Posted on 02/15/2024 2:21:22 PM PST by ChicagoConservative27
Willie Soon reports that “fossil fuels” have been found beyond earth.
I vote for the abiotic origins of so-called fossil fuels. In any case, we are not running out. We probably never will run out. The first credible signal that supplies are becoming scarce will be rising prices (in the absence of government action).
Looks like it’s sunny there.
Gross!
I work for a plastic film/bag mfg and polyethylene is used almost exclusively. Every bit of scrap and any grocery bags we bring in are ground up, melted down and molded into the proper size resin pellets to feed into the extruders for making new film.
All they can make from that scrap is film/bags that vary in color. They mostly make thick 55 gallon trash bags that will fit in a 55 gallon drum and wrap over the top edge. There’s one customer that will buy off colored film as long as it’s not red.
To say the process has a small carbon footprint would be a lie. It takes a set of very large machines that use a ton of electricity to recycle that plastic. The ONLY reason it’s viable is because there’s no transportation involved.
Iconic blue Walmart vests get ‘upgrade’ with new fabric made from recycled bottles
Actually there is, but it's not dinosaurs...it's plankton.
The Great Plains of the Midwest were once ancient seabeds. You can occasionally find seashells in the sand out there. When oil geologists discover the "fossils" of diatoms...plankton...in their drilling, they can be hopeful they are on the right track.
Of course much oil also comes from the ocean floor where the dead plankton and other sea-life slime accumulates and rots under tons of pressure.
Plastic burns. Use it for power station or gasification to power.
The ragpicker bourgeoisie.
It’s time we start using plasma arc gasification to process our solid waste. The fuel derived from the process could be used to power generators to provide the power necessary to gasify the waste plastics and orgainic material into usable fuel. It’s not going to be cheaper than drilling for oil, but it is likely cheaper than recycling by other means, which usually means separating, transporting, sanitizing and then maybe getting some useful material out of the process. Gasify it and extract the fuel and put the slag produced in a landfill. Who knows someone might find a use for the waste slag.
Saturn’s moon, Titan, has WAY more methane than the Earth…and I’m pretty certain that dinosaurs didn’t live there. It is produced by natural planetary mechanisms.
Oh, BTW, methane is a greenhouse gas - and Titan is a frozen wasteland that is colder than the coldest Arctic night in Winter. So much for greenhouse gases warming the planet - that’s BS as much as fossil fuels and recycling plastic. All that environmentalism is, is another way to control people and lighten their wallets, IOW a giant scam.
“What happens when the “gubbermint” gets involved in anything?”
———-
Well, according to the great philosopher, Ringo Starr, “Everything the government touches turns to shit.” So, large increases in fecal matter - much of which comes out of the mouths of anyone running for or holding a political office.
Many paper products can be composted and ultimately turned into soil when combined with a “green” (a nitrogen-containing product, such as freshly cut grass and coffee grounds). Way cheaper than buying soil, and way better for the environment and your health.
“but they can still be turned in asphalt.”
Isn’t plastic also turned into the so-called composite deck boards?
And those plastic deck chairs that everybody has.
“MY DESK PHONE IS WHITE—SO IS MY BEDROOM PHONE & MY LIVING ROOM PHONE.”
———— WAAAAAACIST!
I worked for a plastics factory one summer back in the early 80s. They made things like milk crates, chicken coops, and lots of small parts. Every once in a while, a train would come in with boxcars full of old milk crates and chicken coops. We took them out and fed them into a grinder, and nobody cared what color, on average, was produced. It was explained to me that the stuff was melted down once it was chipped into very small shards, and reused to make more crates. I suppose that if they wanted the end product to be closer to a certain color, they added dye to it.
By the way, there is nothing stinkier than a train full of used chicken coops in 100+ degree temperatures, along with their waste products and the occasional chicken leg. Suffice it to say that I am glad that that was only a summer job.
“...people started separating colored and clear glass, paper, plastic. then after the pickup. It was found that all the separated material was dumped together and buried.”
We had separate bins for white paper, newspaper, colored paper, glass bottles, recyclable plastic, organic compostables / yard waste, and plain old garbage. Hauling all those tubs (not on wheels) out to the curb was a HUGE PITA. Then, after ten or 15 years, it suddenly stopped as fast as it had started. I think everybody realized that hauling all that stuff to third world countries for sorting was hugely expensive and a lot of them were sending it to the dump anyway.
Now there are three bins on wheels - mixed recycling (everything), yard waste / organics, and garbage. We are able to get away with the smallest garbage bin because the two recycle bins are HUGE.
Ouch! What a rotten way to spend Christmas. I know exactly the plastic you are talking about — the stuff that becomes knife-sharp, is slippery as all get-out, and not even Superman can tear the stuff open. If you grab a knife, you find it hard to cut it open and not damage the product inside. Scissors are difficult to use on the darn stuff.
Companies that use that plastic should have a special place in hell.
“people would be bidding for my (unsorted and unwashed) garbage.”
More likely, they’d be stealing it from your curb. We occasionally DID get thieves taking glass bottles and aluminum cans, but haven’t seen those thieves in a long time. They probably all got promoted to “Porch Pirate First Class.”
“less food waste there was due to the better packaging”
Interesting, but I’m having trouble thinking how that would be.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.