Report: More plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050. - Polidicks

[QUOTE=Sprockethead;49577379]I hope you don't think that's a good idea.[/QUOTE] It's a Futurama reference. [img]http://1.images.comedycentral.com/images/tve/futurama/season01/futurama_01_0108_act2.jpg[/img]

Fishing for plastic is not feasible as most of the plastic has degraded into tiny beads and chunks. The size of a net filter or mechanical filter you would need would most certainly kill any microorganisms that passed through it. Making your endeavor to clean the oceans a destructive one. Then you would have to implement it on a massive scale. Not to mention the plastic isn't laying conveniently on the surface. It's suspended in the mixing layer which can extend hundreds of meters deep. [url]http://www.deepseanews.com/2013/09/revisiting-the-ocean-cleanup-a-plan-to-remove-plastic-from-the-oceans/[/url] So, you have to find a way to remove micro plastics from a suspension without destroying the plankton that lives among it. And you have to find a way to do it in a matter that is economically scalable. No one is going to buy your stupid overpriced plastic on an industrial level if it costs $5000 per pound because of the insane cost of getting it. Well except hipster green companies. A much better solution is a proactive one. Make products that bio-degrade better. Don't throw away plastic as much, and put these on every urban river and in harbors: [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkQbcrzyAeE[/media]

Very true I was thinking larger pieces but forgot about the micro pieces. Plus getting a buyer would be impossible.

[QUOTE=DeEz;49576698]Dumping garbage in the ocean has to be among the top dumbest ideas ever conceived.[/QUOTE] It's weird to me as someone that has grown up with this being a thing, that at some point in our human history, someone was tasked with finding a solution to where to put our garbage, and they just said "let's dump it in the ocean" and we've just been going with that ever since. You would think at some point somebody would have questioned this tactic but apparently this is just how we do things on Earth lol

Enjoy eating the last of Earth's fish you corporate bastards..After its mixed with LEAD and MERCURY. But seriously, most people probably don't even know just how bad this is. At least they'll get what they deserve...

I have been seperating plastic for a long time and its a shame it won't even matter because everything will be dumped anyways.

Seems like we're fucked at this point. Greenhouse gases melting ice caps, freshwater issue in the future, and then all the fish eating the plastic. We pretty much have to stop everything that we are doing right now, which is not gonna happen. It's pretty scary

[QUOTE=ElderRanger;49577641]From a recycling point of view and legal point of view, you would need to create laws for things that cannot be recycle cannot be made such as plastics that can't be broken down. Secondly things that aren't durable like thin plastic bags that are sold with shopping shouldn't be sold. It encourages not to recycle because the bag isn't durable and doesn't last that long as a result. Example being ALDI they have very useful bags made from cloth or plastic? Either way people buy them and bring them back to reuse them again because they are durable. Rubbish shouldn't be separate bins because people are just lazy that's the truth of things instead it should be send to be sorted, everything would be split into sub lines such as organics, plastics and metals and things that cannot be recycled or need to be cleaned. Organics would need to be broken down and turn into usable material like those packs of mulch. Plastics would need to be reclaimed or turn into something that can easily be reclaimed without issue. Again metals would need to be same.[/QUOTE] Here we had laws for a while that plastic bags were 5c. Didn't change a thing.

This article is bullshit. The author is a SAILOR, not a scientist. And her reports are of the assumption that we increase consumption of plastics by 500% and dump every single ounce of it into the ocean.

