'Plastic is literally everywhere': the epidemic attacking Australia's oceans ‘

harryopal

So, as is now becoming increasingly clear, plastic rubbish is not just a Bali problem it is massive and worldwide. As a frequenter of Jimbaran beach I am impressed at the clean up efforts at least at the southern end of the beach where the water is pretty clean and people work at collecting rubbish on a daily basis. I'm not really sure what becomes of the rubbish after it is gathered. Is it just burned to put more sooty, plastic particles into the air? I suppose each region disposes of waste differently. Anyone familiar with how Indonesia is tackling this problem? Here is a link to the latest story from The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/16/plastic-is-literally-everywhere-the-epidemic-attacking-australias-oceans [SIZE=6]'Plastic is literally everywhere': the epidemic attacking Australia's oceans [/SIZE] ‘It never breaks down and goes away,’ say scientists struggling to understand the impact of widespread pollution

JohnnyCool

Hi harryopal, and thanks for The Guardian article. Further to your own comments:

...I'm not really sure what becomes of the rubbish after it is gathered. Is it just burned to put more sooty, plastic particles into the air? I suppose each region disposes of waste differently. Anyone familiar with how Indonesia is tackling this problem?

Great questions. I don’t have any definitive answers. Here in Sanur we pay for garbage removal monthly. I’m not sure where they take it to, presumably to the Suwung garbage dump. Attempts are being made to “beautify” that dump before the IMF/World Bank conference in October, 2018. I think the authorities want to landscape it into a kind of green park, with “amenities”, probably in a cosmetic way so it doesn’t look (and smell) as bad as it does. No idea of what will supposedly happen to the actual garbage dump part. If you really want to know where the rubbish gathered in Jimbaran goes, maybe you should follow the trail and see for yourself. Many years ago I took my young son out on a glass-bottom boat off Sanur Beach. It looked fine from the shore. Once we crossed the reef and looked down below it was shocking. It’s probably even worse nowadays. Plastics began being produced on a massive scale back in the 1940s. In retrospect, it’s easy to see now what the outcomes are worldwide. However, it gets worse. The obvious plastic is, well, obvious. Then there’s micro-plastic (smaller bits, less obvious), and now nano-plastic (not obvious at all, but everywhere). The following 2015 article by Swedish researchers covers it pretty well. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281514096_Nano-plastics_in_the_aquatic_environment :eek:

harryopal

Thanks for that link JohnnyCool. It is difficult to believe that the top echelon of management of petro chemical production are unaware of studies such as those done by the Swedish scientists Mattson, Hansson and Cedervall with their paper Nano Plastics in the Aquatic Environment. Given that it is expected that the petroleum industry is looking at a 40% increase in plastics production in the year ahead I suppose we can only conclude that their minds are so focussed on profit that they don't give a stuff about the future of this sad planet. I imagine that most of us have seen some of the innovative systems trying to clean up the appalling plastics mess but when it comes to nano particles in plankton....? How on earth to deal with that? On that note I am starting a savings fund to buy a ticket on the first interplanetary expedition. I will of course pay extra attention to the passenger list and develop a plan to eliminate any fellow passengers who happen to be from the petro chemical and plastics industries.

JohnnyCool

Yes. [QUOTE]I suppose we can only conclude that their minds are so focussed on profit that they don't give a stuff about the future of this sad planet.[/QUOTE] Two things: 1. You're assuming that they have "minds" in the first place 2. Our planet is not "sad" - it's just waiting to get on with what it's always done. Remove the humans that are screwing things up. Elon Musk is selling one-way tickets to Mars. His Tesla Roadster is already on its way. You missed [I]that[/I] one. Virgin Galactic's another. I think Garuda's working on it, too, or was that Lion Space Air? Or the return of Zamrud (Spaceship bemo in the sky). The Chinese might build a super interplanetary bridge soon and gazump the lot. Have you seen the one joining mainland China to Hong Kong and Macau?