Fish are eating lots of plastic • Hacker News Board

Re: Fish are eating lots of plastic

#31

Post by avodonosov » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 10:21 PM UTC

bsder wrote: post #21

carapace wrote: post #9

I have a plan, but it's taking me a bit longer than I'd hoped: http://phoenixbureau.github.io/ReGPGP/ > The only way to clean up such a huge mess is to create a system that mimics the way life would do it. Really, if something could eat plastic there wouldn't be quite such a bad problem. It is because no living creature can digest plastic that it stays around and accumulates. So the solution is to create a kind of ar…

That's called a bacterium. Why not create an actual bacterium to break plastic down like everything else in the environment? It's not really that hard--high school students have done it before. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-plastic-eati... Bonus points if you can make the bacterium specific to particular kinds of plastic.

Yes.

One possible problem: if the bacteria also eat plastic in our useful devices, not yet garbadge.

Re: Fish are eating lots of plastic

#32

Post by userbinator » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 10:23 PM UTC

I really wish plastics were recycled/reused a lot more, because they are such ideal materials --- being rather unreactive, flexible, resilient, and (in the case of thermoplastics, which make up the bulk of this waste) easily reprocessed. Although the throwaway culture and low cost means that a lot of it doesn't, I wonder if in the future, if the prices go up in following petroleum trends, "mining" for plastics would start becoming profitable and recycling increase significantly.

I also see some parallels with CFCs --- another substance with some great properties, but which became so common and cheap that we started to use them too carelessly and caused a lot of environmental damage in the process. Hopefully, this time we'll collectively realise, and plastics won't get banned like that.

Re: Fish are eating lots of plastic

#33

Post by 2muchcoffeeman » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 10:24 PM UTC

yitchelle wrote: post #12

harryf wrote: post #11

Prediction: evolution will solve what humans are incapable of. That means species of fish evolving that specializes in eating plastic. Kinda makes sense. While plastic isn't bio-degradeable in the normal sense, perhaps the digestive system of a specialized fish will succeed. After all there is an abundance.

That's an interesting prediction. From what I can remember from a previous HN article, there is a bacterial that already eats plastics. How long would such a evolutionary step take place, I wonder?

Not really. Evolution doesn't stop. And living things adapt to new circumstances all the time.

Re: Fish are eating lots of plastic

#34

Post by acd » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 10:35 PM UTC

We buy lots of cheap plastic made of carbon oil co2 emissions. Then we throw the plastic waste into the oceans. Plastic has weak estrogen hormone disturbance in them from BPA. Then we humans eat the fish and thus gets the estrogen from BPA. This is bound to have human reproduction issues down the line.

http://www.breastcancer.org/risk/factors/plastic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A

Re: Fish are eating lots of plastic

#35

Post by Symmetry » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 10:41 PM UTC

Practicality wrote: post #22

victornomad wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, people do. Not all the countries are pure meat eaters...

You know that fish is a type of meat, right?

Lots of cultures don't class fish in with most meats. In traditional Catholicism the rule against meat on Fridays didn't apply to fish and likewise with Japanese Buddhist rules against meat eating. It's sort of like how most people consider tomatoes to be vegetables even though they aren't, scientifically.

Yeah, in 21st century English fish is a meat but it's non-centrally meat so the meaning is clear when you apply Gricean norms.

Re: Fish are eating lots of plastic

#36

Post by o_____________o » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 10:42 PM UTC

Practicality wrote: post #22

victornomad wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, people do. Not all the countries are pure meat eaters...

You know that fish is a type of meat, right?

I've found that "meat" is sometimes used in casual English as "Animal muscle/meat, but not fish"

I think there's a slight conceptual divide on both the hard-carnivore-against-fish and pescatarian groups.

Old world traditions tend to distinguish them separately as well.

Re: Fish are eating lots of plastic

#37

Post by Ninjalicious » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 10:54 PM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #32

I really wish plastics were recycled/reused a lot more, because they are such ideal materials --- being rather unreactive, flexible, resilient, and (in the case of thermoplastics, which make up the bulk of this waste) easily reprocessed. Although the throwaway culture and low cost means that a lot of it doesn't, I wonder if in the future, if the prices go up in following petroleum trends, "mining" for plastics would…

I'm sort of banking on that. I expect our landfills will be mined by junkers. There is a lot of rare earth elements, metals, and plastics that won't biodegrade very quickly. Little snake bots tunneling through could pick them all up. It's all a matter of need, we'll deplete the finite resources soon.

Re: Fish are eating lots of plastic

#38

Post by Shikadi » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 11:12 PM UTC

Symmetry wrote: post #35

Practicality wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know that fish is a type of meat, right?

Lots of cultures don't class fish in with most meats. In traditional Catholicism the rule against meat on Fridays didn't apply to fish and likewise with Japanese Buddhist rules against meat eating. It's sort of like how most people consider tomatoes to be vegetables even though they aren't, scientifically. Yeah, in 21st century English fish is a meat but it's non-centrally meat so the meaning is clear when you apply…

Woah woah woah, hold up there. Scientifically speaking, a vegetable is the edible part of a plant. Tomatos are vegetables and fruits scientifically. This is like arguing that a square isn't a rectangle! Okay, carry on <3

Re: Fish are eating lots of plastic

#39

Post by victornomad » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 11:15 PM UTC

gnaritas wrote: post #26

victornomad wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, people do. Not all the countries are pure meat eaters...

> Not all the countries are pure meat eaters... lmao... fish is meat.

well, I should have said "animal flesh". In my mother tongue (Spanish) fish (pescado) is different than meat (carne).

Re: Fish are eating lots of plastic

#40

Post by pdog » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 11:37 PM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #32

I really wish plastics were recycled/reused a lot more, because they are such ideal materials --- being rather unreactive, flexible, resilient, and (in the case of thermoplastics, which make up the bulk of this waste) easily reprocessed. Although the throwaway culture and low cost means that a lot of it doesn't, I wonder if in the future, if the prices go up in following petroleum trends, "mining" for plastics would…

If mining for plastics were ever to become profitable without emissions trading, artificial subsidies, or some sort of a carbon tax, it would essentially mean the end of civilization had already occurred.