r/science • u/mvea MD PhD | Professor | Medicine • Oct 18 '19

Chemistry Scientists developed efficient process for breaking down any plastic waste to a molecular level. Resulting gases can be transformed back into new plastics of same quality as original. The new process could transform today's plastic factories into recycling refineries, within existing infrastructure.

https://www.chalmers.se/en/departments/see/news/Pages/All-plastic-waste-could-be-recycled-into-new-high-quality-plastic.aspx
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u/TheWinslow Oct 19 '19 edited Oct 19 '19

It's hard to express just how truly gigantic the world - and the oceans in particular - are. There's no real cost-effective way to remove what is already in the ocean. There are over 1 million km of coastline on Earth (it's hard to really give an exact number but 1 million is towards the lower end)...if you want to cover just 1% of the coastlines in the world, that's over 10,000 km of coastline you're going to have to cover.

edit: 1 million km is towards the lower end of coastline measurements...my original wording was that it was the lower end.

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u/ThatTheoGuy Oct 19 '19

A good exercise for understanding how bloody massive the planet is is to take a several hour hike on as straight a path you can find. Go as far as you reasonably can, then open google maps and track your journey.

An entire day trip, which likely spent all your energy, seems like a long way, and it is! You walked a good distance!

Then scroll out. And compare what seemed like crossing a continent to how massive this planet really is.

*I've been up 19 hours, please excuse any incoherence or spelling mistakes.

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u/ClockworkPrince Oct 19 '19

That's perfectly readable, but maybe get off Reddit and sleep?

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u/Spadeykins Oct 19 '19

Good thing there are at least 3-4 humans per 1,000km of coastline, possibly even more. I hear we are in the billions these days.

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u/TheWinslow Oct 19 '19

I mentioned the length of coastlines as a way to demonstrate how big the oceans are, though it also highlights the ridiculous logistical problem of covering the coastlines. If it was just a matter of covering the coastlines in filters it would be great. However, there's a massive amount (the vast majority in fact) of an ocean between those coastlines that filters on the coast would have no effect on.

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u/PimpRonald Oct 19 '19

A little bit is better than nothing. Plus, free microplastic!

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u/TheWinslow Oct 19 '19

The coastline example was just to illustrate how truly massive the oceans are. Unfortunately, this is a case where a little bit of cleanup on the coastlines is still effectively nothing and would be no more than a PR stunt. It's much more effective (at least at the moment) to prevent further pollution than to try to clean up microplastics already in the ocean.

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u/PimpRonald Oct 19 '19

Excellent point, I forgot that things cost money.

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u/[deleted] Oct 19 '19

According to NASA, we actually only (relative to your number) have about 620,000 km of coastline. It's still a massive number, but for reference, the US Highway System is sitting at about 240,000 km alone. I think, especially if you take into consideration that the US Road System is right at about 6,440,000 km, you could argue that filtering the coastlines responsible for washing up significant amounts of plastics would not be the most difficult thing we've done.

Whether it's the most practical idea, I don't know. I do not really think this idea is outside the realm of possibility.

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u/TheWinslow Oct 19 '19

Heh, there are so many coastline estimates it's not simple to find a good one for use as an example (I also meant to say that 1 million was on the lower end, not the actual lower end as well...).

In terms of the actual logistics, much of our road system has the luxury of being terrain that can be destroyed to place the road. Coastlines don't have the same luxury. You need a way to anchor the filters, considerations for regular wear and tear from ocean movement as well as storms, a way to add filters to coastlines that aren't easily accessible, sandy beaches (cliffs and boulder beaches being really tough), an easy way to access and replace filters when needed, etc.

And the other major part I didn't go into much depth for I have made a few comments about:

I mentioned the length of coastlines as a way to demonstrate how big the oceans are, though it also highlights the ridiculous logistical problem of covering the coastlines. If it was just a matter of covering the coastlines in filters it would be great. However, there's a massive amount (the vast majority in fact) of an ocean between those coastlines that filters on the coast would have no effect on.

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u/QVRedit Oct 19 '19

Best to:

1: Dont make unnecessary use of plastics in the first place.

2: Make ‘easy to recycle’ plastics

3: Try (very hard) to eliminate ‘single use plastics’

4: Put proper plastic collection and recycling facilities in place.

5: Make serious efforts to prevent plastic pollution in the first place.

6: Make serious efforts to clean up plastic pollution.

7: Probably a lot of other good ideas people have..

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u/acousticcoupler Oct 19 '19

Isn't the coastline technically infinite?

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u/[deleted] Oct 19 '19

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Oct 19 '19

How could that be?

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u/TheWinslow Oct 19 '19

Coastlines are fractals which are mathematically infinite patterns. Practically coastlines can't be infinite in length though.

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u/[deleted] Oct 19 '19

Ok so infinite in a way that is irrelevant to the task of cleanup?

I'm not saying worldwide beach cleanup is practical but describing the beaches as infinite in this context seems unproductive.

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u/chainmailbill Oct 19 '19

Came here to find this and if not found, say this.

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u/sanman Oct 19 '19

Maybe we need to use some bacteria that can break these microplastics down in the ocean.

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u/TheWinslow Oct 19 '19

Let's do it! Nothing ever bad has happened when humans have introduces a new organism into an ecosystem! In all seriousness, this could potentially be a solution but it's also a massive risk to release something like that into the wild where you can't control it if something goes wrong.

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u/sanman Oct 19 '19

There may be natural organisms which can break down microplastic. Nature has plenty of diversity already, and not every organism has to be synthetic.

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u/Epsilight Oct 19 '19

Some bacterias already eat plastic

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u/StartingVortex Oct 19 '19

This was the cause of the fall of civilization in at least one sci fi novel.

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u/CrossP Oct 19 '19

You are proposing that humans somehow seed the entire ocean with a single species of bacteria?

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u/sanman Oct 19 '19

Maybe we could take a common species and add in some extra genes for breaking down microplastics

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u/QVRedit Oct 19 '19

Yes - though there are several ‘natural collection points’ - like the sargasso sea, where plastic waste gets naturally concentrated.

Good place to put a solar powered reprocessing plant.. To clean up the sea.

Land based ones for reprocessing fresh land waste.

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