply:
There's already technology being developed (actually, I think it already works, but the company is reticent about it on their website, possibly because they haven't gone public yet, and their current facilities only handle agricultural waste) that can convert mixed plastics and tires into fuel. Currently, they convert agricultural waste, including carcasses, into fuel oil and clean water, safely and without waste of water and energy. It's pretty amazing.
"Post-consumer mixed plastics and tires convert into renewable fuels and recoverable minerals and metals. The major component of this feedstock is derived from crude oil; therefore, it makes technological sense that this material can be converted into renewable diesel and other products."
("Feedstock" refers to the waste material that's fed into the machine.)
http://www.changingworldtech.com/information_center/index.asp?id=5
But trying to clean up all the loose nurdles and plastic dust would be humanly impossible. We need someone to do it for us. I'm thinking plastic-eating bacteria that we could turn loose in the environment and let them do their thing (and be certain they were safe, of course). I think we already have, or are developing, such bacteria.
And my response:
I use very little plastic but it could be less. So I'm going to make it less. And Em and I have a recycling set up to go on the boards by the first of the year.
The place I notice that I could really reduce plastic is in food. Fresh food and cook it myself... least amount of plastic. And I need to find a butcher shop that still wraps things in butcher paper... or just have us go vegetarian all together. (Healthier, cheaper, better for the planet and the body... possibly the soul although I refuse to go there unless plied with much wine.)
I'm going to repost that link... every little bit helps and if we all reduce our usage, that will be something. Plus, all my friends are terribly bright and one of them may think of something I didn't and that will be something more.
Any other good ideas? Please remember that I have to live in the world, I have kids to care for and I am not only not made of money, I make very little.
