Plastics
 

Here is a stunning story about plastics.

[url]http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=07-P13-00026&segmentID=7[/url]

We had an earlier discussion about that bit of research.

[url]http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1118475[/url]

IMO trading in glass bottles for plastic was an environmental blunder. On a recent walk along a stretch of beach far from any houses or road heads I saw so many plastic bottles washed up that it would taken a dump truck to put a dent in their number. Never saw that back in the days of glass bottles, then you just found beach glass which is nothing more than super heated sand when you get down to it. The plastic bag situation isn't much better when you consider how many sea turtles and sea birds try and eat them.

I know what you mean about plastic litter. The part that got me was the all of the plastic at the particle level that exists in all parts of the ocean. That is scary.

Indeed. I hadn't realized about all the particles either. But when you think about it, it makes sense. That stuff doesn't biodegrade, so it has to go somewhere. The good things about articles like that is that they make you think.

Did you see the story about irradiated food? That was also quite disturbing.

If it wasnt biodegrading, how did it break down and get into the water?

You've never seen floating plastic debris when out on the water? The particles found on beaches, well even large granite boulders get ground down to small bits of sand by wave action, so that's no real surprise either when you actually stop and think about it.

They are broken down into smaller pieces, but they still are plastics.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10271807#post10271807 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kmacartney [/i]
[B]Did you see the story about irradiated food? That was also quite disturbing. [/B][/QUOTE]

I forgot to ask you earlier, do you have a link?

I think they also wrote in the article that its possible some biodegradation is going on in the older plastics we see ground down to particle size. Maybe some photo degradation. But, majority of it, like Bill noted, is being attributed to mechanical breakdown by wave action by the authors.

Its really scary stuff to me. Just think about it, if you've been eating sardines lately, and they were out there sifting phytoplankton sized plastic from the ocean, maybe you ate some plastic particles!

>Sarah

I read that plastic article weeks back and am still thinking about it. I sent it to several people to read, too.

In the town where my mom lives, they are now forbidden to throw ANY plastic in the trash. They will get fined if plastic bags or any trash are found in the garbage container. They must all be washed and recycled now. It is inconvenient but it made me feel a lot better since reading the article.

Bill here is the link you asked for.

[url]http://www.loe.org/shows/shows.htm?programID=07-P13-00026#feature4[/url]

I definitely think that it is best if we can recycle as much as possible, not just plastics. It is just one of the ways that we can get ourselves out of our energy/co2 mess.

Perhaps the reason we see all the plastic on the beach as opposed to the good old days of glass is because plastic bootles float alot better?That sounds like an "out of sight out of mind "argument to me!

Not so much "out of sigh out of mind" with the glass. It was there to see as beach glass. People at least collected beach glass, they don't collect beach plastic :( The glass also would just continue to grind down, after all it was originally silica sand and was just heated to make glass ;)

I know it's not the ocean, but when I was on a recent trip to Moab, UT, at the visitors center they had a chart for how long various litters last in the desert. Cigarette butts were 3-5 years, glass bottles were in the 10 year range. Plastic bottles and bags were 200-500 years.

Bill, I think you're right that it was a mistake when they switched from glass to plastic for bottles. The problem is that I think plastic is cheaper to make, and it's definitely a lot lighter, so it's cheaper to ship.

We recycle everything we can. Unfortunately, where we are they only take 1 and 2. At my mom's house in Salt Lake the city takes 1-7 and bags (which many cities don't take, so she's only stuck with unlabelled plastics.

Dave

Yeah our recycling center only takes one and two. They also will not take green glass.