Plastic explosives.......Paper or plastic?

[vc1111]

I use plastic on a daily basis for a variety of purpose. Many of the uses are temporary and arguably trivial in nature. I don't recycle for what I consider a valid reason.

Plastic is an oil byproduct. It has a half-life of a gazillion years. Much of it winds up in large commercial despositores, many of them in Ohio and elsewhere. Ohio has long ago sold out and opened the doors for humongous dumps, and created such targets for the "Superfunds" which are targeted to clean up disastrously polluted areas such as the infamous Deerfield Dump in Ohio.

If you can stand back and look at it all as a whole, you'll see that we are not all that different than those that came before us...those that pretty much ruined our streams and rivers for decades and decades to come, if not centuries and centuries to come. Want proof? Ohio's been known to have rivers catch fire in my lifetime. Think about that. A look at a map of certain Great Lakes, including one of God's greatests gifts to this planet, Lake Erie, reveals that even today we have no qualms about dumping medical waste into the water.

There will be a price to pay for that styrofoam enclosed cup of coffee you drink every morning and that plastic gallon of milk which no longer comes in a reusable glass container.

No one is innocent.

[Briman]

Today's landfills = tomorows natural resource treasure troves.

[burniegoeasily]

Many many years from now, archaeologist will find our land fills and be dumbfounded to explain their findings.

[vc1111]

Many many years from now, archaeologist will find our land fills and be dumbfounded to explain their findings.

About 20 miles from me there's a landfill that started out as a deep hole. Eventually they've filled it and now its a small mountain. They follow pretty strict guidlelines but its still an eyesore when you drive past. There are so many places in the desert that no one gets close to. Probably impractical to truck it all that far.

In areas around Pittsburgh, they've got mountains of "fly ash" from the mills. In the last 10 years they've builts malls and strip plazas on top of them. Believe it or not they've turned a negative in to a very postivie thing.

[Coastie]

ORIGINAL: vc1111

About 20 miles from me there's a landfill that started out as a deep hole. Eventually they've filled it and now its a small mountain. They follow pretty strict guidlelines but its still an eyesore when you drive past. There are so many places in the desert that no one gets close to. Probably impractical to truck it all that far.

In areas around Pittsburgh, they've got mountains of "fly ash" from the mills. In the last 10 years they've builts malls and strip plazas on top of them. Believe it or not they've turned a negative in to a very postivie thing.

There is a possible solution, at least for the short term, called the Plasma furnace. I'm not as well educated on them as I'd like to be, but they appear to be feasible. Most communities, however, don't want to be the guinea pig in the process and resist all attempts to get one installed. These furnaces are electric powered and reduce nearly anything to a minor fraction of their original bulk. The byproduct is safe to use for building materials or other uses so doesn't have to be buried anywhere. The local landfill folkswanted to install one a few years ago andwere all but tarred, feathered and ridden out of town on a rail just for suggesting such a thing. People were afraid of the new technology and afraid that if it was a success, it would cause neighboring areas to beat a much wider path to the doorsteps of this county than they were willing to accept.

[bawanajim]

PA. is another state that has sold its soul to the landfill dollar.We import more than any other state,thats something to be proud of.
Its hard to believe that with the shear tons of waste we produce per day that we believe putting it out of sight is a good option.
One of the biggest reasons for the outsourcing of American jobs is China does not have an EPA, pollution in third world countries is destroying sources of drinking water at alarming rates.

But think of all the money you saved at Wal Mart!!!!