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I suppose we'll start giving everyone free biohazard bins when there's no place to store them, and handle them specially too. No, that's not going to happen. B

I suppose we'll start giving everyone free biohazard bins when there's no place to store them, and handle them specially too. No, that's not going to happen. Biohazard disposal is expensive even for hospitals, and applying that to everyone... ruinous.

dasv 5y ago
Eliminating the middle step could be an option, then: isn't biowaste incinerated after collection? Just tell people to set fire to their discarded masks, many people are carrying hydroalcoholic gel which is quite a convenient accelerant. Half kidding.
peterburkimsher 5y ago
Not going to happen? It can easily happen at every bus stop. Will it be perfect? Of course not perfect. But better than nothing. Reduce the entropy a little, and then it'll be easier to handle. Handle them specially? I handled 122 masks in the car parks of Botany Town Centre, east Auckland, with bare hands yesterday, gathering them into a rubbish bag. Today I saw 180 COVID concentrator masks, and was able to pick up 136 of them (for the other 44 masks, I was on a bus or in a car and couldn't stop to get down) Putting masks into regular bins (e.g. landfill) will delay the feedback loop by 100 years. That's good enough for now, so that's my recommendation for those who don't have access to mask recycling. However, I do have access to mask recycling. My usual work is automated software testing and language translations for embedded systems, specifically the Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Airvo device. I've come to believe that we need to run an anti-virus algorithm on the world, and it's more efficient with a real-time distributed model, where we all love our neighbour by cleaning up what we see. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antivirus_software#Real-time_protection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antivirus_software#Real-time_p... Also, I'm triple-vaccinated (2x Pfizer + booster), am a young man with no family and a psychological martyrdom complex. I'll take the risk. And wash my hands thoroughly for 20 seconds afterwards. And shower when I get home. Be a tidy Kiwi. Clean as you go. Always leave the code (and world) better than you found it. (Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob)) https://github.com/dwmkerr/hacker-laws#the-scout-rule https://github.com/dwmkerr/hacker-laws#the-scout-rule
- Fnoord 5y ago
  Thank you for your service. I don't want to do it though. Cause I don't want to touch a used mask with bare hands (I got gloves with me, but these are against cold weather specifically). However, with a grapple device and bag (the bag being the easy part) it could be reasonably easy and clean to take care of them. I got one, but I'm not carrying it around to e.g. work or family (that's when I usually see a mask). When I go with my child to the playground, and I'd see one, I could go home to get the grapple. However, I don't remember that occurring. There's quite some firework plastic still lingering around, so I could clean that up before I go with my child to the playground (mainly, to clean the playground). Btw, I want to comment on the amount you found. 122, 180. That's a lot. How much time did it take you? Cause I only see a mask occasionally (but it annoys me).
  - peterburkimsher 5y ago
    Thank you for your honesty! "I don't want to do it" is at least admitting personal responsibility. Your responsibility to protect your (presumably unvaccinated) child is also a rational decision. Young people are particularly good at seeing things on the ground and picking them up, but are also unlikely to wash hands before touching their faces. Therefore I'm specifically calling for young men who don't love their own lives (depressed computer nerds like me) to serve the greater good. I haven't yet logged detailed times (only started counting yesterday, before that was just picking these up as regular litter on my commute). But here's a few from today's log. 32 total between Gossamer Dr and Pakuranga bus stop ~11:45 - 12:40, of which 9 on road (usually a 15 minute bike ride, was more like 25 minutes that time due to stopping regularly, then a walk through the car park) 16 masks Shore Care/Smales Farm has infectious substances bin from 18:45 to 19:30 4 masks Pakuranga plaza (1 countdown, 3 warehouse) 20:40-21:05
    - peterburkimsher 5y ago
      Thank you for your interest, I've now stayed up until 5:20 am making more detailed logs in a spreadsheet. Heading rows: Mask count, Centre GPS coordinates, Radius (km), Start date and time, End date and time, Comments https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ap2lpLXWzK1WcdsasP8cEGn7Bhqig3OlPH9njqh4KYs/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ap2lpLXWzK1WcdsasP8c... Apologies if there's less data tomorrow, I'm not sure what time I'll wake up. But I really wish I could get to Sylvia Park and some other malls and gather some more data points. Please can an expert in data visualisation draw a heatmap?

