Plastic - Love it or Loath it

Discussion in 'The big picture' started by Bird, Nov 14, 2009.

  1. DonHansford

    DonHansford Junior Member

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    Sounds great - the one worry I have (call me a cynical old bugger, if you must) she states that "The above information is summarised from the Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment
    by Carnegie Mellon University Green Design Institute (2007). Available from: ". I wonder who funded the research? If it was someone involved in the plastics industry, it would make a lot of the data (and thus the findings) potentially ambiguous.
    Unfortunately, with the preponderance of "spin" nowadays, you don't really know who to believe anymore. :(
     
  2. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    It is getting increasingly difficult!
     
  3. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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  4. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    [video]https://www.ted.com/talks/dianna_cohen_tough_truths_about_plastic_pollution. html[/video]
     
  5. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    PLASTIC OCEANS
    These are all of the pieces of plastic taken from that bird's stomach three days ago. It represents about five to eight percent of the bird's body weight. That's the equivalent of me carrying around three to five kilograms of plastic in my stomach.
    https://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3583576.htm
     
  6. BananaBender

    BananaBender Junior Member

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    I watched that last night. I found the part about plankton eating plastic and getting into the food chain all the way up very disturbing.
     
  7. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    The same reasons DDT was (mostly) banned.
     
  8. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    https://sustainabletable.org.au/Tab...plastic-An-interview-with-Tim-Silverwood.aspx


    7. How did you feel after taking the voyage to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

    It was an incredibly powerful experience. It almost overwhelmed me but thankfully I was surrounded by very inspirational people that left me feeling stronger than ever, that we really can make a difference if we work together. For those that aren’t aware - the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the name given to a region of ocean where a huge quantity of debris (mostly plastic) accumulates in the North Pacific Ocean. The reason it forms is because of a massive network of currents called the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre that encircle the North Pacific (bordered by Asia to the west and North America to the east). All the debris that makes it into the ocean from both continents is consumed by the currents and in some places it converges into these so called ‘garbage patches’.

    Some people may have heard the Garbage Patch referred to as a floating island of rubbish. The media are the main ones pedalling this notion. Environmentalists prefer to describe the region as a “complicated plastic soup”. Firstly, the debris is spread out over a massive area and the debris doesn’t just float on the surface, it also descends down deep into the water column. Most of the larger items actually break into smaller pieces as the sun’s rays make them brittle and the disturbance of the sea beats them around against other items as well as being selectively nibbled by wildlife. The problem is that all the plastic, whilst it breaks apart, doesn’t actually break down or biodegrade. If you can imagine a plastic bottle that could potentially break down into thousands of pieces equivalent to the size of a grain of rice -all those bits of the bottle will be out there - spread out over a massive area. This has lead scientists to assess that there is up to 18,000 pieces of plastic in every square kilometre of ocean. It’s not just in the garbage patches, but in every part of our ocean – not to mention that there are FIVE recognized gyres like this one.
     

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