Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the better solutions, but nobody wants a landfill near them. They're disgusting.
Visit one sometime, they are quite clean actually.
with plants on top after a while (and sealed properly) ...
Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
71–80 of 329 posts
Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
After making a demonstration to the army and being set up with a lab by the army and being asked specifically to weaponize your research (and fill projectiles with it) I don't think there should be any 'we didn't know' excuses. It's pretty clear that even if insecticide was the beginning there was a pretty clear point in time where it was obvious that this had nothing to do with insects any longer.
And at that point what are they going to do? Say no? Okay, then they'll get someone else to take your work and weaponize it. The bulk of the work would have already been done by then, which is synthesizing the chemical and showing its effects on people.
Principles are pointless if there is no price to pay.
By your reasoning you can excuse away any behavior. Which of course plenty of scientists and other horrible people tried to do. And then there was the collective amnesia epidemic of 1945.
Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
#73I am skeptical that any sort of bacteria/insect based plastic decomposition project will address the problems with plastic waste. The biggest problem with plastic is not with the products that make it into the landfill, where bacteria could be used. The problem is with what happens when they don't make it into a landfill, and they end up as basically permanent pollutants in the water.
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Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
#74It makes sense that eventually things would eat plastic. Lignin (wood) and cellulose are pretty tough to break down, but there are things that eat them. Plastic fundamentally (chemically) is made of the same stuff as wood, just in a different arrangement of atoms, and releases energy when decomposed. So it seems quite reasonable that there would be things that can eat it. I think the plastic pollution we are seeing r…
I think of a blender. Eventually something is going to be found that breaks up pesky combos.
Long molecule chains in plastics seem like they would be easy. I guess it takes the right blender to chop it up!
I also imagine a small caterpillar-sized blender involved. Now I need a smoothie.
Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
And at that point what are they going to do? Say no? Okay, then they'll get someone else to take your work and weaponize it. The bulk of the work would have already been done by then, which is synthesizing the chemical and showing its effects on people.
Principles are pointless if there is no price to pay. By your reasoning you can excuse away any behavior. Which of course plenty of scientists and other horrible people tried to do. And then there was the collective amnesia epidemic of 1945.
And by your reasoning, you should get locked away the second your research can get weaponized.
Shockingly, it's not a black and white world with many layers of gray in between, which is what I was trying to show. That a lot of research can get twisted for evil.
In your earlier post, you claimed there was "no upside". That's patently false, since these started with the ideal of getting rid of pests more efficiently. Yes, there's a point where it turns from this generic research to weaponizing, but that might not be immediately obvious at the time, nor what the repercussions might be 50 years later.
Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
#76A typical round about way for human civilization. Since plastic is an environmental problem a logical solution would have been not to produce and use it. Or at least manage its lifetime better. But of course the industry doesn't care about cleaning up since there's no money there.
On what basis do you claim that your solution is logical, but using a caterpillar is not?
If something is a an environmental problem which do you think is better.
a) not create the problem in the first place
b) start creating a solution to the environmental problem you created
Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm very well aware of that. I was thinking of a fictional scenario. Also, our modern electronics are not made of wood, many have plastic components.
Which can be replaced with glass, ceramics metal and carbon fiber. I can't think of a single component that uses plastics to function for any other reason than costs. Also you always have fluoropolymers to fall back on partially.
If all plastic was gone in the span of a week? Again, just an idea for a fictional scenario.
Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
As any reptile owner will tell you, wax worms will eat through plastic containers so you should store them in glass. It's common knowledge. It is however amazing that nobody (me included) never thought that this could be a solution to our plastic issues. "It's common knowledge, why waste time thinking about it?"
Also, the really clever part was suspecting and then testing that the plastic isn't just mechanically broken down.
By squishing loads of bugs on some plastic. Reminds me of the playground!
Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
#79I am skeptical that any sort of bacteria/insect based plastic decomposition project will address the problems with plastic waste. The biggest problem with plastic is not with the products that make it into the landfill, where bacteria could be used. The problem is with what happens when they don't make it into a landfill, and they end up as basically permanent pollutants in the water.
I, for one, have never understood the problem with landfills. There's tons of unused space left, and landfills take up a tiny fraction of that. Who cares if we make a trash hill somewhere and styrofoam sits there for a million years?
My problem with landfills is that it's so inefficient. Particularly for things like wood waste or construction demolition, it makes a lot more sense to grind it, burn it, and make power from it, then bury the much smaller amount of ash that is left over.
Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
#80Would be good to have plastic waste broken down, but be careful not to take down our whole civilization with it. Almost everything today is made out of plastic...
It would be a very interesting world indeed if you were worried about say, your car becoming infected with plastic-osis and disintegrating!