I agree entirely with your last sentence St Jabb. This makes it more frustrating the waste we have in terms of all materials, food and energy.
https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/17820663.living-wall-set-millbrook-roundabout/ Interesting idea for a wall of vegetation at Millbrook roundabout....designed to reduce pollution. Will also provide habitat for wild life....and improve the look of the place as well. Obviously not the answer to everything, but a step in the right direction. Ignoring any anti-pollution aspect, roadside and railway verges are important wild life habitats as they are areas left largely undisturbed.
From the plastics industry https://www.eppm.com/blogs/editors-blog/speaking-up-for-plastics-in-a-plastic-bashing-world/ The Indonesian plastics recycling industry has a view to. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...er-efforts-to-stem-plastic-tide-idUSKCN1OK0H3 This is being done in Surabaya. Father in law lives here along with more of the extended family, we visit most years. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ns-swap-bottles-for-bus-tickets-idUSKCN1MX1OD People scavenging the rivers and dumps for recyclable plastic is something I've seen many times. Of course the higher value PET bottles are prioritised. It's difficult, if not impossible, to come to terms with what some have to do to survive. please log in to view this image
Here's a radical solution for end of life plastics - bury it properly. You can't simply dig a hole and chuck it in. For starters, the hole would have to be deep enough to be well below any potential water tables, aquifers, within stable bed rock, well away from erosion access to the seas. The plastics would probably have to be separated into type, washed, heated to a low temperature where it is readibly malleable and crushable, and then squeezed into massive rounded off cubes. Once the hole is full it would be sealed by a plastic and waterproof concrete pouring. There are other uses for end of life plastic that spring from the same process. Used as a construction filler and insulator, but it would have to be sealed and made safe - for the long term. Why bury it? Plastic is essentially a by-product of fossil fuel. It came from the Earth. My suggestion is to return it. By the way, I'm not at all sure I like the idea myself. I merely put it out there as a suggestion, to flame or provoke thought. And don't tell me it's already being done. Just to say though that we produce [from memory - I did read this somewhere fairly recently from a good source] over 400 million tonnes of the stuff every year. Of all the plastic ever made, some 30% of it is still in use. Less than 10% has been burned, 7% has been recycled, and 60% hangs around as rubbish. [yes roughly 107%, give or take - remember that the 7% is back in use]. When it ends up in landfill at least it's going back to where it came from. But not responsibly or with much idea of repercussions.
That Israeli spacecraft that crash landed on the Moon was carrying life on board in the form of Tardigrades. Personally, I'm not at all sure we should be taking life to the Moon with zero means of bringing it back or managing it. Granted most are bound up in amber, but some were not. I call it presumptuous to think it was ok to do: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-49265125
St J Forgive me here... you have confused me by posting these articles, unless it is you offering me some balance (which is good). I’m very aware of the positive side and articles on plastic. I had the feeling that you were all for plastic bans, yet your last sentence especially has left me a little confused as to your feelings as this seems to highlight more the poverty in that region rather than anything to do with plastic. One could go so far as to say that last article suggests a positive side to there being lots of plastic being available for people in poverty to make a living from (but that’s not what we want). Apologies if I’ve missed something here and I’m being stupid but what does your post tell me about your view?
i wish I had an easy answer, there's an old reggae song that has the lyric "There are more questions than answers. And the more I find out the less I know" As you said it's not just a war on plastics but also a war on peoples attitudes. There isn't a one line cover all solution I'm aware of the size of the industry and the impossibility of banning all plastics, some yes single use (if you make the bag thicker and more durable as one of your earlier replies it stops being single use, it becomes reusable (picky me)) coffee stirrers, straws, styrofoam cups et al. It's made a difference in the parts of Asia I visit.The bans along with education and publicity that is. Minimalise food packaging please. Reduce, reduce, recycle. The 9% recycle rate I read of in Indonesia in one article , if true, is poor. Plastics manufacturers, industries in general are there to make profits not to be environmental guardians they do have a moral duty but in reality?? It's up to those that issue operating licenses to regulate. Can all plastics be made to be recycled? How clean are the recycling plants processes? The bus ticket swap is an incentive to recycle, clean the streets every little bit helps, again it's changing a throw away mindset in millions of people. There isn't rubbish collection as we know it. The scavenging of rivers and dumps isn't a pleasant site far from it and not wanted. I feel it's part of a bigger worldwide problem of populations being drawn to cities. So what's the way forward? Reduce, reduce, recycle, educate and publicise ++??
