Stopping plastic pollution at the source..nearly

TinBoats.net

Help Support TinBoats.net:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

richg99

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 27, 2010
Messages
5,105
Reaction score
33
Location
Houston, TX & Crossville, TN
https://brightside.me/wonder-curiosities/good-news-australia-found-a-way-to-save-water-from-plastic-pollution-and-we-can-start-doing-the-same-650510/?utm_source=fb_brightside&utm_medium=fb_organic&utm_campaign=fb_gr_seen_everything&fbclid=IwAR3DPXRzuuxEg0PJdOT1NY_X2Nz3lCEJmqWQKQkAUk229JYlJ2hvpIyDuhk
 
Then you have to clear out the nets all the time. Very labor intensive and can cause flooding.

We have to phase plastic out of modern society.
Ocean dumping regulations needs to be changed and enforced by an international agency.

Every remote island on Earth is covered in trash.
Now there are giant piles of plastic 50 miles across floating around in the ocean.
It is the last Frontier and we had better address these issues as soon as possible.
 
You are correct. Lots of different things have to be done to solve the big overall problem.

In the case of the nets, the article made it sound like the collected refuse could be recycled, perhaps at enough of a "profit" to pay the costs of pulling the refuse from the nets.

As far as flooding, someone will have to be in charge and either dump the nets or remove them when a big storm hits. The nets would still be functioning properly 95% of the time.

Nothing works perfectly under all circumstances.
 
I have seen people use nets and other devices to trap debris in irrigation ditches. The worst flooding is always caused by piles of debris. The plastic that is collected is worth nothing. Recycled materials get sent to Seattle on a truck and then sent to Asia on a container ship. They make stuff and sell it back to us. I am a retired environmental consultant. I do not recycle, because I have to pay for it. Leaving things like aluminum in landfills is handy in case we need it later.

Ocean dumping is legal outside 10 miles in most places. We need to change the laws.
 
I take the time to recycle. In our town there is no additional cost to use the recycle bins, meaning you pay the same fee whether you use the recycle can or not. In fact we get two large recycle bins and two large yard waste bins.

To me, if we wait for the perfect solution then nothing will ever get done.
 
ppine said:
We have to phase plastic out of modern society.

Be careful of what you ask for. What would you replace it with? Just think about what your car or truck would be like today without plastics.

The problem is not plastics, it's us human beings. I've never seen a plastic drink bottle throw itself out of a car window.

Irresponsible people are the problem in my opinion.
 
Plastics are useful materials. Sometimes plastics are the only material that makes sense for the task at hand. However plastics have become the go to material for EVERYTHING because it's cheap. That is the problem. Too much reliance on a material that is difficult and costly to recycle. I applaud the effort with the nets but it will not work in the long run due to maintenance costs. I say fine the ever loving snot out of those who litter and make part of the sentence picking up litter (including businesses). Where I'm at big AG and business is the litter problem. Not so much people going about their everyday lives. It's nothing to see a garbage truck that dumps/hauls dumpsters driving down the road with a unsecured load blowing trash EVERYWHERE just for example. Farmers letting chemical jugs 'fall' off of trucks. Farmers letting seed bags blow all over kingdom come. ETC.
 
There is a huge portion of the population that is recycling and has no idea that it's being burned or land-filled anyway. There is so much recycling material out there that municipalities are having trouble finding buyers for it. That problem will become worse and worse as our population grows and costs to recycle increase. I don't know what the solution is but I'd like to hear it.
 
Jethro, that is so true. I liken a lot of recycling programs to feel good exercises.
 
Platic bags and containers would examples of the types of plastic that we need to get rid of. I am not talking about eliminating them for long term use.

Bottled water would be an example of hype sold for a $1 or more. Bottled water comes from wells, springs and taps. It is not much different than any other water. The containers end up everywhere. It costs more than gasoline.
 
At a recent BS session with fellow fishermen, the topic of plastic bags came up.

I commented that, when I go to the grocery store, I check-out and bag my items myself. The result of ten or 12 items is usually one, or at the most, two plastic bags. When I go through the regular check-out lanes, I go home with 6 or 7 plastic bags.

I understand that the check-out person has been trained to keep various items separate. i.e. open food items don't go in the same bag as laundry soap. Beer always goes in a separate plastic bag. On and on and that is how I wind up with 7 bags.

It seems to this old codger that the stores could SIMPLY ASK.."do you mind if we combine some of the items?". I would still wind up with 3 or 4 bags, because they wouldn't put the same stuff together as would I, but......
Sheesh....that is cutting in half the bags that they send home with me, that either get thrown out or have to go through a recycling process.

Simple solution....and simple to implement...if anyone in a position of power would listen.
richg99
 
I often think that if something is really that bad, then stop allowing it to be used. I don't use them now but if plastic bags disappeared at the market it wouldn't be that big of a deal for me to bring my own reusable bags.

I am going to admit I use a lot of bottled water. I pay about 12 cents/bottle including the recycle add on. I used to save the empties for the recycle redemption. It was kind of like paying for my haircuts I guess. But it became too much of a hassle so I stopped doing that. Now I just toss them in the recycle bin.

Whatever the answer, I am pretty amazed at what our household of two people puts out at the curb every week.
 
I hate the styrofoam cups, containers, plastic bottles etc can't tell you how many I pick up when I wade creeks or fish local rivers. If I wanted to each fishing session could turn into just a litter collection. I usually manage to find a plastic bag that fill with crap. Upon getting home if there is aluminum I throw it in my aluminum scrap. I haul my scrap metal to the local metal scrap/recycler occasionally it pays enough to usually make it worth it. Granted all the metal I get isn't from my cans or crap I pick up I work on cars, tractors, engines etc pretty frequently at home so I end up with old parts that when I accumulate enough I scrap them anyway. So since I make a scrap run every so often I go ahead and throw almost every earthly thing I can into my scrap pile that is metal of some kind. The aluminum/metal from household waste doesn't add up to much, but I scrap it anyways since I make the trip regardless.

