Microplastics update, the news is not good

[john61ct]

Let's see if this topic can be discussed without becoming too "political".

So ideally focus on facts & science, try to stick to accepted evidence rather than emotions and attacks. Constructive ideas for solutions are of course going to be political in nature, so maybe best to settle for the default doom & gloom, nothing can be done, so just continue as normal? I dunno.

But bottom line, we now apparently know that previous estimates of ocean microplastics were off by 5 to 7 orders of magnitude.

IOW there are a million times more microplastics in the ocean than we previously thought.

"We successfully developed and tested*a new method for collecting and counting the smallest microplastic pieces in seawater and ingested inside the guts of salps, a planktonic species at the base of food webs and key to transport of carbon and particles from the sea surface to the deep sea. We determined that the true abundance of these tiniest microplastics far outnumber previously reported counts, and that every salp we examined had ingested plastic."

https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley...002/lol2.10127

"Though projects like the Ocean Cleanup nonprofit attempts to*collect larger pieces of plastic from the ocean—before those pieces of trash can break down—there isn’t yet a way to clean up the smallest particles. Until there is, the best answer is to prevent even more plastic garbage from entering the ocean in the first place. 'I think investing at the prevention level right now is the best bang for your buck, and then figuring out the next wave of the technology we’re going to use to take these tiny things out of the ocean,' she says."

https://www.fastcompany.com/90438303...han-we-thought

"If you pulled 1,000 liters (264 gallons) of water out of the ocean, how many small bits of plastic would you expect to find? Ten pieces? One hundred pieces? How about 8.3 million pieces of what researchers call 'mini-microplastic.' Such is the finding of an alarming new study."

https://earther.gizmodo.com/theres-l...n-o-1840175488

[disputin]

I just wonder what that does to a watermaker filter? Does it clog it, damage it?


Sean

[atoll]

i guess that will settle eventually to the bottom of the ocean,and provide the fossil fuels for cave dwelling humanoids to progress and mechanise in another billion years or so

[newhaul]

https://youtu.be/rld0KDcan_w
This says it all just take a look

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by disputin

I just wonder what that does to a watermaker filter? Does it clog it, damage it?


Sean

Pretty much anything that will get through the filter and is a solid won’t bother the membrane.
Now a petro chemical will get one though

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by atoll

i guess that will settle eventually to the bottom of the ocean,and provide the fossil fuels for cave dwelling humanoids to progress and mechanise in another billion years or so

You May laugh, but I’ve been convinced for decades that the day is coming where we will mine our garbage sites for raw material.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by newhaul

https://youtu.be/rld0KDcan_w

This says it all just take a look

Says video unavailable, and I love Carlin too, I was looking forward to that.

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Says video unavailable, and I love Carlin too, I was looking forward to that.

must be your location right now
Try this one .
https://youtu.be/EjmtSkl53h4

Same video just different title

[atoll]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

You May laugh, but I’ve been convinced for decades that the day is coming where we will mine our garbage sites for raw material.

we already do in europe,for precious metals and for the production and collection of methane gas

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

You May laugh, but I’ve been convinced for decades that the day is coming where we will mine our garbage sites for raw material.

here in pierce county Washington they take the methane produced in the landfill and use it to run their micro power plant ( about 2mw in size ) to run the landfill and quarry next to if that the county owns.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

You May laugh, but I’ve been convinced for decades that the day is coming where we will mine our garbage sites for raw material.

I agree. Some dumps are already being tapped for methane. So maybe we should bear this in mind when putting it somewhere. Our descendents may thank us if we "dispose" of the recoverable stuff in a separate, accessible site.


[ok nh beat me to that methane thing]


btw the Carlin video came up for me.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by newhaul

must be your location right now

Try this one .

https://youtu.be/EjmtSkl53h4



Same video just different title

Nope. I bet it’s my IPad though, the link on the joke thread did the same thing

[a64pilot]

I go to the app and search and it works, my theory is the link skips the advertising?
How about this one
https://youtu.be/rld0KDcan_w

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by newhaul

here in pierce county Washington they take the methane produced in the landfill and use it to run their micro power plant ( about 2mw in size ) to run the landfill and quarry next to if that the county owns.

I know about methane, but I envision one day maybe things that we now throw away may become scarce and therefore valuable. Then they will mine the garbage pits for raw materials.
I believe plastic is one of those things.

Just like I believe one day people will be completely astonished that we were so stupid that we burnt the precious resource that oil is.
To them I assume it would be like us thinking about burning cash to stay warm.

[Minggat]

Originally Posted by disputin

I just wonder what that does to a watermaker filter? Does it clog it, damage it?


Sean

It gets sent right back out in the concentrate stream. What is large enough to get captured in the pre-filter, with it's plastic components, gets it's chance to pollute again.... and then some.

Single use plastics is the most discussed. If ever there was a "tip of the iceberg", it would be single use plastics.

But the boats we love and even sometimes the docks we tie up to are made out of plastic.

The keyboard I am typing on and even my durable water bottle and the 20 liter bottle that I filled it from... All plastic. good durable stuff that will someday be no longer useable or needed. All the while new plastic products are being bought up and taken home by happy consumers.

It's a crazy maker.