PLASTIC BAGS and our WATER WORLD

[kach22i]

I use plastic bags for used kitty litter, my cat craps a lot.

We also recycle them at the local "buy the pound" store for others to use.

Unless a plastic bag has meat juice or flour all over it, it gets at least one more use.

[Fanie]

I woke up last night to find the ghost of Gloria Gaynor
standing at the foot of my bed.
At first I was afraid.......then I was petrified.

My girlfriend thinks that I'm a stalker.
Well, she's not exactly my girlfriend yet.

I was explaining to my wife last night that when you die you
get reincarnated but must come back as a different creature.
She said I would like to come back as a cow.
I said you're obviously not listening.

The wife has been missing a week now.
Police said to prepare for the worst.
So I have been to the charity shop to get all her clothes back.

My neighbour knocked on my door at 2:30am this morning,
can you believe that 2:30am?!
Luckily for him I was still up playing my Bagpipes

[hoytedow]

A Man's Dilemmas: Two guys were working at a sawmill one day when one of the guys got too close to the blade and cut off his arm. His buddy put the severed arm in a plastic bag and rushed it down to the hospital to get re-attached. The next day he goes to see his chum, and finds him playing tennis.

"Incredible!," says his friend. "Medical science is amazing."

Another month goes by and the same two guys are again at the sawmill working when the same guy gets too close to the spinning blade and this time his leg gets cut off. Again his buddy takes the leg, puts it in a plastic bag and takes it to the hospital to get re-attached. The next day, he goes down to see his chum and finds him outside playing football. "Incredible!," says his friend. "Medical science is amazing!"

Well another month goes by and again the same two friends are at the mill cutting wood when suddenly the same guy bends down too close to the blade and off comes his head. Well his friend takes the head, puts it in a plastic bag, and heads to the hospital to get it re-attached. The next day he goes to see his friend but can't find him.

He sees the doctor walking down the hall and says, "Doc, where is my friend? I brought him in yesterday."

The doctor thinks for a minute and says, "Oh yeah, some idiot put his head in a plastic bag and he suffocated."



Reference: The dailystar

[hoytedow]

I couldn't help it. Fanie hi-jacked the thread and I am a follower.

[kach22i]

UPDATE: 05/08/12

L.A. County passes sweeping ban on plastic bags
November 17, 2010|By Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov...-bags-20101117

The ordinance, which by 2012 will cover 1,000 stores in unincorporated areas, also will require supermarkets and pharmacies to levy a 10-cent surcharge per paper bag. Proponents see it as a model for California.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov...-bags-20101117

In Los Angeles County alone, 6 billion plastic bags are used each year, an average of 1,600 bags per household a year. Government figures show that only about 5% are recycled.

This article is a little more up to date:
April 05, 2012|By David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr...g-ban-20120405

Under the proposal, the council would still need to draft an ordinance and initiate an environmental review of the bag phaseout. Once the ordinance is in effect, city officials would provide six months' warning to stores — including supermarkets and other retailers that sell food — that plastic bags would no longer be permitted, city officials said.

No paper either?
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr...g-ban-20120405

Andrea Alarcon, president of the Board of Public Works, had urged the panel to embrace a complete ban, saying paper bags lead to deforestation. Her father, Councilman Richard Alarcon, voted with his colleagues to advance the proposal.

More info:


EDIT: found this
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_th..._to_the_oceans

It's virtually impossible to determine the percentage of bags that end up in the ocean. Though, 47% of debris blown away from landfills is plastic. And a recent study found that for every pound of zooplankton in the Pacific Ocean, there are 46 pounds of plastic waste. (Source: http://greensangha.org/plastics-campaign/) Think of the probability that fish eat plastic instead of plankton. Then we eat the fish.

Zooplankton
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooplankton

Zooplankton /ˌzoʊ.əˈplæŋktən/ are heterotrophic (sometimes detritivorous) plankton. Plankton are organisms drifting in oceans, seas, and bodies of fresh water. The word "zooplankton" is derived from the Greek zoon (ζῴον), meaning "animal", and planktos (πλαγκτός), meaning "wanderer" or "drifter".[1] Individual zooplankton are usually too small to be seen with the naked eye, but some, such as jellyfish, are large.

Marine debris
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_debris

Studies have shown that eighty percent of marine debris is plastic

[hoytedow]

Can't we just ban L.A. County?

[Submarine Tom]

Originally Posted by hoytedow

Can't we just ban L.A. County?