We recycle our platic, glass, paper, and cardboard. In the winter a lot of the paper/cardboard I use to start fires since I heat my garage with a wood stove. It's about as if we need to go back to go forward glass and metals are easy to recycle well at least much easier than plastic. So almost seems as if we should go back to more glass containers to make reusing or recycling them easier. Frankly the throw away single use containers should go away. You want a gas station soda have a reusable cup or bottle to fill at the fountain. I'll admit I'm guilty of getting a drink at the gas station in a throw away cup from time to time. But when it comes to bottles I always try and just keep refilling and reusing the same water bottles/thermos's of mine. Plastic bags could go away not that difficult to either have paper or bring your own. At least the paper break downs easily, is easier to recycle or burn than plastic. I'm not saying all plastic should go away it has it's uses for more long term things like car components or other things that have more than a one time use life span. IT's all the plastic crap that tends to not get recycled even when thrown in recycle containers cause there is just so much of it, and there isn't a good easy way to recycle or reuse all of it. Metal is easy people recycle it cause there is some money in scrap. Heck in almost in any city I would bet you don't have to look long to find some guy going around in a old truck grabbing anything metal from dumpsters/garbage or some hobo with a shopping cart picking up whatever he can walk down to the nearest scraper. Heck I do it I keep all my beer/aluminum cans till I make my next scrap run. Heck when I pick up trash when fishing I throw any of the aluminum cans I find into the my aluminum bin when I get home.

I also feel littering should be punished and taken more seriously, nothing irritates me more than seeing throw crap out the window of a car or dumping crap in the nearest no where ditch. The nets are good start to trying to keep crap out of where it shouldn't be, it cost money, but many places already waste tons of money on litter clean up street sweepers, city sanitation workers, etc. It looks like where they put the nets in if they fill too fast during floods the water can just roll over the top of the cement pipe they attach to. Not a perfect solution, but at least it's something. What should be done is for anyone getting a bunch of government assistance or unemployment those people should be made to be apart of road clean up crews to get it. If they don't want to work and make a living and want welfare well make them earn it since they probably haven't paid that much into with taxes.
 
"What should be done is for anyone getting a bunch of government assistance or unemployment those people should be made to be apart of road clean up crews to get it."


You are gonna love this Andy. City of San Francisco is having a significant problem with hypo needles, trash, human feces, etc from the extensive homeless population. It is to the point that I actually advise people not to visit there. Anyway, the city officials, in their infinite wisdom, are considering hiring the homeless at $15/hour to pick up their own trash. $15/hr is SF's current minimum wage. Now here is a plan that really gives offenders a big incentive not to litter.
 
LDUBS said:
"What should be done is for anyone getting a bunch of government assistance or unemployment those people should be made to be apart of road clean up crews to get it."


You are gonna love this Andy. City of San Francisco is having a significant problem with hypo needles, trash, human feces, etc from the extensive homeless population. It is to the point that I actually advise people not to visit there. Anyway, the city officials, in their infinite wisdom, are considering hiring the homeless at $15/hour to pick up their own trash. $15/hr is SF's current minimum wage. Now here is a plan that really gives offenders a big incentive not to litter.

Another reason why I'd never live in Cali, no offense LDUBS. I'd visit there, but I couldn't ever live there. That makes absolutely no since, I could see them saying if you want the free handouts like food, homeless shelter housing, welfare etc that in order to get x amount of it you have to do x amount of prescribed work for it. We really should bring back the chain gang days too have more of the inmates earning their keep in prison so to speak rather than our tax dollars just getting wasted having them sit in prison.
 
Years ago I went to Germany to visit friends working over there. Soon after arriving I borrowed a bicycle to ride to the village to buy groceries for dinner. I had a small collection of stuff that went thru the check-out. After I paid, the lady told me in German "here you go." They did not even have bags in the store. I wrapped the groceries in my jacket and secure them on the bike. I never forgot that.

Plastic is everywhere now that people live. The best way to prevent all of that pollution that hangs around for 50-100 years is not to use it in the first place.
 
ppine said:
Years ago I went to Germany to visit friends working over there. Soon after arriving I borrowed a bicycle to ride to the village to buy groceries for dinner. I had a small collection of stuff that went thru the check-out. After I paid, the lady told me in German "here you go." They did not even have bags in the store. I wrapped the groceries in my jacket and secure them on the bike. I never forgot that.

Plastic is everywhere now that people live. The best way to prevent all of that pollution that hangs around for 50-100 years is not to use it in the first place.

agreed wife and I tend to shop at aldi most the time no bags there. I will admit we are guilty of some plastic wast, but I try to keep it to a minimum of throw away plastic crap, mostly cause I hate seeing and picking it up all the time when I'm fishing and hunting on rivers.
 
handyandy said:
Another reason why I'd never live in Cali, no offense LDUBS.

None taken. We need more folks like you Andy or it will never change. Kind of like that old Joni Mitchell song, except instead of a parking lot we paved paradise and put in a homeless camp.
 
When I was young, mom would come home with the groceries in boxes from the super market. Cardboard is an example of something that is very cost effective to recycle. Plastic bags are not, it's many times cheaper to make them from new material than recycled. But everyone wants a plastic bag because it's way easier to deal with.
 

Latest posts

Top