The biggest problem is that people have completely lost their innocence and have become overtly cynical. And who can blame them? The ordinary people have been used to the point of uselessness. The cynicism manifests itself in voting for UKiP and Brexit, in Climate Change denial, in completely irresponsible environmental behaviour, and straight, everyday crime. And let's not forget good old apathy, due to insufficient guidance, knowledge and control. And people don't care because they perceive that nobody gives a s*** about them. And perhaps they are right. In this country, they've been totally unnecessarily shat on by austerity policies coming from the Tory Government since 2008, due to no fault of their own, but due to the banks who practically got away Scott Free. Some of them still haven't stopped laughing all the way to work. And in the wider world they've been shat on by all sides. Even from us. So it's going to take some coordinated education and action. I alternate between 'we're boogered, but we have to keep trying' to 'we have to keep trying otherwise we're boogered'. Hopefully you can see that one is more positive than the other. Presently, I'm in the latter camp.
I'm on the half full side, have to be, I do see improvements in Indonesia hopefully that are echoed across Asia. On the downside Jakarta where some of my wife's family live is right at the top of the polluted cities league. Plastic clearance has improved though, big improvements but where's it all gone? Having sorted out plastics today let's do urban pollution tomorrow. Another glass of crisp white will help!
Great post St J One of the +’s we need to add to your list is “pressure on the major retailers”... they dictate so much. Bags only became Thinner because supermarkets have em away free and they wanted to reduce their cost. Today, they make millions because they sell the bags for lie and make huge profit on it. Every decision they make is on cost. On reduced food packaging, it is a very thorny topic. Yes, there is some excess packaging on food, but mostly it is there for a very good purpose: shelf life extension. This in turn helps reduce food waste. Food waste is still the supermarkets biggest loss and they hate it. The packaging around food does extend its life. We put ingredients in that protect the food from degradation using things such as ethylene scavengers. I have a video somewhere showing how much longer a cucumber lasts of wrapped in plastic, for example. On the regulation and recycling, yes there is lots to do. The plastic industry does a lot and has a lot of initiatives but really we need governments to be more involved and invest and dictate in infrastructure for better recycling. It is possible but lots of people need to buy into this. Some of the recycling companies are work with are amazing. There is so much happening in this area within our industry but it will be to no avail if 1, governments don’t work together and with us, and 2, the biggest influencers (retailers and the consumer) don’t get onboard properly. I’ll give you an example. Black food/meat trays. These have had bad publicity and described as “Not recyclable” but that’s not true. Carbon is used to make black and carbon blocks the infrared detectors in recycling plants and stops black trays being picked out and sorted correctly. One solution has been around for years but only very recently starting to be used. Black can be made without carbon, using alternative pigments and so allowing it to be detected. Great we say. So why hasn’t it been used ... cost. The new method costs more and the supermarkets all said no to it, despite the fact the true add on cost was tiny (less than 1p per tray - imagine having to pay. £4.96 for your meat rather than £4.95; it’s nothing). This is starting to change and they are now looking at it again but the problem has been the length of the supply chain. People like me are so far from the supermarkets they won’t talk to us; they don’t know us. It’s a no brainer once they listen. Yet all you get is the CEO of supermarket X coming out after Blue Planet and announcing they will stop using black plastic... so frustrating. Look at Iceland, the food store. Within 3 months of Blue planet going on television l, their CEO announced they would have plastic free stores. Today, they have admitted that’s not possible, they need to stop Knee jerking and ask questions rather than make sound bites. Lots can be done. Lots needs to be done
By the way. I love the bus ticket swap. It’s great. My company has plants in Asia and I’m wondering how we can get involved and support/sponsor something here. I’ll think about that.
Yes do it. If you're with a company that has a public profile that's free publicity with the right sort of PR releases, should your accountants need a prod.
Thanks LeTis Interesting to see the cost cutting retailers not wanting to listen to solutions. If they were aware of the positive publicity that would be generated perhaps a change in attitude? It's up to everyone to push things forward, individually, family, at work shop floor to board room, industry forums, governments and international organisations. I think I'll nag away at corporations and retailers not much on at the mo.
Away from the serious stuff, I just found out something that actually made me more emotional than I could believe. After fifty years, they've found Snoopy!
I thought so, but it would have been much funnier if it was the original beagle form the cartoon strip.
It was deliberately sent in an orbit around the Sun, which would end up getting back to the Earth every so many years. Presently it is following Earth and getting closer. Wouldn't it absolutely amazing if they could go and get it. Would be a technological 'good thing' too.