dasv 5y ago

Eliminating the middle step could be an option, then: isn't biowaste incinerated after collection? Just tell people to set fire to their discarded masks, many people are carrying hydroalcoholic gel which is quite a convenient accelerant. Half kidding.

peterburkimsher 5y ago

Not going to happen? It can easily happen at every bus stop. Will it be perfect? Of course not perfect. But better than nothing. Reduce the entropy a little, and then it'll be easier to handle. Handle them specially? I handled 122 masks in the car parks of Botany Town Centre, east Auckland, with bare hands yesterday, gathering them into a rubbish bag. Today I saw 180 COVID concentrator masks, and was able to pick up 136 of them (for the other 44 masks, I was on a bus or in a car and couldn't stop to get down) Putting masks into regular bins (e.g. landfill) will delay the feedback loop by 100 years. That's good enough for now, so that's my recommendation for those who don't have access to mask recycling. However, I do have access to mask recycling. My usual work is automated software testing and language translations for embedded systems, specifically the Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Airvo device. I've come to believe that we need to run an anti-virus algorithm on the world, and it's more efficient with a real-time distributed model, where we all love our neighbour by cleaning up what we see. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antivirus_software#Real-time_protection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antivirus_software#Real-time_p... Also, I'm triple-vaccinated (2x Pfizer + booster), am a young man with no family and a psychological martyrdom complex. I'll take the risk. And wash my hands thoroughly for 20 seconds afterwards. And shower when I get home. Be a tidy Kiwi. Clean as you go. Always leave the code (and world) better than you found it. (Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob)) https://github.com/dwmkerr/hacker-laws#the-scout-rule https://github.com/dwmkerr/hacker-laws#the-scout-rule

Fnoord 5y ago
Thank you for your service. I don't want to do it though. Cause I don't want to touch a used mask with bare hands (I got gloves with me, but these are against cold weather specifically). However, with a grapple device and bag (the bag being the easy part) it could be reasonably easy and clean to take care of them. I got one, but I'm not carrying it around to e.g. work or family (that's when I usually see a mask). When I go with my child to the playground, and I'd see one, I could go home to get the grapple. However, I don't remember that occurring. There's quite some firework plastic still lingering around, so I could clean that up before I go with my child to the playground (mainly, to clean the playground). Btw, I want to comment on the amount you found. 122, 180. That's a lot. How much time did it take you? Cause I only see a mask occasionally (but it annoys me).
- peterburkimsher 5y ago
  Thank you for your honesty! "I don't want to do it" is at least admitting personal responsibility. Your responsibility to protect your (presumably unvaccinated) child is also a rational decision. Young people are particularly good at seeing things on the ground and picking them up, but are also unlikely to wash hands before touching their faces. Therefore I'm specifically calling for young men who don't love their own lives (depressed computer nerds like me) to serve the greater good. I haven't yet logged detailed times (only started counting yesterday, before that was just picking these up as regular litter on my commute). But here's a few from today's log. 32 total between Gossamer Dr and Pakuranga bus stop ~11:45 - 12:40, of which 9 on road (usually a 15 minute bike ride, was more like 25 minutes that time due to stopping regularly, then a walk through the car park) 16 masks Shore Care/Smales Farm has infectious substances bin from 18:45 to 19:30 4 masks Pakuranga plaza (1 countdown, 3 warehouse) 20:40-21:05
  - peterburkimsher 5y ago
    Thank you for your interest, I've now stayed up until 5:20 am making more detailed logs in a spreadsheet. Heading rows: Mask count, Centre GPS coordinates, Radius (km), Start date and time, End date and time, Comments https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ap2lpLXWzK1WcdsasP8cEGn7Bhqig3OlPH9njqh4KYs/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ap2lpLXWzK1WcdsasP8c... Apologies if there's less data tomorrow, I'm not sure what time I'll wake up. But I really wish I could get to Sylvia Park and some other malls and gather some more data points. Please can an expert in data visualisation draw a heatmap?