Plastophobia Is A Serious Disease

Posted: 7/22/2018  Updated: 5/4/2019, 2/17/2019, 12/22/2018

Update Of 5/4/2019

This could be a breakthrough we have been waiting for!

Here is the article: New family of polymers can be easily recycled and even upcycled (published by the Royal Society of Chemistry on 4/29/2019)

Quote (emphasis added): “A team at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, US, has developed a new family of polymers that brings us closer to ... closed-loop, zero-waste plastics. ... they used a family of molecules called polydiketoenamines, held together by dynamic covalent bonds that, while very strong, can be easily broken down using small amounts of acid.”

Update Of 2/17/2019

Just read the abstract of this research article Use of Supercritical Water for the Liquefaction of Polypropylene into Oil (Here is the MIT Technology Review article about it). Human ingenuity is already taking care of this manufactured plastic crisis.

Some salient quotes (emphasis added):

1. “Synopsis: We develop efficient methods to convert polypropylene waste to oils, which can be used as feedstocks for fuels or other chemicals.”
2. “About five billion tons of plastic waste have accumulated in landfills and the natural environment over the past 50 years. Polypropylene (PP) waste accounts for about 23% of the total plastic waste”

Update Of 12/22/2018

Just read this article Mumbai’s Plastic Ban (12/19/2018), which featured under subject “Pollution”: “In June 2018, Mumbai became the largest Indian city to impose a ban on single-use plastics.”

It seems more this ban has less to do with pollution and much more with political incompetence. What do incompetent or inept politicians do when they cannot handle a situation? They reach for simplistic, drastic solutions like prohibition.

Original Post

Same Script Every Time

The pandemic of plastophobia is spreading rapidly in the Western World. This is just the latest of dozens environmental scares and demagogueries I have been subjected to and had to suffer through in my five decades living on planet earth. Again humans are caught up in tremendous irrational folly and superstition. Our elected representatives follow right along passing one stupid measures after the other (e.g. ban on plastic straws, bags etc.)

Previously, it was e.g. smoking; conventional candescent light bulbs; genetically modified organisms; global cooling/warming and many more …

Human Ingenuity & Individual Liberty

When will humans finally have more trust in human ingenuity and their fellow humans to take care of these issues without resorting to irrational, statist, paternalistic measures? It may take another several centuries if history is any guide.

Pleading With The Powers That Be

God have mercy on humans!