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Scientists find ‘plastic rocks’ on remote island

phys.org

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Re: Scientists find ‘plastic rocks’ on remote island

#21

Post by em500 »

enlyth wrote: post #7

The amount of plastic we use is sad. When I go to the grocery store, the apples are wrapped in plastic, broccoli wrapped in plastic, baked goods are in plastic, plastic everything. Why do they do this? I'm going to wash the produce when I get home, I don't need a plastic wrapper on my broccoli just to throw it out immediately and then was the vegetable anyway.

Because it reduces food spoiling. Without some deeper research, it's not clear cut whether the benefits of plastic packaging reduction outweigh the costs of extra spoilage. IIRC analysis from Wageningen University suggested that they don't.

Re: Scientists find ‘plastic rocks’ on remote island

#22

Post by cronix »

nicolashahn wrote: post #12

Spicy take, but isn't this kind of a blessing in disguise? Plastic in this form wouldn't be disturbing the ecosystem as much. This is better than microplastics being found in fish or choking turtles.

No because a lot of microplastics start out as larger pieces that degrade over time

> Microplastics come from a variety of sources, including from larger plastic debris that degrades into smaller and smaller pieces.

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/microplastics.html

Re: Scientists find ‘plastic rocks’ on remote island

#23

Post by stonemetal12 »

lettergram wrote: post #10

stuff like this makes me question how accurate our general model of the world is. If plastic rocks can form (plastic being I have a farm and the land will change FEET in elevation from year to year. We have a lot of rain, but it’s hard to wrap my head that geography move slowly when my hillside has changed so rapidly.

>the land will change FEET in elevation from year to year

As far as I am aware that is not natural, people are pumping water out of the ground fast enough to make the of elevation change. If it were naturally occurring it would take hundreds of years of drought to do that.

Re: Scientists find ‘plastic rocks’ on remote island

#24

Post by deathhand »

licebmi__at__ wrote: post #16
micromacrofoot wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plastic is cheap, durable, and water-resistant, that's really all there is to it. When individual items are all packaged like this you can cut corners in a lot of other places. Until there's an equally cheap equally effective alternative plastic will be used unless we regulate against it, it's simply too convenient.

>cheap More like not properly priced.

I was going to write a witty intellectual comment about capitalism at work but with further reflection it needs to come from "both sides".

The economically disadvantage use plastic in their everyday life and an arbitrary tax on it would negatively effect them and make their lives harder.

At the same time they can see through the income gap that those who could afford an increase of plastic still shit all over the environment and would further lead to a divide in the issue.

The most recent example of this is people complaining about plastic straws whilst private jet use in unabated.

Re: Scientists find ‘plastic rocks’ on remote island

#26

Post by dividedbyzero »

will_walker wrote: post #20
dividedbyzero wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there wasn't a wrapper I'd pack it in a little baggie to not have to deal with broccoli bits at the bottom of my backpack. Also washing won't get rid of everything and that way a sick cashier has a lower chance of smearing something onto the produce (especially relevant if I'm not going to cook it). But why do those wrappers and baggies and whatnot need to be non-biodegradable? This stuff needs to survive for a we…

Is this something that a paper bag could solve for?

Paper is heavier and bulkier, production is pretty resource intensive, recycling doesn't work all that well, it's not transparent, and you may have to line it with something else to make it hold up to moisture. It's better than plastic I guess but a non-fossil-sourced and easily biodegradable plastic would be kind of perfect for this, even if it was a little less sturdy than the current mainstream options.

Re: Scientists find ‘plastic rocks’ on remote island

#27

Post by ta8903 »

em500 wrote: post #21
enlyth wrote: post #7

The amount of plastic we use is sad. When I go to the grocery store, the apples are wrapped in plastic, broccoli wrapped in plastic, baked goods are in plastic, plastic everything. Why do they do this? I'm going to wash the produce when I get home, I don't need a plastic wrapper on my broccoli just to throw it out immediately and then was the vegetable anyway.

Because it reduces food spoiling. Without some deeper research, it's not clear cut whether the benefits of plastic packaging reduction outweigh the costs of extra spoilage. IIRC analysis from Wageningen University suggested that they don't.

I assume this is only a concern because in America you're forced to make grocery trips once a week because of the suburban layout and car-centric development instead of getting fresh food off the corner store every other day like most countries.

Re: Scientists find ‘plastic rocks’ on remote island

#28

Post by joshspankit »

enlyth wrote: post #7

The amount of plastic we use is sad. When I go to the grocery store, the apples are wrapped in plastic, broccoli wrapped in plastic, baked goods are in plastic, plastic everything. Why do they do this? I'm going to wash the produce when I get home, I don't need a plastic wrapper on my broccoli just to throw it out immediately and then was the vegetable anyway.

As someone who has worked with many businesses, there is an unfortunate bit of psychology I can share:

Many customers are more comfortable buying items in plastic packaging because they associate plastic with clean/sanitary/professionally produced.

Re: Scientists find ‘plastic rocks’ on remote island

#29

Post by baq »

deathhand wrote: post #24
licebmi__at__ wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>cheap More like not properly priced.

I was going to write a witty intellectual comment about capitalism at work but with further reflection it needs to come from "both sides". The economically disadvantage use plastic in their everyday life and an arbitrary tax on it would negatively effect them and make their lives harder. At the same time they can see through the income gap that those who could afford an increase of plastic still shit all over the env…

You say tax and that's how the policy should be implemented, but the real thing the tax would try to capture is externalities. Some of the bad stuff plastic does (I guess most of it, actually) is not included in its price. This is not at all capitalism.

Re: Scientists find ‘plastic rocks’ on remote island

#30

Post by philipkglass »

satvikpendem wrote: post #17
Traubenfuchs wrote: post #5

Given enough time, nature will evolve towards a more plastic accepting genome. Hopefully it will be fast enough!

Trees did not decompose for millions of years and just piled up, since there were no fungi or bacteria that evolved to decompose wood. I'd rather not wait millions of years to see plastic decompose. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carboniferous#Rocks_and_coal

There are already organisms that feed on plastic, albeit slowly. See this fascinating 2013 article for an introduction:

"Life in the “Plastisphere”: Microbial Communities on Plastic Marine Debris"

https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/branco2014/files/2014/...

Plastics also break down to simpler hydrocarbons and carbon dioxide with prolonged exposure to sunlight. Unfortunately, these gaseous small molecules are greenhouse gases, but they don't persist for millions of years.

"Production of methane and ethylene from plastic in the environment"

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...

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