The plastic is (not so) great!

Environmental impact of end of life products: plastics, chemicals, vehicles, agri-food marketing. direct recycling and recycling (upcycling or upcycling) and reuse of good items for the trash!
moinsdewatt
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Re: The plastic is (not so) great!




by moinsdewatt » 04/12/20, 22:31

The drift of plastic waste followed by satellite for cleaner oceans

AFP • 04 / 12 / 2020

Tons of plastic waste from the streets of Jakarta are washed away by the rains at sea and sometimes float to the beaches of Bali or to the Indian Ocean. Thanks to satellite beacons, scientists are studying this drift to collect them more efficiently.
With a population of nearly 270 million inhabitants, Indonesia is the second largest contributor in the world, behind China, to these piles of plastics that pollute the oceans.

If the priority is to reduce the use of plastic and the volumes carried by the rivers in the archipelago, the challenge is immense, and these efforts are likely to take more years. In the meantime, a team of researchers wants to better understand how this waste is disseminated and how to better collect it.

Argos satellite beacons have been deployed since February at the mouths of rivers in Jakarta, near Bandung (central Java) and Palembang (Sumatra) by the French company CLS, a subsidiary of CNES (Center National d'Etudes Spatiales), for a project of the Indonesian Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.

Ery Ragaputra, a CLS employee, left by boat at the end of October where the Cisadane River flows into the Java Sea near the Indonesian capital.

"Today we are launching GPS beacons to discover the route of plastic debris arriving at sea," he told AFP, throwing the yellow beacons into the water wrapped in waterproof protection.

- Drifts lasting several months -
The beacons, equipped with batteries with an autonomy of one year, emit a signal every hour to a satellite, which is retransmitted to a data processing center in Toulouse, France, where CLS is located, then hits ministry screens in Jakarta.

..........

read + photo and short video: https://www.boursorama.com/actualite-ec ... e24716989c
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Exnihiloest
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Re: The plastic is (not so) great!




by Exnihiloest » 05/12/20, 16:37

moinsdewatt wrote:
The drift of plastic waste followed by satellite for cleaner oceans

AFP • 04 / 12 / 2020

Tons of plastic waste from the streets of Jakarta are washed away by the rains at sea and sometimes float to the beaches of Bali or to the Indian Ocean.
...

read + photo and short video: https://www.boursorama.com/actualite-ec ... e24716989c

This article is rather honest, we see that it does not come from environmental activism. The danger is not the plastic itself, but the management of waste, and we can see that actions are being taken to identify the causes. Most environmental activists have understood this well, but since their motivation is not to save the planet but to degrowth at all costs and anti-capitalism, so lying, brandishing fear, and attacking the least of the products resulting from human ingenuity since it is also a product of industry, such as banning drinking straws, has become their fight. They are not even going to attack the political decision-makers unable to organize the treatment of waste like in Jakarta, let alone the people who throw their waste anywhere because they don't care, they would rather collect it in holding the industrialist or the consumer society for the scapegoat.
Plastics are extremely practical for everyday life. Unpardonable neglect causes them to be found en masse in nature. This is what must be in the crosshairs.
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Re: The plastic is (not so) great!




by Christophe » 10/12/20, 15:27

You can see it's fantastic, we even make bricks out of it ...



Personally I would not build a house with these bricks ... A garden shed or a garage yes but not a complete house!

Plastic can be rot-proof in the environment, but plastics which retain their properties for decades are rare ... especially when you mix any plastics together ...

Then price level, not sure that it is interesting: a concrete block is less than 1 € it seems to me ...
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Re: The plastic is (not so) great!




by Exnihiloest » 10/12/20, 20:52

Christophe wrote:...
Plastic may be rot-proof in the environment, but plastics which retain their properties for decades are rare ...

Plastic is like everything else, biodegradable. It's all a matter of time. It is longer for plastic than for wood. But some plastics that turn to dust (what, mystery), after two or three decades, I have seen some.
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Re: The plastic is (not so) great!




by Christophe » 10/12/20, 22:12

Yes in this case oil is also a renewable energy ...

Plastics turn into polymer dust and that's what the oceans are full of (and fish with!) ...

But that was not the main subject of my sentence: the resistance of these bricks over time ...
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Re: The plastic is (not so) great!




by Exnihiloest » 16/12/20, 21:26

It is not the "polymer dust" that makes the headlines of environmentalists, but the large pieces that float in large groups, and with good reason, because of their ingestion by marine animals.
The polymer dust must degrade all the more quickly as their surface area of ​​contact with the environment therefore increases as they fracture, which facilitates their disappearance. We know that bacteria can degrade plastic. Nature always adapts.
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moinsdewatt
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Re: The plastic is (not so) great!




by moinsdewatt » 16/12/20, 22:47

Well not exactly.

Microplastics discovered in Antarctic ice

by Brice Louvet, science editorBrice Louvet, science editor April 25, 2020,

Microplastics have been found almost everywhere on Earth, from the Arctic to the bottom of ocean trenches. Until now, however, we believed that Antarctic sea ice had been spared. But that was before.

As part of a 2009 expedition to the east of the continent, researchers extracted an ice core 1,1 meters long and 14 cm wide. Analysis of these samples, carried out by researchers at the University of Tasmania in Australia, has just revealed the presence of 96 microplastic particles contained inside, coming from 14 different types of polymers.

Microplastics have already been discovered in surface waters or in the snow of Antarctica, but they have so far appeared absent in the pack ice. These pollution levels are admittedly still very low, the researchers agree, but they bear witness once again to the fact that the most isolated areas of the Earth are not safe from our waste.

“The Southern Ocean will not have been sufficient to protect Antarctica from plastic pollution, deplores Anna Kelly, main author of the study published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin.

