On Monday, Mr Johnson suggested too much focus had been put on the benefits of reprocessing toxic substances such as plastic instead of cutting manufacturing of them.
The reason we use plastics is because they are non-toxic. It’s their very inertness that makes them so useful.
He’s using ‘toxic’ in the modern sense of the word.
As in: “Oh no, we sent all our plastic to third world countries to reprocess and they just dumped it all in the ocean!”
Bozo the Clown has a spud like grasp of reality.
Plastic is harmful if eaten by sealife etc although for physical rather than toxic properties.
So the word is wrong but he is sort of right.
However plastic can stop greenhouse gases from being emitted by for example stopping food waste.
The trick is to make sure that it does not then enter the environment the best thing probably would be to burn it to make electricity after use.
David said:
“ the best thing probably would be to burn it to make electricity after use.l
Possibly.
But what seems to me an obvious alternative, which no-one seems to talk about, is to sort it, bury it, and dig it up again when (if) the threatened oil running out means that it becomes economic to recycle it.
Which plastics is he talking about? There are dozens if not hundreds of varieties. He doesn’t know, and doesn’t care about his ignorance.
Easy really. Treat plastic like glass bottles. Send the curry trays back to the manufacturer, spot of Fairy Liquid and a wipe, Bobs yer uncle.
What could possibly go wrong ?
RichardT, the dinosaurs didn’t bother to sort the oil, nor did the tree ferns or whatever sort out the coal.
Just bury it. When the intelligent rats or cockroaches replace us, they’ll dig it up and burn it, just as we would in their place.
the best thing probably would be to burn it to make electricity after use.
I was discussing the plastic ‘problem’ with an office colleague and suggested this (specifically burning polyethene and PET in a pure oxygen environment) as an approach.
They got quite aggressive with me and asked how I could find that acceptable given ‘all the cyanide gas that would be produced’. I gently pointed out the rather crucial lack of nitrogen atoms in this scenario but it made no difference, never does with the true believers.
. . . instead of cutting manufacturing of them.
These twats have no idea how quickly the modern era would fail without plastics. And, as with “bio-fuels”, if we somehow replace plastics with “natural” alternatives there’ll be so much land use that you can kiss goodbye to Orangutans and the rest of yer biodiversity.
Addressing schoolchildren . . .
About his level. His joke about feeding humans to animals sums up how far he’s gone down the green hole.
Bojo grooming children again, is he?
@David
‘ Plastic is harmful if eaten by sealife…’
As opposed to when they eat each other whole, skin, claws, shells, flippers, teeth, etc? and manage to cope with the indigestible parts, usually regurgitated.
Why would a sea creature eat plastic? Plastic floats on the surface, most sea creatures don’t so few come into contact with plastic.
Boganboy said:
“Just bury it”
Indeed. But my suggestion let’s us pretend that we’re doing something about it, that it is preliminary recycling, but at minimal cost.
My preference would be to ignore the eco loons, but given the government we’ve got, something a bit more subtle might work better.
I recall the time before plastic was widely used for food. Paper straws, glass bottles, paper bags, cardboard boxes. Then we had to move to plastic to save the trees, now in the hierarchy of victimhood fish trump trees, so it’s back to paper and cardboard.
Glass bottles are better too because if a child falls on a discarded glass bottle or someone hits you over the head with one, the results are much less serious for ‘The Planet’ than plastic. And bonus, you can greatly increase energy/money costs transporting them due to weight and outward and return journey for re-use, and then cleaning them.
“Glass bottles are better too because if a child falls on a discarded glass bottle or someone hits you over the head with one, the results are much less serious for ‘The Planet’ than plastic“
Funnily enough I have a scar on my wrist from falling and landing on some broken glass from a bottle as a child, could have been nasty I was lucky it wasn’t a couple of mm further over
Don’t forget that, before we had plastic, we could make all kinds of nice things from the shells of turtles.