While its undeniably sad that we litter so much in our environment - its very very cool that nature is adapting in the way it is to our dirty habits - in the same vein I'm expecting a species of something will evolve to eat and biodegrade plastics, rubbers and other similar materials.
Actually one of my favorite examples of evolution in action are nylon eating bacteria, which evolved the capabilty to catalyze nylon for energy in a lake that was heavily contaminated by nylon production in the 1930s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nylon-eating_bacteria
It is also not a good strategy for the organisms involved since what we produce, especially the organics, changes fast and we're about the only source..
Isn't re-use the slogan-compatible word? I'm not sure if the bees are disqualifed if they use the plastic for a different use or how much physical alteration matters.
This opens an interesting question, what if we could slightly modify plastic to make it more useful to other species, maybe beavers, maybe bees, maybe ants, maybe woodpeckers, maybe there is an specific trait that one (or many) of this kind of animals seek for when using materials (or eating)
Note that there are two kinds of "biodegradable" plastics. Vegetable based plastics (which are definitely unproblematic when left in the environment) and "OXO-biodegradable" plastics which are just normal plastics (like PE, PP, PS) with additions that make them break down quicker than normally. If a bag feels like a normal plastic bag then it will be one of the latter kind; vegetable based plastics have a different feel to them (kind of rubbery), to my understanding; since they are produced in a different way (by a different industry), and more expensive, you rarely encounter them.
The Wikipedia article on OXO biodegradable plastics[1] seems to be heavily edited by industry participants. Last I heard[2] was that OXO-biodegradable plastics are basically cheating, as they leave the plastic in the wild, just invisibly (perhaps even making things worse as then it can't be collected anymore?). The Wikipedia article argues that the fragments will be decomposed by organisms. I don't know which is true, but wanted to point out that there are two kinds and you should be careful not to mix them up in discussions.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxo_Biodegradable
[2] from the film Addicted To Plastic [3]
or other places, not sure anymore
[3] http://www.crypticmoth.com/plastic.php
Ah, I made the assumption that a vegetable oil based plastic would at worst break down or go rancid. And tiny bits of rancid oil wouldn't be harmful. However, if they're using other chemicals to produce these, then it's entirely possible that they would be unsafe. My bad.
I explicitly said that vegetable based plastics are not a problem. What we're worried about are the OXO plastics, which are not vegetable, but mineral oil based.
The planet will be here a long long time after we're gone.. And it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, because that's what it does.
It's a self correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed and if it's true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm - the Earth plus Plastic.
The Earth doesn't share our prejudice towards plastic. Plastic came out of the Earth.
The Earth probably sees plastic as just another one of it's children.
Could be the only reason the Earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn't know how to make it. Needed us..
Could be the answer to the age old philosophical question "Why are we here ?"..
The planet will be here, it will incorporate the plastic in some way, like it does with everything. The issue was never about the planet itself. Planets don't have minds (that we know of) and don't care. They just are. It's only us, humans, who care about how the planet looks like - because we can only survive in a tiny band of possible planet states, and live comfortably in even tinier band.
Sorry. Didn't realize at first you're quoting George Carlin. I'm watching the video now. It's the first time I hear about him. I see now that anthropomorphisation of planet is a part of humour.
Sadly, too many people think that way for serious - that the planet is important for itself, that this particular state it's in ("blue marble") is somehow meaningful for the planet itself, or valuable for reasons not related to having humans on it.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 53.6 ms ] threadBee-cycling.
The Wikipedia article on OXO biodegradable plastics[1] seems to be heavily edited by industry participants. Last I heard[2] was that OXO-biodegradable plastics are basically cheating, as they leave the plastic in the wild, just invisibly (perhaps even making things worse as then it can't be collected anymore?). The Wikipedia article argues that the fragments will be decomposed by organisms. I don't know which is true, but wanted to point out that there are two kinds and you should be careful not to mix them up in discussions.
The Earth doesn't share our prejudice towards plastic. Plastic came out of the Earth. The Earth probably sees plastic as just another one of it's children. Could be the only reason the Earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn't know how to make it. Needed us..
Could be the answer to the age old philosophical question "Why are we here ?"..
Plastic, assholes!
:)
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George Carlin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c
Sadly, too many people think that way for serious - that the planet is important for itself, that this particular state it's in ("blue marble") is somehow meaningful for the planet itself, or valuable for reasons not related to having humans on it.
If there is life outside then it might value the blue marble.
And it is also possible that it could become valuable for non-human (AI?) reasons later.