Ewwwwwww, good thing I didn't say that...

Hoyt, you're such a follower (self admitted of course, funny, but still a follower).

[SheetWise]

Originally Posted by Fanie

My girlfriend thinks that I'm a stalker.
Well, she's not exactly my girlfriend yet.

ROF -- Funny. Think I read that in Jokes ... still funny.

[FAST FRED]

"Studies have shown that eighty percent of marine debris is plastic "

GREAT!!

Sounds like all we need is to use a plastic that is food and dissolves in sea water.

If it contained Iron many areas of the ocean could bloom and remove loads of CO2 from the air , as a free bonus.

Change the plastic , not the people.

FF

[mydauphin]

You may be on to something... FF

Or may be we can trawl for plastic bags and burn them in our boats for fuel.

[Submarine Tom]

If we'd only hurry up and use all the oil we wouldn't make any more plastic!

[Boston]

interesting

I wrote this a while back, the numbers might have changed a little but probably not for the better

====================================================

Glass Vs Plastic

Boston


Abstract

In regards to plastics use in manufacturing when a glass alternative is available. Compare the manufacturing processes, disposal practices, recycling potential and toxic effects of both glass and plastic and there effects on our environment. Hypothesis, that the preponderance of plastic fragments and molecular plastic, plastic leachates, binders, bio-toxins, bio-toxin accumulators carcinogens and tarterogens hormone disruptors, endocrine disruptors, plastic by products and consequential post and preproduction waste in the environment and there harmful consequence are significantly sufficient to offset any advantages over glass. All conclusions are substantiated in the body and noted.



Conclusions Glass 

Both glass and glass waste are non toxic and stable in the environment giving off no harmful byproducts. Manufacturing of glass produces pollutants at the source of manufacturing and during materials acquisition, these pollutants can be controlled economically: various network modifiers used in the production of glass appear to play no significant pollution role. Chemically tempered glass is also inert. Lead used in the manufacture of decorative glass falls under the guidelines of EPCRA Section 313 and is exempt and stable with in the glass matrix. There has been a steady decline in pollutants produced pr ton of glass over time, mainly co2 , noX, soX . Glass is 100% recyclable


Conclusions
Plastic
, plastic components, the production of plastic and plastic waste are mildly to extremely toxic, all are environmentally detrimental , with results ranging from the release of strong carcinogens and tarterogens to the existence of bio-toxin accumulators and endocrine disruptors. five of the six most toxic and abundant chemical pollutants found in the environment are commonly associated with the production of plastics. Plastic photo-degrades releasing persistent toxins like Bisphenol A and Phthalates over extended periods of time. Plastic is non biodegradable and both the long chain and short chain plastic molecule appears to be permanent in the environment. Pollutants consisting of nurdles, leachates, fragmentary or hole plastic waste cannot be economically controlled. There has been an exponential rise in molecular plastic found throughout the worlds oceans. Animal deaths based on plastic ingestion number in the hundreds of millions with some extinction events and trophic cascades noted. Pollution pr ton of plastic produced appears to be increasing. Most plastic is non recyclable.



Citation 

Paul Goettlich 14dec01 the problem with plastic 
Charles Moore and Miwa Tamanaha, Pelagic Plastic Task Force Organizers 11apr01
Plastic in the Sea - Paul Goettlich / Living Nutrition 5oct2005



Editor 

This article is presently under development and will be edited upon its completion 
( so dont come at me with spelling issues )



Copyright 

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and sources are credited.



Funding 

This research project has been Anonymously funded, the benefactor having no role in study design, data collections and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of this manuscript


Competing Interests

the author confirms that no competing interests exist


Body
Environmental concerns over glass

Glass is made up of a few naturally abundant minerals, mostly silicate, and breaks down into natural, harmless components(3,6). Waste glass is environmentally neutral(3). The vast majority of pollution caused by the manufacturing of glass is source point and can be managed economically. Waste glass prepared for reuse, called Cullet is also inert and its increasing use as an aggregate means that it can be economically reused without the need for remanufacture (36). When remanufacturing is advantageous cullet reduces the level of emissions from the process by up to 40% (3,37) and the level of energy by as much as 30% (9,32,35). glass has an Embodied Energy of between 25.0 MJ/kg and 12.7 MJ/kg (1,4,30). and a density of 2470 kg/m3 (1). Glass is 100% recyclable (32). The U.S. glass recycling rate in 2003 was 19% (9) in 2001, for Australia 83%, Sweden: 84%, Germany: 87%, Belgium and Norway: 88%, Finland: 91% and Switzerland: 92% (9). Recycling one ton of glass saves nine to ten gallons of oil (9,32)



