Saturday - July 14, 2007
Land Fills
Some people lack the ability to look
ahead.I was listening to National
Public Radio and some yahoo came on to talk
about plastic. It seems it was the one hundredth anniversary of the
patent for plastic being filed in this country. They were interviewing a man
who specialized in the history of plastic. As newsworthy and interesting
stories go, this one wasn't. They describe the story this way: "Michele Norris
talks with Dr. Jeffrey Meikle, a historian of American plastic, about who Leo
Baekeland was, and how his invention affected the next century's thinking." And
don't forget that you don't pronounce Michele like everyone else would, this is
NPR so a snobbish pronunciation is required, her name is MEE'
shell.But, NPR being NPR, Mee had to
inject political slants somehow or another, and she found a way to put a
negative political spin on plastic for crying out loud. After talking about the
properties of plastic, she insisted that the plastics historian tell us how
horrible plastic is for the environment. Okay, not so bad, until she said that
plastic is as bad as nuclear waste.How
do these morons get on the radio?
Her reasoning goes something like this: Plastic
doesn't decompose (wrong) therefore it stays in landfills forever. Quod erat
demonstrandum, plastic is like nuclear waste.
What, you didn't follow that? Let's
try it again, pay attention this
time.
Plastic is in landfills,
therefore it is as bad as radioactive
material.
Yeah, I don't follow it
either.
Let's look a bit closer at the
problem without the obligatory NRP
slant.
Plastic decomposes more slowly
when not exposed to sunlight. This much is true. But you know what else
doesn't decompose when it's underground in a landfill? Paper. When paper is
tightly compacted, such as in a book form, it's virtually impossible for water
and air to decompose the paper.
Don't
tell Meeshell, she'll start telling us that books are as dangerous as nuclear
waste.
Personally, I'm all in favor
of landfills, especially with paper and plastic in them. Some day, if resources
ever become scarce, someone will make a lot of money mining ancient landfills
for the plastic, metals, and paper contained therein. The cellulose of the
paper can be dumped directly into a paper mill. The plastics can be chopped up
and recooked to make new plastics. Land fills are a future treasure trove of
all kinds of good resources.
Nuclear
waste isn't. It's just radioactive. But don't let basic concepts get in the
way of your publicly financed political agenda, Meeshell.
Go Back to the Start, Do Not Collect $200 Send me your two cents
|
