[HN Gopher] Technofossils: Humanity's eternal testament will be ...
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Technofossils: Humanity's eternal testament will be plastic bags,
cheap clothes
Author : pseudolus
Score : 35 points
Date : 2025-02-23 18:34 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| jauntywundrkind wrote:
| One (joking) thing I heard long long ago - no idea where - is
| nature was vastly creative & made such a rich world, but there
| was one thing it could create - plastic - and for that it had to
| create humanity. Has stuck with me for a long time. Like plastic
| will.
| yCombLinks wrote:
| George Carlin standup.
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rld0KDcan_w
| analog31 wrote:
| Maybe SETI should be searching for signs of plastic in the
| cosmos. Or misinformation. A message with the first million
| digits of Pi, and _one wrong digit_ would surely be a sign of
| intelligent life.
| JoeAltmaier wrote:
| Toilets. Pottery outlasts everything else.
| AlotOfReading wrote:
| Earthenware and unfired pottery degrade extremely quickly once
| water can get to the actual material. Porcelain can last
| longer, but it's not nearly as durable in the ground as stone
| or even metal. I'd expect granite countertops and metal tools
| to be more commonly found by future archaeologists.
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| I have metal tools that are almost completely eaten by rust.
| No way these will last a few thousand years.
| AlotOfReading wrote:
| Maybe not those specific tools, but I have personal
| experience with finding metal tools that are thousands of
| years old as an archaeologist. Earthenware is a relatively
| uncommon find anywhere that has water because it degrades
| so quickly. It used to be common to build clay paths by
| scattering broken earthenware and letting it degrade
| naturally. Porcelain is more durable chemically, but it's
| too fragile mechanically to survive intact in large pieces
| in most cases. I've only ever found it when buried in situ.
| inglor_cz wrote:
| The ancients didn't have toilet bowls. I guess this sort
| of sanitary porcelain is going to last longer than fine
| 18th century coffee cups.
| codr7 wrote:
| I would suspect those tools are made out of metals of
| very different composition though.
| deadbabe wrote:
| What about engine blocks
| catlifeonmars wrote:
| Hardly eternal. Give it a billion years and all that will be left
| is a slightly more carbon rich layer of dust.
| svilen_dobrev wrote:
| one "ironic" thing is that Styrofoam has longest cycle
| (1My..~never) but is used for most massive once-only usages like
| meat packaging..
|
| While looking at the beach day-by-day, 50% of the trash spit by
| sea is.. wet-wipes.
|
| Edit: ironical -> ironic
| contingencies wrote:
| Yeah, wet wipes are really bad. High volume styrofoam was used
| in appliance manufacturing and distribution but in responsible
| manufacturing chains recently seems to be aggressively replaced
| by cardboard. The other things you see a lot of in Asia are
| blow-molded PET (soft drink bottles), instant noodle
| containers, single use FMCG tear-packs (shampoo, sauces, etc.),
| sushi take-away soy-sauce fish containers, plastic straws and
| polymer fishing nets.
|
| Basically the three industries that count are FMCG/food retail,
| appliances, and fishing.
|
| However, just because you don't see plastic doesn't mean it's
| not there. A lot of the plastic waste gets burned in Asia and
| then pollutes waterways and makes its way to the ocean, largely
| because many countries still lack decent waste infrastructure.
| I imagine it's similar in Africa and South America.
|
| In non-appliance supply chain, a waste reduction strategy that
| seems to be increasing is reusable 'chunks' of styrofoam rather
| than custom molded large pieces. This facilitates reuse
| assuming the volume-in and volume-out of shipment at a site is
| similar (it never is).
|
| FYI _ironic_ is an adjective already in English, you don 't
| need to add the '-al' ( _ironical_ is not a word). Your English
| is better than my Slavic :)
| inglor_cz wrote:
| You mean _Slavical_? :)
|
| Seriously, our worst enemy are probably the articles.
| svilen_dobrev wrote:
| i keep learning new things everyday (well, and forgetting
| others). Thanks :)
| AStonesThrow wrote:
| About 2006 or so, when I hadn't been homeless anymore, my
| parents helped me pick out a Swiffer system so perhaps one
| day I'd clean my own floor or shower
|
| I was lamenting to them how wasteful/expensive were the wet
| pad refills, and Dad goes, "you think you could rinse some
| out and reuse them?" Oh... hmm... what a pragmatic idea
| verisimi wrote:
| My impression is that plastic bags do not last that long. I have
| found old (perhaps 20 years old) plastic bags in sunless lofts,
| and others that had been buried (ie varied conditions) and both
| were very badly degraded. I cannot imagine that these things will
| last billions of years.
| svilen_dobrev wrote:
| Mechanically, most plastics are not that durable. Chemically
| though - once into microscopic sizes.. close to eternal
| userbinator wrote:
| Some were manufactured to be "oxo-degradable" with specific
| additives. I suspect that's what you've found.
|
| I have some plastic bags which are definitely at least 30 years
| old and they're still like new.
|
| Pure polyethylene is very inert and can last many decades.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plastic_(LDPE)_bowl,_by_G...
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(page generated 2025-02-23 23:01 UTC)