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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

#41

Post by red-iron-pine »

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.

> Why do they do this?

Plastics are made in huge quantities from by products of oil, gas, and coal.

Petroleum is decomposed under heat into gasoline, kerosene, naphtha, light oil, heavy oil, etc. Most plastics use naphtha as main raw material. Naphtha is further decomposed thermally and separated utilizing the difference in the boiling point (temperature at which the phase change from liquid to gas occurs) to form ethylene and propylene, which are the raw materials for plastics.

Chances are the electricity that you're using to read this was generated by oil / gas / coal; the world runs on oil.

Plastics are essentially a convenient by-product, which can be made cheaply and in bulk, and they do a good job preserving foods.

Re: Scientists find ‘plastic rocks’ on remote island

#42

Post by bmitc »

red-iron-pine wrote: post #41
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.

> Why do they do this? Plastics are made in huge quantities from by products of oil, gas, and coal. Petroleum is decomposed under heat into gasoline, kerosene, naphtha, light oil, heavy oil, etc. Most plastics use naphtha as main raw material. Naphtha is further decomposed thermally and separated utilizing the difference in the boiling point (temperature at which the phase change from liquid to gas occurs) to form et…

That doesn't answer the why question.

Re: Scientists find ‘plastic rocks’ on remote island

#44

Post by canadianfella »

bmitc wrote: post #42
red-iron-pine wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why do they do this? Plastics are made in huge quantities from by products of oil, gas, and coal. Petroleum is decomposed under heat into gasoline, kerosene, naphtha, light oil, heavy oil, etc. Most plastics use naphtha as main raw material. Naphtha is further decomposed thermally and separated utilizing the difference in the boiling point (temperature at which the phase change from liquid to gas occurs) to form et…

That doesn't answer the why question.

Plastics are essentially a convenient by-product, which can be made cheaply and in bulk, and they do a good job preserving foods.

Re: Scientists find ‘plastic rocks’ on remote island

#45

Post by bmitc »

ta8903 wrote: post #27
em500 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's a sort of stereotype, though. Japan is one of the most urbanized countries in the world, if not the most urbanized, and it has some of the most disproportionate plastic use.

Re: Scientists find ‘plastic rocks’ on remote island

#46

Post by frosted-flakes »

JohnFen wrote: post #33
ta8903 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

But in the US (or at least my part of it), it's not common to find produce individually wrapped in plastic. I always thought that was more of a European thing.

Stuff like cucumbers, yes, because otherwise they would have much too short of a shelf life. Otherwise I don't think I've ever seen individual fruits or vegetables wrapped in plastic here in Canada, and I didn't think that grocery stores in the USA are very different from ours. Bulk bags of apples, carrots, grapes, lettuce, spinach, etc., certainly, but individual apples wrapped in plastic seems ridiculous.

Re: Scientists find ‘plastic rocks’ on remote island

#47

Post by lettergram »

stonemetal12 wrote: post #23
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.

Lol quite an assumption there. Definitely not human, this is common amongst neighbors too
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