Originally Posted by
eesakiwi
I was reading a few days ago (Quora.com random post) that the 'island of plastic in the ocean' does not actually exist..
While it's obviously not a 100% reliable fact source... Does anyone have Google Earth coordinates? Or a pic?
I know that plastic does break down & not "Last 10,000 years " I have plastic sacks of firewood, that fall apart at a touch after 3 years of sun.. So I'm dubious of most quotes I read.
Personally, it's plastic. It's a long chain hydrocarbon, made from short chain hydrocarbons ( Oil ).
Simply put it back underground & it turns back into oil in time.
Where I live we were getting regular emergency callouts to 'Sinking boats or planes" due to oil slicks seen on the ocean'. After a run of them, somebody pointed out the " Oil seepage from under the sea bed is a natural occurrence". & somehow Mother Nature takes care of it without our help.
However.. It takes the same energy to make a glass beer bottle, as it does a Aluminium Beer can. Fact.
And, a Aluminium beer can can be recycled 12 times for that same amount of energy it took to make it in the first place.
And the glass bottle gets chucked out, never recycled.
And, you can get money for the empty beer can...
And, my God. Take into account of the extra costs a glass bottle incurs.. 5 seperate materials to make it.
200 grams of glass vs 15 grams Aluminium.
Transport costs, both weight & size. Extra chilling costs. On going costs of punctures in bicycle tyres, car tyres, cuts & accidents, collections, landfill costs.
Vs the immediate savings & ongoing savings of Aluminium cans.
There are some documentaries on youtube about the "island" of trash in the pacific. I'm not going to say it doesn't exist because it seems that it does. People use the word island and that makes everyone picture a mass that you can pull a boat up to and get out and walk on and that's not the case.
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