So where do these microplastics come from?

Up to 75% of the particles identified were polymers mainly used in maritime industries, we can read in the study. The researchers suggest that they were probably torn from nets or other fishing equipment in the middle of the Southern Ocean. In addition, all of these particles were found to be relatively large, suggesting that they were released in a nearby environment.

“The microplastic polymers in our ice core were larger than those identified in the Arctic,” explains the researcher. This may indicate local sources of pollution because plastic has less time to decompose into smaller fibers than if it were transported long distances by ocean currents ”.

What consequences for wildlife?
By analyzing the carrot, the researchers discovered that the plastics were often surrounded by algae on which the krill feeds, which, we recall, is at the base of the food chain. It remains to be seen whether this intrusion of microplastics into the local trophic network will have real consequences on living organisms. More research will be needed to find out.

We know relatively well the harmful effects of macroplastics on fauna. Animals, especially in the marine environment, can ingest large pieces and suffocate, or become entangled in nets and die of fatigue. The impacts of microplastics, on the other hand, are more subtle and, in the long run, much less understood.


https://sciencepost.fr/des-microplastiq ... tarctique/
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moinsdewatt
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Re: The plastic is (not so) great!




by moinsdewatt » 12/06/21, 15:43

Plastic: During the pandemic, the planet produced a little less plastic

AFP • 10 / 06 / 2021

For only the third time since the start of the industrial era, annual global plastic production fell in 2020, by 0,3%, due to the health crisis, the European association of plastics producers announced on Thursday.

In Europe, where 55 million tonnes of new plastics left factories last year, the drop in production amounts to 5,1%, and the decline is even more pronounced in France, where production has fallen. by 11% in 2020, the PlasticsEurope association said on Thursday.

In France, the overall consumption of virgin plastic fell by 7,5% last year, more sharply than the European average (-4,7%) and than in Germany (-6,5%).

The automobile, which has experienced production stoppages, was the most affected sector, with an 18,1% drop in its plastic consumption in Europe, and 28% in France, according to the association.

On the whole planet, "with 367 million tonnes of plastics produced in 2020 against 368 million tonnes in 2019, this is the third global decline since the post-war period, after that which occurred in 1973 at the time of the first oil shock, and that of 2008, during the subprime financial crisis, "Eric Quenet, CEO of PlasticsEurope, told AFP.

The slowdown, "a significant marker of the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the global economy", was mitigated by the continued growth in plastic production in China (+ 1% in 2020), according to the association.

China, which manufactured a quarter of the world's plastic in 2010, now supplies a third, after doubling its production (117 MT in 2020 against 64 MT in 2010).

In recent years, the country has started to export PVC for construction and other basic plastics, but remains an importer of specialty plastics, especially for the automotive industry.

Europe (27 EU countries, with UK, Norway and Switzerland), which produced 21% of global plastic in 2010 (56 Mt), now only produces 15% (55 Mt) .

Even if in terms of tonnage, North America has increased its volumes over the decade (70 Mt in 2020 against 53 Mt in 2010) with new polymer units whose competitiveness is based on the exploitation of shale gas, it only succeeds to maintain its rank, with 19% of world production in 2020 against 20% 10 years ago.

https://www.boursorama.com/actualite-ec ... 83e3a4f206
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moinsdewatt
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Re: The plastic is (not so) great!




by moinsdewatt » 22/07/21, 00:12

In Bolivia, Lake Uru Uru is completely covered with plastic and urban waste

Image
Garbage on Lake Uru Uru (Bolivia)

In Bolivia, in the department of Oruro, Lake Uru Uru, connected to the famous Lake Titicaca, was completely covered by hundreds of tons of plastic and urban waste. Already contaminated by mining operations, this biodiversity-rich site is currently in danger and could end up disappearing.

Plastic pollution is one of the main environmental issues around the world. We often hear about the oceans, but lakes too are impacted by human activities and lack of education in environmental protection.

Lake Uru Uru, located in the department of Oruro, in the center of the two major Bolivian cities - La Paz and Sucre -, is connected to the famous Lake Titicaca through the Desaguadero river, itself connected to Lake Poopó.

.............. plastic, 90% of which comes from the town of Oruro, about 3 kilometers from the lake. "Poor waste management is the main cause of this problem. The city of Oruro generates more than 180 tonnes of solid waste per day," activist Limbert Sanchez said.

These are more than 17 canals that end up joining Lake Uru Uru taking with them tons of solid waste that ends their journey in the lake. Despite the presence of a wastewater treatment plant, the treatment of wastewater in the city of Oruro is not 100% carried out and part of it is directly discharged into the lake.

Image

...................

https://www.notre-planete.info/actualit ... ts-Bolivie
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Re: The plastic is (not so) great!




by Messidor » 23/10/21, 15:43

Hello,
The plastic that goes to the pluvial, then to the river, ... and which returns in the form of microplastics in the rain that falls on fields in organic farming, ... IT'S NOT GOOD!
So we should avoid throwing our plastic junk along the streets.
However, the Orange company - which brings us 5G at home - places a fairly large quantity of it on the sidewalks in front of each cable cabinet. It is not a crime, everyone can throw their garbage on the sidewalk. We still have the freedom to choose our behavior. However, this is not desirable behavior. It harms the environment which is the good and the concern of all
So
- I publish a photo of what I collected in a year for the only cabinet that is near my home;
- I invite all those who want to share this photo;
- I also invite them to broadcast and comment on this pollution until it encourages Orange to collect its waste;
- I will send a letter to Orange and publish it so that it is copied by as many people as possible and therefore sent in large numbers to Orange

Thank you to everyone who will help me reduce this source of waste.
Friendly.
Messidor

Orange_Waste.jpg
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