[QUOTE=Ridge;49581043]This article is bullshit. The author is a SAILOR, not a scientist. And her reports are of the assumption that we increase consumption of plastics by 500% and dump every single ounce of it into the ocean.[/QUOTE] You mind pointing to the part of the article or report that says this? Because I read the article and I see nothing about increasing the consumption of plastics by 500% (only by 300%) and nothing that implies it requires us to dump all of it into the ocean (although more and more will end up in the ocean overtime)

[QUOTE=SebiWarrior;49577747]I don't know, I honestly believe that if we resort to launching all of our trash in space, there'll be no blue sky anymore[/QUOTE] How? The solar system alone could hold all of the trash ever created by humanity, and still have room to spare. Source: space is fucking big

[QUOTE=OvB;49578122]Fishing for plastic is not feasible as most of the plastic has degraded into tiny beads and chunks. The size of a net filter or mechanical filter you would need would most certainly kill any microorganisms that passed through it. Making your endeavor to clean the oceans a destructive one. Then you would have to implement it on a massive scale. Not to mention the plastic isn't laying conveniently on the surface. It's suspended in the mixing layer which can extend hundreds of meters deep. [url]http://www.deepseanews.com/2013/09/revisiting-the-ocean-cleanup-a-plan-to-remove-plastic-from-the-oceans/[/url] So, you have to find a way to remove micro plastics from a suspension without destroying the plankton that lives among it. And you have to find a way to do it in a matter that is economically scalable. No one is going to buy your stupid overpriced plastic on an industrial level if it costs $5000 per pound because of the insane cost of getting it. Well except hipster green companies. A much better solution is a proactive one. Make products that bio-degrade better. Don't throw away plastic as much, and put these on every urban river and in harbors: [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkQbcrzyAeE[/media][/QUOTE] Develop a bacteria that eats only plastic. I wonder if that's feasible?

[QUOTE=Helix Snake;49581122]You mind pointing to the part of the article or report that says this? Because I read the article and I see nothing about increasing the consumption of plastics by 500% (only by 300%) and nothing that implies it requires us to dump all of it into the ocean (although more and more will end up in the ocean overtime)[/QUOTE] The article doesn't say it, but the math says they propose it's a 500% increase over what we use now (despite the articles saying 50% increase is expected), and 100% of it being dumped in the ocean, while it's currently around 30% (and going down as more countries begin recycling).

[QUOTE=RenegadeCop;49581581]If we sent trash to space, why would we keep it in orbit?[/QUOTE] Because if we send it up suborbital it just lands in another country 90 minutes later. It's gotta stay up there somehow, so putting it into a high orbit is the next option. Hyperbolic exit trajectories would be ideal but they cost a fortune in fuel above and beyond the fortune in fuel necessary to send the shit up there in the first place.

i think we should reclassify dolphins and whales as fish to counter this. it will give us more time to solve this problem.

[QUOTE=TestECull;49582608]Because if we send it up suborbital it just lands in another country 90 minutes later. It's gotta stay up there somehow, so putting it into a high orbit is the next option. Hyperbolic exit trajectories would be ideal but they cost a fortune in fuel above and beyond the fortune in fuel necessary to send the shit up there in the first place.[/QUOTE] I'm not saying puting trash into orbit is a great idea, however if you wanted to cut costs to putting things up into space you would just need to build a orbital tether. A tether would allow you to lift the garbage or cargo into space on a giant lift, on the other end of this tether would be the space station which would obviously be upgraded with bays for cargo and other things needed to launch craft into the solar system.

[QUOTE=The golden;49577817]Working in a grocery store I have come to really see just how unnecessary the plastic packaging craze really is. Absolutely fucking everything is packaged in plastic now, whether or not they actually need it. You know those little Cabury's Creme Eggs? The ones that used to be wrapped in colorful foil? Now they are packaged in little plastic bubble things, as if they fucking needed it. Each one now is individually packaged in a plastic shell which I doubt will ever be recycled. The obsession with plastic goes beyond the realm of reason with fragile items being put inside plastic bags or film when they should be in sturdy boxes. It's fucking stupid and the only way this shit is going to stop is with federal intervention.[/QUOTE] I can't buy cucumbers that aren't wrapped in plastic. [editline]22nd January 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=ForgottenKane;49581657]Develop a bacteria that eats only plastic. I wonder if that's feasible?[/QUOTE] It's not because that would be a good-bye to society as we know it.