[HN Gopher] Seaweed could be the future of plastic [video]
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Seaweed could be the future of plastic [video]
Author : simonebrunozzi
Score : 30 points
Date : 2022-08-31 11:07 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| encryptluks2 wrote:
| I keep hoping they'll find a way to break down plastics. Having a
| cost effective plant-based alternative that degrades quicker is
| great as long as the process in creating it isn't equally as
| damaging to the environment, but that still leaves a lot of
| petroleum-baeed plastic.
| rjsw wrote:
| If we stop burning oil then it will last longer as feedstock for
| chemical processes.
| photochemsyn wrote:
| A little looking around points to global plastic production being
| near 370 million tons. By comparison, global seaweed production
| is near 10 million tons, wet. Trying to expand seaweed
| aquaculture 37X is not very likely, and would have many negative
| ecological effects. Existing seaweed production is already in
| high demand, and cheap plastics are not a likely endpoint.
|
| Basically, the biosphere is not capable of replacing fossil fuels
| on the scale they're currently used. Corn ethanol can't replace
| gasoline, soy oil biofuel can't replace diesel, seaweed plastic
| can't replace natural gas petrochemical plastic. There's just not
| enough to go around, and the costs - in area, in fertilizer, in
| processing energy - are just too high.
|
| There is a solution, it's industrial-scale renewable-powered
| direct-air-capture-and-reduction of atmospheric CO2, plus water,
| to hydrocarbons from methane to jet fuel (including the plastic
| precursors). It doesn't require arable land - a desert wasteland
| bordering an ocean would be a perfect location.
| avmich wrote:
| > to hydrocarbons from methane to jet fuel
|
| It's rather backwards to pull CO2 from air - with all energy
| required - just to make it the jet fuel. Instead, stop running
| jets - except very exceptional, or some hydrogen-based, move to
| propellers - most jets are subsonic anyway, and move from
| regular plastics to biodegradable ones.
|
| This article is about the latter. 37X looks surely tiny
| comparing to how much we need to scale CO2 atmosphere
| scrubbing...
| r00fus wrote:
| Doing the former establishes a cost for doing the latter
| which can be used to shift the market by appropriate
| taxation.
|
| Of course, we should stop subsidizing big oil to the tune of
| hundreds of billions first.
| mythrwy wrote:
| I don't, the ocean is a big place and we haven't seriously
| started to farm it anywhere near it's full potential yet (bet
| we do before long though).
|
| Now granted many areas won't be suitable for seaweed
| cultivation, but if the demand is there, humans can get really
| innovative. The thing is, we don't make plastic out of seaweed
| yet and likely won't until we have to, and maybe never at all.
|
| I do like your other idea better though if feasible. Save the
| ocean farming for food.
| slothtrop wrote:
| I've noticed that packaging for consumer goods accounts for a
| sizable portion of waste. This is something that could be
| curtailed even without innovation taken into account. Some sort
| of policy decision will be necessary as it will not suffice to
| deflect responsibility to consumers, especially when that
| demographic is only growing in the West. We can't outpace
| growth with shaming.
| hahaitsfunny wrote:
| smm11 wrote:
| So we fill the oceans with plastic, then remove the seaweed to
| replace plastic?
| heurisko wrote:
| Climate and plastic pollution are the problems of our time.
|
| I see progress made towards number 1, no progress towards number
| 2.
| knodi123 wrote:
| I see 1 as an existential threat that can crumble nations, wipe
| out ecosystems, and kill billions of humans. I see 2 as
| something troubling that may have small negative effects on
| humans, and may have bad-but-not-catastrophic effects on
| certain species of fish.
|
| So by all means, let's keep working on 2, in our free time,
| while we focus on 1. (metaphorically - I understand lots of
| people can work on lots of different things)
| czam wrote:
| I recently learned that open burning of plastic waste
| produces lots of soot that might have a non-negligible effect
| on capturing heat from sunlight. So there's some causality
| between plastic waste and global warming.
| hahaitsfunny wrote:
| marliechiller wrote:
| Beyond environmental damage, plastic is hypothesized to be
| one of the main drivers behind the drastically decreasing
| sperm counts in human males. I think we are only just
| uncovering the tip of the iceberg for the damage that plastic
| can do with respect to hormone disruption in the human body
|
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7967748/
| avmich wrote:
| > I see 1 as an existential threat that can crumble nations
|
| Agree, yet consider this. During early COVID-19 crisis Earth
| civilization spent some many billions - I think above some
| trillions actually - USD equivalent fighting this rather
| little-known problem. Spending this kind of money on climate
| crisis can substantially improve things.
|
| > I see 2 as something troubling
|
| Plastic pollution is somewhat similar to early COVID-19 - we
| don't know long-term effects from this type of poisoning of
| our environment, so I'd err on the side of caution. It's not
| a good idea to keep microplastics in human organs - we just
| don't know how it could turn out to be, and we have reasons
| to suspect that our bodies, not evolved alongside the
| plastics, don't appreciate that.
| hahaitsfunny wrote:
| pedalpete wrote:
| Along with Uluu making seaweed plastics, Australian startup
| https://greatwrap.co/ is making cling wrap from potato wastes.
|
| I've been using it for a few weeks. It's surprisingly sticky.
| Almost too sticky at this point. It isn't only for home use, but
| also for wrapping pallets, with it's being stronger and stickier
| than average saran wrap, this is probably a better use case.
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