Environmental concerns over plastics

Plastic is made up of numerous petroleum based compounds, to produce 1 kg of Acrylic (PMMA, Polymethyl methacrylate) (23) 2 kg of petroleum is needed and up to 5 kg of toxic waist is generated (2,3). Plastic never breaks down but instead photo-degrades into some of the most hazardous petrochemical substances known to man (3,6,7,38). PMMA has an embodied energy of about 131.0MJ/kg with a density of 1180 kg/m3 (1,3,30). Although it is difficult to determine the exact production level of plastics per yr. 2007 estimates range from 100,000,000 to 205,000,000 tons (28,45) with an anual increase of 9.5% (45). 100,000,000,000 plastic bags are used each year in the u.s. alone (10). The U.S recovery (recycling) rate for all plastics in 2005 was 1% (3,5,8,10)
In 2007 World wide, less than 3% is recovered (3,5,8). In an EPA ranking of the twenty chemicals whose production generates the most total hazardous waste, five of the top six are chemicals commonly used by the plastic industry. (10) Recycling one ton of plastic saves 1000 gallons of oil (10,32)

Plastic as it photo-degrades releases binders like Phthalates, Bisphenol A, Nonyphenols and PBDEs along with countless other known carcinogens and teratogens (3,16,21,25,32). Once the binders are released, plastic remains as a large molecule(3,17). Dioxins are created both during production and incineration (2,3,16,17,31,32,46) dioxins are the strongest carcinogen known to man (3,5,6.7,31,38), The number of harmful chemicals associated with the production of plastic are to numerous to mention in this comparison, however; just one a primary component of acrylics ( mainly polycarbonates ) is bisphenol A (BPA), a hormone disrupter, that releases into food and liquid at room temperature(3,16,17,21,), it is considered a teratogen along with thalidomide and is known to cause embryonic malformations (3.8.16). Phthalates have been shown to cause genital malformations
In 1999 Plastic waste had outweighed plankton in our oceans 6 to 1, by 2002 the number had risen to 10/1 (3,10,11,16,17). The north pacific gyre alone, has a density of 14.8 million visible pieces of floating plastic per square mile, over an area twice the size of texas (3,11). Thats 1.9 pieces of plastic such as, bottles, bottle caps, lighters, beach palls, plastic packaging or plastic aquariums for every square foot of ocean surface spanning an area of 537,202 square miles (3,11). This is only one of six mid ocean gyre systems polluted to this extent (39). These areas of floating plastic range in size from twice the size of Texas to the size of Africa (3,11).
Plastic appears to have a half life longer than most radioactive compounds (3) with its use being required by the epa as containment packaging for low grade nuclear waist disposal (33,43). Polyethylene has been approved for the long term disposal of liquid radioactive waist (3,40,41,42) ( of course they also approved glass, tar and concrete ). The long chain plastic molecule is so durable that its half life is still being researched.
Plastic virtually never breaks down in the environment beyond the molecular level (3,7,11). We are stuck with every piece of plastic ever created (11). Unless collected and incinerated there is no getting rid of it. Remanufacture is not effective in halting plastics from leaching contaminates into there surroundings. There is little debate over the adverse effects of plastics to the marine environment (ref-all not one dissenting opinion as to plastics harmful effect on the marine ecosystem ), Various forms of marine life, eat so much plastic, mistaking plastic fragments for plankton that it has decimated our ocean communities (10,11,15,16,17,44). Filter feeders unable to distinguish between plastic molecules and plankton, ingest and include millions of tons of plastics into the food chain (3,7,10,11,16,17,32,44), leading to the contamination and eventual starvation of countless organisms (3,10,11,16,17,32,44). 
 
Additional Comments 

The cost of collecting, destroying or remanufacturing Plastic (as most plastic is uneconomical to remanufacture) “must” be endured no mater how high because of plastics highly toxic and enduring nature; were as the recycling of glass can be safely limited to its economic viability with out adverse environmental effects, as long as source point gaseous emissions are controlled. The embodied energy of acrylic is over ten times that of glass, making it both an economically and environmentally unsound alternative (3,5,14,32). The environmental impact of glass is minimal (3,6,32,36,). 



