Read on the news that plastic bag use has halved here in the UK over only twelve months. Since plastic is a by-product of the cracking process in turning oil from goo into gas...where is the plastic going that is no longer being made into carrier bags but certainly produced in the same or similar amounts to twelve months ago?

Chemical geeks will put me right, proof that I'm dumb, hopefully?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49185007

Since plastic is a by-product of the cracking process in turning oil from goo into gas

Plastic is not a by-product at all; it takes several conversions, different catalysts and processes, of various gases to become the plastic resin, and all stages of the process could be used to make things other than plastic. Also, plastic isn't one thing - there are many different types formed with different processes. So the 'plastic' that would have been turned into plastic bags isn't going anywhere; it's just not being made.

Spearthrower wrote:

Since plastic is a by-product of the cracking process in turning oil from goo into gas

Plastic is not a by-product at all; it takes several conversions, different catalysts and processes, of various gases to become the plastic resin, and all stages of the process could be used to make things other than plastic. Also, plastic isn't one thing - there are many different types formed with different processes. So the 'plastic' that would have been turned into plastic bags isn't going anywhere; it's just not being made.

So what you are saying is there are healthier forms of plastic the goo that wont turn to gas can be turned into...rather than the sort used to make plastic bags? Maybe synthetic fabrics...even? To make longer shelf life plastic bags?

aufbahrung wrote:
So what you are saying is there are healthier forms of plastic the goo that wont turn to gas can be turned into...

I think it'd be best to go look up the process because you've got several misconceptions here so it makes your questions borked.

https://plastics.americanchemistry.com/ ... -Are-Made/

There's no 'goo', although given your mention of oil, I assume you mean naphtha (one of the fractions produced via distillation of crude oil), but then naphtha is used for many other things than just plastic. With respect to the process arriving at plastic, that begins with hydrocarbons in gas form. That gas - ethylene - has an awful lot of potential uses aside from plastics (i.e. the polyethylene used in plastic bags), for example, ethylene is used in the agricultural industry to make fruits ripen.

But again, it's not a 'waste product'. A waste product is one where the extraction process of the raw materials towards making the desired product has an additional secondary product which basically 'falls off', for simplicity's sake, during the process. That's not what's happening in the slightest: ethylene is intentionally produced with an involving and energy-demanding process - millions of tonnes of the stuff are made every year - so the answer to the lessening demand of ethylene is to lower production of it, thereby saving a lot of power generation too as well as various other produced chemicals used as catalysts.

aufbahrung wrote:Maybe synthetic fabrics...even? To make longer shelf life plastic bags?

There are already plenty of alternatives to plastic based packaging, they're just not as cheap. We don't need longer shelf-life plastic bags - it's the long shelf life of existing plastics which is the problem caused when they get into the environment - they don't easily break down, and the ways in which they do break down are problematic. Instead, we want to have packaging that lasts just as long as necessary, then breaks down into constituent chemicals that are not toxic to soil, plants or animals.

Grandfather clock. . . the coming war on age.

ughaibu wrote:Grandfather clock. . . the coming war on age.

Kill the first grandfather clock and there is no need to go back in time anymore. Beaker where are you now?

Why not leave the remaining oil in the ground? Make things from paper mache? With all the trees that need planting to put the oil era right?

The thread title had me thinking this was about cheap, or not so cheap, watches made of plastic. Swatches came to mind.

Oil (fossil carbon), and derivatives thereof, is going to be the end of us all unless we can tech our way out. Frankly, I don’t think we will even if we could.

RS

theropod wrote:The thread title had me thinking this was about cheap, or not so cheap, watches made of plastic.

The <topic> watch motif is somewhat beyond tired now, isn't it?

aufbahrung wrote:
Why not leave the remaining oil in the ground? Make things from paper mache? With all the trees that need planting to put the oil era right?

How do you power cities and a technological society with papier-mâché?

Video clip posted describes a PET degrading enzyme called PETase, which according to the wiki article:

... was discovered in 2016 from Ideonella sakaiensis strain 201-F6 bacteria found from sludge samples collected close to a Japanese PET bottle recycling site."

Here's to evolution providing a potential solution.

Imagine if ebola lasted as long as plastic. That would probably bring about some sort of apocalypse or something.

If a plastic degrading organism ever went rogue, things could get interesting.

^ Brings back memories of a TV Sci-Fi episode (I forget the series*) where plastic munching bacteria escaped into a passenger aeroplane in flight.

* Seems it was an episode in Doomwatch. From its wiki:

Doomwatch is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC, which ran between 1970 and 1972.... Paradox Films re-issued the tape of "The Plastic Eaters"...

Quit worrying, we're in the 6th major extinction and there's fuck all we can do about it. Climate's changing, species are disappearing, it's almost like Ma Earth is tired of our ground ape asses shitting all over the place and decided to clean things up. Bit of collateral damage, sure, but in 100,000,000 years sentient insects will be worrying that the plastic mines are tapped out.

Hmm. There is, if memory serves, an Arthur C Clarke short story about time travellers. Near the climax of the story they travel far into the future where they are accosted by what appear to be mechanical beings which turn out to each be controlled by a large ant colony.

laklak wrote:Quit worrying, we're in the 6th major extinction and there's fuck all we can do about it. Climate's changing, species are disappearing, it's almost like Ma Earth is tired of our ground ape asses shitting all over the place and decided to clean things up. Bit of collateral damage, sure, but in 100,000,000 years sentient insects will be worrying that the plastic mines are tapped out.

I, for one, welcome our new sentient insect overlords. I can round up others to toil in their plastic mines.

The word 'colorful' in the article title has a - 'It's got what plants crave!' - ring to it.

It's raining plastic -- that's what a survey of rainfall in Denver and Boulder, Colorado, concluded recently.

The rainfall survey, titled "It is raining plastic," was put together by scientists at the US Department of the Interior and US Geological Survey.

They couldn't see the plastic with their naked eyes, but found it using a binocular microscope fitted with a digital camera.

...

'It is raining plastic': Scientists find colorful microplastic in rain

Saw on FB a few weeks ago, an ad for a new packing system that reduces to almost 0 the space between the content and the package. Very easy to use, self sticking but only after a few seconds, which allows repositionning.. The only problem is that it's made of plastic. While we're all trying to reduce the amount of plastic out there, some are trying to do the opposite.