Our plastic waste is choking the world

steevc (73) in environment • 7 years ago (edited)

View this post on Hive: Our plastic waste is choking the world

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7 years ago by steevc (73)

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uwelang (74) · 7 years ago

I voted but forgot as a meeting turned up to comment - I am speechless - this is so sad, i just have been on vacation in Djerba - great protected tourism areas - if you get into the mainland behind the curtain everything was full with plastic dirt, most annoying was used diapers - hard to use that material for anything else.

steevc (73) · 7 years ago

It's not simple to change this. We are used to cheap, convenient goods, but they create a lot of waste that's hard to recycle. We need some bottom-up thinking

uwelang (74) · 7 years ago

That is true - a global movement is needed

teamsteem (74) · 7 years ago

That is sad. Thank you for posting!

realworld (39) · 7 years ago

Plastic also poisons our bodies. The plastics in various food containers leach carcinogens and hormone disruptors into our bodies. I see more and more children falling ill with cancer. And yet the public is more concerned with politics .....

katharsisdrill (71) · 7 years ago

There is also the possibility to reuse it your self. Just build these machines:
https://preciousplastic.com/
And you can make pretty things like these:

steevc (73) · 7 years ago

There's opportunities for small industry to do this sort of thing for sure

katharsisdrill (71) · 7 years ago

Yes and no. In developing countries and if you somehow makes design that can be sold expensively enough. But it is fascinating to apply such fixes to our everyday life. Both my brother and my wife is working on it and we have two of the machines in the apartment..

katharsisdrill (71) · 7 years ago (edited)

In Copenhagen the plastic recycling is going quite well, but only because people wants to do it. The sad fact is that oil is cheap, and there is no economy in collecting it. The Copenhagen municipality sends all the plastic to a facility in Sweden for free, and then the Swedes recycle about 75% and earn a bit on that.

The last 25% is burned and as plastic is oil it burns quite well. The heat is used for district heating.

steevc (73) · 7 years ago

Sounds good. A lot of our plastics go to recycling, but some will end up in the mixed rubbish and probably go to landfill.

katharsisdrill (71) · 7 years ago

Yes, that is sad. It is quite a valuable resource. Most garbage is sorted in Denmark. We burn some of it for your decentralised district heating-system.

It has taken some time but I think that the Danes have been rather good at sorting their garbage. The municipalities are earning a lot of money on the sorted garbage so the facilities is rather well organised. Sadly plastic is not one of the things that make money.

hammaraxx (56) · 7 years ago

I'm hoping that 3D printers become commonplace in the home and so do plastic recycling extruders that make the filament for the household's 3D printer. That should help make plastic waste a thing of the past and could lead to a massive cleanup effort.

You've inspired my latest post: Can 3D Printing Help Solve A Plastic Waste Problem?
Plastic waste can be turned into currency.

steevc (73) · 7 years ago

It's good if people can profit from this, but as I see it this will not be enough to deal with the problems. It needs legislation and I know some people around here hate that.

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hammaraxx (56) · 7 years ago

My hope is that it becomes so popular in the home that no legislation is necessary, people will just do it anyway.

steevc (73) · 7 years ago

The legislation needs to be on the manufacturers to take responsibility for dealing with the waste. Maybe in a more distant future we'll feed our waste into an appliance that churns our useful items. I would expect there are limits to how many times you can re-use these plastics before they break down.

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mynameisbrian (73) · 7 years ago

I wish I had a go pro so that I could have filmed what I saw two weeks ago. I went spearfishing at an island near Panama City and there was plastic EVERYWHERE, above and below the surface. It truly saddens me.

steevc (73) · 7 years ago

I really think people need to be shocked into action, but by the time it's bad enough to do that the damage is already done. Climate change is a worry, but we will have destroyed environments with trash and pollution before that has real effect.

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everittdmickey (73) · 7 years ago

simple
one man's trash
is another man's treasure.
find a way to re use it

steevc (73) · 7 years ago

There are opportunities, but free enterprise is not dealing with the problem. It's more profitable to churn out more disposable goods. People can help by considering their actions.

everittdmickey (73) · 7 years ago

oh?
really?

damn!

steevc (73) · 7 years ago

I think someone near us built a greenhouse from plastic bottles like that. Unfortunately projects like these will only account for a tiny percentage of the waste. I would expect that the plastics may break down eventually and then you have another form of waste.

My cousin has built various buildings using glass bottles and metal cans as part of the structure. Those may last longer. It used to be that you could return glass bottles and get paid, but that's less common in the UK now.

everittdmickey (73) · 7 years ago

well I guess suicide is the only answer.
sorry to see you go.

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steevc (73) · 7 years ago

I'm going nowhere. I'm just trying to spread awareness of the problems. I don't have all the answers, but we start by questioning the status quo

everittdmickey (73) · 7 years ago

OR...you can actually DO something about it.

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steevc (73) · 7 years ago

I do what I can. I recycle everything in sight, but I see others who don't. I use old plastic bottles and other containers around the garden, but haven't built a greenhouse yet. With the few bottles we use it would take about 50 years to get enough ;)

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shayne (68) · 7 years ago

Have you heard of the North Pacific Gyre?

steevc (73) · 7 years ago

Yes. A lot of this waste is out of sight, but you can see it on many beaches, depending on the currents.

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erikaflynn (61) · 7 years ago

I'll even say more, somewhere in the Pacific ocean there is a floating island, which consists entirely of trash.
I am amazed at the inaction of the authorities in this matter.

steevc (73) · 7 years ago

Me too. They need to be held to account. This is why footage like this is important. We can use it as a stick to beat them with

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lugh (47) · 7 years ago (edited)

Solutions for plastic waste:
Convert plastic back to oil and plastic eating mushrooms.
https://steemit.com/plastic/@lugh/solutions-for-plastic-waste