Teen Decomposes Plastic Bag In 3 Months • Hacker News Board

Re: Teen Decomposes Plastic Bag In 3 Months

#31

Post by swombat » Thu, Jul 30, 2009, 4:42 PM UTC

euroclydon wrote: post #22

edw519 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"That the parent has been moderated down so much is troubling." It's only troubling until you understand why. No one would reasonably argue against the idea of producing something other than plastic in the first place. The downmodding was most likely in response to the word "Western". Bash the U.S. (or anyone else, for that matter) and get downmodded. What's so troubling about that? You can make a logical point on hn…

Well, I questioned whether it's a Western phenomenon. I'm not trying to bash the U.S. I like being a citizen. I was actually trying to make an analogy to diet, health and medicine, where Western lifestyles have traditionally been found to be inferior to Eastern ones, because we, on average, eat crappy food, get diseases, then spend a bunch of money trying to fix the symptoms of those diseases.

It's hardly a western problem. I've been to Hong Kong and Taiwan, and they have just as many plastic bags as we ("The West") do, if not more. And they're just as concerned about them as we are.

Re: Teen Decomposes Plastic Bag In 3 Months

#32

Post by briancooley » Thu, Jul 30, 2009, 4:44 PM UTC

onreact-com wrote: post #10

jsonscripter wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love plastic :( I'd vastly prefer to recycle or decompose it than to never use it again.

Remember plastic is made of oil (petroleum) so people actually die for plastic.

Many common plastics are made from ethylene and propylene, which are byproducts of the refining process and for many years were simply burned in flares.

The fact that those (formerly waste) gases are now turned into useful products is a turn for the better, I think.

Eliminating plastic would have no significant impact on the exploration and production of oil. Things are not always as simple as they seem.

Re: Teen Decomposes Plastic Bag In 3 Months

#33

Post by froo » Thu, Jul 30, 2009, 5:01 PM UTC

joshfinnie wrote: post #8

Wonder how much heat this process creates? Could we get rid of plastic and run a turbine? Maybe there's a hope for green energy afterall...

What if we used genetically engineered bacteria like what startup LS9 are working on to create petroleum as the waste product?

http://www.ls9.com/

That would quite literally blow my mind then.

Re: Teen Decomposes Plastic Bag In 3 Months

#34

Post by biohacker42 » Thu, Jul 30, 2009, 5:01 PM UTC

tc wrote: post #11

The process he went through is so obvious that someone must have done this already [1], right? Right? If this really is a new discovery, what would astound me is how easily everyone else must have given up. [1] Not that it would take anything away from this guy, who did it at 16 with limited resources and probably without regard to existing research.

The story about this kid keeps making the rounds, I guess it must be a slow news summer, no shark attacks. This is great for a teen and highschool project, but it's not quite as great as the article makes it out to be. And yes, it is old news: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nylon-eating_bacteria

Re: Teen Decomposes Plastic Bag In 3 Months

#35

Post by philwelch » Thu, Jul 30, 2009, 5:01 PM UTC

joshfinnie wrote: post #8

Wonder how much heat this process creates? Could we get rid of plastic and run a turbine? Maybe there's a hope for green energy afterall...

You missed the part where this produces CO2. And it's producing CO2 from a petroleum product, which means this is CO2 that's been out of the carbon cycle for millions of years, which means it's all net CO2.

Re: Teen Decomposes Plastic Bag In 3 Months

#36

Post by warfangle » Thu, Jul 30, 2009, 5:12 PM UTC

TrevorJ wrote: post #29

warfangle wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of plastic recycling isn't recycling - it's downcycling. Plastic bottles become carpet becomes landfill fodder. It just delays the inevitable. A lot of this has to do with the dyes used in plastics manufacturing. It also has to do with the limited mutability of most plastics - the quality of the plastic after one cycle of recycling (in this example, plastic bottle -> carpet) is reduced. Once it's turned to carp…

It still depends on what the plastic decomposes into in the landfill. If this kid has helped solve that problem then it is still a step forward.

That's my point exactly.

Re: Teen Decomposes Plastic Bag In 3 Months

#37

Post by rawr » Thu, Jul 30, 2009, 5:47 PM UTC

biohacker42 wrote: post #34

tc wrote: post #11

The process he went through is so obvious that someone must have done this already [1], right? Right? If this really is a new discovery, what would astound me is how easily everyone else must have given up. [1] Not that it would take anything away from this guy, who did it at 16 with limited resources and probably without regard to existing research.

The story about this kid keeps making the rounds, I guess it must be a slow news summer, no shark attacks. This is great for a teen and highschool project, but it's not quite as great as the article makes it out to be. And yes, it is old news: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nylon-eating_bacteria

The boy's achievement was decomposing polyethylene. I'm not entirely sure how Nylon-eating bacteria are relevant.

Re: Teen Decomposes Plastic Bag In 3 Months

#38

Post by alex_stoddard » Thu, Jul 30, 2009, 5:53 PM UTC

rawr wrote: post #37

biohacker42 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The story about this kid keeps making the rounds, I guess it must be a slow news summer, no shark attacks. This is great for a teen and highschool project, but it's not quite as great as the article makes it out to be. And yes, it is old news: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nylon-eating_bacteria

The boy's achievement was decomposing polyethylene. I'm not entirely sure how Nylon-eating bacteria are relevant.

Indeed. To quote the more detailed original newspaper article linked from Wired: http://news.therecord.com/article/354044 " A researcher in Ireland has found Pseudomonas is capable of degrading polystyrene, but as far as Burd and his teacher Mark Menhennet know -- and they've looked -- Burd's research on polyethelene plastic bags is a first."

Re: Teen Decomposes Plastic Bag In 3 Months

#39

Post by onreact-com » Thu, Jul 30, 2009, 6:22 PM UTC

TrevorJ wrote: post #26

onreact-com wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember plastic is made of oil (petroleum) so people actually die for plastic.

Historically people die over anything desirable. Food, land, water, gold. There's no solution other than fixing human nature itself.

When did the US start the last war about food, land, water or gold?

Re: Teen Decomposes Plastic Bag In 3 Months

#40

Post by onreact-com » Thu, Jul 30, 2009, 6:34 PM UTC

briancooley wrote: post #32

onreact-com wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember plastic is made of oil (petroleum) so people actually die for plastic.

Many common plastics are made from ethylene and propylene, which are byproducts of the refining process and for many years were simply burned in flares. The fact that those (formerly waste) gases are now turned into useful products is a turn for the better, I think. Eliminating plastic would have no significant impact on the exploration and production of oil. Things are not always as simple as they seem.

So why lead rising oil prices to higher costs of plastic if it's just trash or a "byproduct"? There is no future for oil based fuels and plastics if you want to keep this planet.