4 ms·
> Reason #2: Not filling up landfills with plastic. Nope, instead filling landfills with tiny pieces of chalk that are now too small to write with. Some dry er
by CoryG89 9y ago
> Reason #2: Not filling up landfills with plastic.
Nope, instead filling landfills with tiny pieces of chalk that are now too small to write with. Some dry erase markers can be refilled with ink.
- ams6110 9y agoAre you serious? Chalk is a natural substance. Its presence in a landfill is harmless.
- ucaetano 9y agoBoth of you don't seem to understand how a landfill actually works. Plastic and chalk have the same impact in a landfill.
- bsder 9y agoUm, chalk is weakly water soluble, last time I checked. That's significantly different behavior from plastic in a landfill.
- ucaetano 9y agoAgain, you don't seem to understand how a landfill works. Waste materials aren't expected to decompose in a landfill, they are compacted and then covered (usually daily) to form a solid, stable, ground (that's why they are called "landfill", and not just "a gigantic pile of rubbish"). Neither the chalk nor the plastic will decompose. And that's intentional. So one cubic meter of chalk will have the same impact on a landfill as one cubic meter of plastic.
- bsder 9y agoLandfills are quite far from inert and require active systems to mitigate the result: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leachate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leachate
- ucaetano 9y agoIndeed, but that's undesired; ideally, they should be as inert as possible. The last thing you want is a landfill collapsing after it was covered and transformed into a park. Often, waterproof polymer liners are used to surround the thrash and prevent water from seeping in and out.
- distances 9y agoI'm sure this differs from region to region. I'm from a small town that had one landfill site that was in use since decades, and will likely be the only landfill for the town until it runs out of people. For sure quite a bit more low-tech than any metropolis landfill.
- ucaetano 9y agoA single landfill can have dozens or hundreds of blocks, which are covered and sealed when they become full. So a single landfill can operate for decades while still packing trash into compact blocks.
- mesozoic 9y agoEverything is a natural terrestrial substance.
- yjftsjthsd-h 9y agoI don't think so? Modern plastics have to be created by humans; chalk literally occurs in nature.
- xaedes 9y agoIt [chalk] forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite shells (coccoliths) shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores. [1] Not that much different from anything we produce. When our active time as a species is over all of our leftovers will remain as a natural resource like everything else. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalk
- Retra 9y agoWhat is the harm of plastic?
- adrianN 9y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_pollution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_pollution