References
1 ) Materials, geometry, and net energy ratio of tubular ...
2 ) http://www.mindfully.org/Berkeley/Be...ce.htm
3 ) www.mindfully.org/Plastic/
4 ) measure of sustainability embodied energy
5 ) http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Bes...le-Plastic.htm
6 ) http://www.lotuslive.org/products/fi...ontainer01.pdf
7 ) http://www.fakeplasticfish.com/synth...ranscript.html
8 ) www.ecologycenter.org
9 ) Metro: Waste reduction fast facts: Glass
10 ) Metro: Waste reduction fast facts: Plastic
11 ) www.acfnewsource.org/environment/
12 ) www.fragmentsfromfloyd.com/ 2007/06/
13 ) NRC: Radioactive Waste
14 ) BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Warning on plastic's toxic threat
15 ) Keeping our ocean clean : Bradley Beach Today
16 ) Untitled Document
17 ) http://www.mountainfilm.org/download...lastic_Sea.pdf
18 ) http://www.visiongroup.co.uk/go.jsp?...oup_uk.compare comparison of glass and plastic
19 )http://www.firsttankguide.net/tanktype.php comparison of glass and acrylic
20 )www.stii.dost.gov.ph/pjsweb/data/decomposer.htm - 7k
21 ) http://archive.greenpeace.org/toxics...abase/bad.html
22 ) http://www.epa.gov/chemfact/f_acrlac.txt
23 ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymethyl_methacrylate
24 ) http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5998554.html
25 ) http://www.npi.gov.au/database/subst...rofiles/6.html
26 ) http://goalgreen.com/2007/06/25/plas...eps-on-giving/
27 ) http://www.chemsoc.org/exemplarchem/...head/facts.htm
28 ) http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resour...s/Plastics.htm
29 ) www.level.org.nz
30 ) www.grisb.org/publications/pub33.htm - 24k -
31 ) http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/publications/
32 ) GLASS vs. PLASTIC
33 ) RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES FOR DUKE UNIVERSITY ...
34)http://www.devicelink.com/mpb/archiv...crylicacid.htm
35 ) Fact Sheets - Glass
36 ) ftp://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-...df/yrr_feb.pdf
37 ) Cullet Preheating: The Realistic Solution for All Glass Furnaces ...
38 ) Professional Environmental Solutions - Atlanta, Georgia
39 ) Patagonia Under Siege: The Plastic Killing Fields - Pacific Ocean ...
40 ) Composition and process for the encapsulation and stabilization of ...
41 ) APPENDIX D - Key Federal Laws and Regulations
42 ) Mixed-Waste Shipping & Transportation | Radiation Protection | US EPA
43 ) Low Level Radioactive Waste Information Page
44 ) DEP: Atlantic Green Sea Turtle Fact Sheet
45 ) Ulrich Reifenhäuser: Plastics and rubber have changed the world ...
46 ) Plastic Debris Washed Ashore
47 ) Bizarre Properties of Glass Revealed | LiveScience
48 ) Canada Likely to Label Plastic Ingredient ‘Toxic’ - New York Times

Additional Resources

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Soto, A.M., Justica, H. Wray, J.W., Sonnenschein, C. p-Nonyl-phenol: an estrogenic xenobiotic released from "modified" polystyrene. Environ. Health Perspect. 92, 167-173 (1991).
 Sonnenschein, C; Soto, AM. An updated review of environmental estrogen and androgen mimics and antagonists. J. Steroid Biochem. & Molec. Biol. 65, 143-150 (1998).
Mato, Y., Isoibe, T., Takada, H., Kanehiro, H., Ohtake, C, Kaminuma, T. Plastic resin pellets as a transport medium for toxic chemicals in the marine environment. Environ. Sci. Technol. 35, 318-324 (2001).
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»
Weeks S. J., Currie B. and A. Bakun (2002). Satellite identification of massive hydrogen sulphide emissions in the southeastern Atlantic Ocean. Nature 415: 493-494.

Myers, R. A, J.K. Baum, T.D. Shepherd, S. P. Powers, C. H. Peterson (2007) Cascading effects of the loss of apex predatory sharks from a coastal ocean, Science 315(5820): 1846-1850.

[mydauphin]

Isn't fiberglass basically plastic, so is epoxy, are they next on the banding band wagon.

[Boston]

Not fiberglass itself, but epoxy yes, but there is a peanut based substitute that is supposed to work just like the dino based stuff. I haven't tried it yet but I'm planing on it.

[tunnels]

Keep the oil in the ground ! dont need plastic dont need cars dont need anything Just get rid of people !!.