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This is likely a dumb outsider viewpoint but: is just burying plastics all that bad? The fact that they stay intact over geologic timescales would seem to make

This is likely a dumb outsider viewpoint but: is just burying plastics all that bad? The fact that they stay intact over geologic timescales would seem to make them an ideal carbon sink, which is something we could actually use more of - provided that feedstocks can come out of the carbon cycle (e.g. agricultural) rather than relying on petrochemicals.

throwmtlsPhD 6y ago
I like your comment and the honest answer is I don’t know, but I see no problems with dumping plastic on the ground, vs in the ocean. But some observations on your comment. Is plastic, that was never in the atmosphere (for millions of years anyway), really a carbon sink? It seems that trough its entire lifecycle it never goes into the atmosphere. Also, if you burn plastic you’re displacing oil that wouldn’t otherwise be burned. Oil that is never extracted. And don’t forget that it takes a lot of energy to extract oil, so burning plastic reduces CO2 emissions globally somewhat. Also, I’m skeptical about the practicality of using landfills to create geological treasures for mankind 100k years from now. The problem with it is that I feel that it is wishful thinking that placates our conscience. It’s easy to imagine yourself living “sustainably” in geological time scales. It’s hard to live sustainably in 1000 year timescales.
- lupire 6y ago
  The problem with burying plastic is that there's no room to do that locally, so you have to send it somewhere. Burning is the only thing that makes sense, and that's OK if thebtotalt amount is "not too much", where current fossil fuel usage is "too much".
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
WheelsAtLarge 6y ago
Waste plastic has a negative value, right now. I think that burying it is even more expensive than to just dump it where ever it's possible, in some places. It may not be legal but as always if people can make a buck then they will. Laws or no laws. It turns out that a lot of the plastic in the ocean is there because there are countries where people are just dumping trash in the ocean. It can be less expensive than transporting it to a dump and dealing with it there. The answer has to include making waste plastic have enough value so that people find it advantageous to recycle it or at least to bury it.
HDMI_Cable 6y ago
Plus, burying plastic will create jobs for archaeologists in a few hundred years.

throwmtlsPhD 6y ago

I like your comment and the honest answer is I don’t know, but I see no problems with dumping plastic on the ground, vs in the ocean. But some observations on your comment. Is plastic, that was never in the atmosphere (for millions of years anyway), really a carbon sink? It seems that trough its entire lifecycle it never goes into the atmosphere. Also, if you burn plastic you’re displacing oil that wouldn’t otherwise be burned. Oil that is never extracted. And don’t forget that it takes a lot of energy to extract oil, so burning plastic reduces CO2 emissions globally somewhat. Also, I’m skeptical about the practicality of using landfills to create geological treasures for mankind 100k years from now. The problem with it is that I feel that it is wishful thinking that placates our conscience. It’s easy to imagine yourself living “sustainably” in geological time scales. It’s hard to live sustainably in 1000 year timescales.

lupire 6y ago
The problem with burying plastic is that there's no room to do that locally, so you have to send it somewhere. Burning is the only thing that makes sense, and that's OK if thebtotalt amount is "not too much", where current fossil fuel usage is "too much".
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

WheelsAtLarge 6y ago

Waste plastic has a negative value, right now. I think that burying it is even more expensive than to just dump it where ever it's possible, in some places. It may not be legal but as always if people can make a buck then they will. Laws or no laws. It turns out that a lot of the plastic in the ocean is there because there are countries where people are just dumping trash in the ocean. It can be less expensive than transporting it to a dump and dealing with it there. The answer has to include making waste plastic have enough value so that people find it advantageous to recycle it or at least to bury it.

HDMI_Cable 6y ago

Plus, burying plastic will create jobs for archaeologists in a few hundred years.