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(reposted comment) I’ve got a bee in my bonnet about “plastic roads”. Many countries, desperate to make use of the gargantuan flow of waste plastic, and desper
by andrewstuart 4y ago
(reposted comment)
I’ve got a bee in my bonnet about “plastic roads”.
Many countries, desperate to make use of the gargantuan flow of waste plastic, and desperate to avoid it going into landfill, are putting the waste plastic into roads.
This is called “recycling”.
Sounds like a great idea until you realize that cars and trucks drive on the roads and grind them into dust - dust containing microplastics.
The microplastic dust will go into air, waterways, rivers, oceans, food, plants animals and people.
All this is because the environmentalists have decided that “keeping plastics out of landfill” is more important than anything.
Plastic roads are an environmental disaster in an epic scale being created in the name of “recycling”.
The worst thing is that for some reason it’s not obvious that this is a disastrous idea, and all around the world people are breathlessly talking up plastic roads like its a solution to the plastic waste problem.
“In 2015, the Indian government made it mandatory for plastic waste to be used in constructing roads near large cities of more than 500,000 people”
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210302-could-plastic-ro https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210302-could-plastic-ro...
Mandated madness. The safest place for the fire hydrant of waste plastic is in landfill, not “recycled” into microplastic dust.
Would you like a plastic road outside your house, or outside your kids school?
- suyash 4y agoEvery action has a consequences, these are what we call 'unintended consequences'. It's good that this is making news on BBC, hopefully Governments around the world will take heed and correct this policy.
- switch007 4y agoMy carpet fitter tried to sell me on recycled plastic underlay. They only want to sell it because it’s dirt cheap and lightweight. Zero cares about what I’ll be breathing in for 10 years
- coffeebeqn 4y agoWhat do you think the carpet is made out of?
- switch007 4y agoIt’s 100% wool. Why? (Edit. Oops correction. 80% wool, 20% nylon. 100% is throwing away money) Wool is still popular in the UK despite carpet shops trying to sell the “bleach cleanable” benefits of plastic flammable carpet for many years Even if it were plastic, is that a reason to have more plastic?
- andrewstuart 4y agoThe linked BBC article seems to be dead - anyhow the BBC is praising plastic roads as "saving us from the plastic waste problem" https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=plastic+roads https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=plastic+roads Here is a better article "The plastic road to hell is paved with good intentions " https://www.ehn.org/recycled-plastic-roads-2658987942.html https://www.ehn.org/recycled-plastic-roads-2658987942.html
- sampo 4y ago> Sounds like a great idea until you realize that cars and trucks drive on the roads and grind them into dust - dust containing microplastics. Car tires themselves wear down and produce microplastics. I would guess the tires wear down more than the road, so the contribution from road would be minuscule, comparing to the contribution from the tires. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/tires-unseen-plastic-polluter https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/tires...
- nonethewiser 4y agoThe contribution from the road is independent of the contributions from the car. By your reasoning, if the micro plastics from cars increased, so could the micro plastics from the road, even to astronomical levels, so long as it's less than the cars.
- tnel77 4y agoI think they probably mean that there are potentially bigger problems to solve in the world of micro-plastics.
- 8note 4y agoI'm not sure if it's environmentalists pushing for that, or the plastics industry, in response to complaints about the amount of plastics waste. The alternative that environmentalists actually want is reduced production of plastics, and less making of single use and short lived items
- dang 4y agoPlease don't copy-paste comments on HN. It lowers the signal/noise ratio of the site. If you want to refer to something you wrote elsewhere (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34153694 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34153694), a link is great. Even better, if possible, would be a link along with new information drawn from the specifics of the new discussion.
- andrewstuart 4y agogotcha ..... apologies.
- dang 4y agoAppreciated!
- _hcuq 4y agoPlastic recycling is just greenwashing by the plastics industry.