Comments on: What Happens to All That Plastic?

By: Adrien

Adrien — Sat, 11 May 2013 01:11:27 +0000

I think that anything that keeps waste out of landfill is a blessing!
We are in the construction industry, and are faced with waste everyday. We take great pride in re purposing whatever we can.
This is a great article, thank you!

By: Brittany Heisenheffer

Brittany Heisenheffer — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 02:20:10 +0000

Love this article. Great reality check for everyone.

By: Mikel

Mikel — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 17:31:09 +0000

Great research and article. Glad to see you cover this topic. More people need to keep in mind the plastic waste they create once its ‘out of sight’.

By: Tim Dunn

Tim Dunn — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 08:38:40 +0000

And what of the energy and CO2 costs of transporting plastic, which is more or less evenly distributed everywhere people are? I can’t think of any fuel that has to gathered in small increments from almost everywhere and taken to these plants. There was a huge study in Germany that was published last year, that looked at all of these issues, and they found that virgin plastic bags were superior to bioplastic and recycled plastic bags, in terms of environmental impact. With a little of an additive, plastic could be made biodegradable in landfills – which would provide methane. 2/3 of all garbage in the US goes into landfills which are tapped for methane, and enough methane is harvested to run tens of millions of automobiles, in the US alone.

By: WFSU In the Grass, On the Reef

WFSU In the Grass, On the Reef — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 17:14:17 +0000

[...] and in the ocean. There is no definitive number on how much plastic is floating in the ocean. The State of the Planet blog from Earth Institute at Columbia University puts the number in the hundreds of million of tons, [...]

By: Michael Rabb Newton

Michael Rabb Newton — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 10:15:09 +0000

We wants to dedicated ourselves to creating safe alternatives to plastic products. BPA-free and biodegradable plastics can only address some of the concern — and it’s far from a big-picture solution. Glass, stainless steel, bamboo, and other materials are just as effective and don’t have any of plastics’ inherent dangers. By selecting these alternatives, you’re making healthier choices for your family and our planet.

By: A Little Greener | Expats Post

A Little Greener | Expats Post — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 19:24:33 +0000

[...] it. Plastic takes one thousand years to bio-degrade in the landfill and out of the 33.6 million plastics a year that are discarded only 6.5 % get recycled. Step three: Start a petition asking my local [...]

By: Peter Hunt

Peter Hunt — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 07:38:43 +0000

Plastic can be recycled into diesel. It can be used to produce oil. It can be used to construct roads. Plastic is poison for our environment. It cannot be degraded by environment in natural way that’s by recycling the only way to get rid of it.

By: Gertrude Jones, The Southern Company

Gertrude Jones, The Southern Company — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 19:51:12 +0000

We are so used to taking and using plastic for granted without thinking of the detrimental effects that it has on society and the environment. It’s great to see that we have found ways to reduce pollution and reuse plastics. We know the many benefits of recycling something old to make something new, so we encourage the idea of reusing and recycling, instead of replacing.

By: Trex

Trex — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:44:42 +0000

Wow, thats really cool. Talk about reusing recycling a product. Im sure there are a number of cost efficient ways to reclaim the plastic, and turn it [reused plastic] into anything you want. I think that subsidies from the government that help these types of programs just end up hurting the program in the end. The subsidies keep the costs high. Thats what i think.