The World's War Against Plastics is Lost; Time for Gerry Maxey"s Solution to Snatch Victory from Defeat

The Climate Change war against plastics, symbolized by plastic recycling has been lost. 

Plastic recycling is the archetypical Liberal solution to a problem; make everyone do busy work, make some people feel good and solve nothing. 

“The vast majority of plastic that people put into recycling bins is headed to landfills, or worse, according to a report from Greenpeace on the state of plastic recycling in the U.S. 

The report cites separate data published this May which revealed that the amount of plastic actually turned into new things has fallen to new lows of around 5%. That number is expected to drop further as more plastic is produced. 

 

Greenpeace found that no plastic — not even soda bottles, one of the most prolific items thrown into recycling bins — meets the threshold to be called "recyclable" according to standards set by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation New Plastic Economy Initiative. Plastic must have a recycling rate of 30% to reach that standard; no plastic has ever been recycled and reused close to that rate. 

 

"More plastic is being produced, and an even smaller percentage of it is being recycled," says Lisa Ramsden, senior plastic campaigner for Greenpeace USA. "The crisis just gets worse and worse, and without drastic change will continue to worsen as the industry plans to triple plastic production by 2050." 

…. Greenpeace found the more plastic is reused the more toxic it becomes. 

New plastic, on the other hand, is cheap and easy to produce. The result is that plastic trash has few markets — a reality the public has not wanted to hear. 

Trent Carpenter, the general manager of Southern Oregon Sanitation, says when they told customers a couple years ago that they could no longer take any plastic trash other than soda bottles and jugs — like milk containers and detergent bottles — people were upset. They wanted to put their strawberry containers, bags, yogurt cups and all manner of plastic trash in their recycling bin. 

"We had to re-educate individuals that a great deal of that material is ending up in a landfill," Carpenter said. "It's not going to a recycling facility and being recycled. It's going to a recycling facility and being landfilled someplace else because [you] can't do anything with that material." 

That message has been difficult for the public to absorb with so many different bins in public spaces, and their own communities telling them to put their plastic in recycling containers……Greenpeace found a couple facilities are trying to reprocess cups and containers — sometimes called "number 5s" because of the markings on the containers. But the numbers are low. While 52% of recycling facilities in the U.S. accept that kind of plastic, the report found less than 5% of it is actually repurposed — and the rest is put into a landfill…..NPR. 10/22”. 

Plastics are killing the planet, the oceans, wild life and people. Plastics breakdown into microplastics, and microplastics have been found in babies and in placentas. 

“Plastic breaks down into microplastics and even smaller nanoplastics, which can be found globally, including now, in babies......, researchers can now confirm the presence of microplastics in the placenta and in newborns…..openacess america.” 

Liberal Guru Trevor Noah, on his television program floated his solution, stop using plastics. 

On April 16, 2018, Gerry Maxey offered a solution to defeat plastics, plastic pollution, and plastic waste. 

The following is excerpted from that Blog- 

“…..For the sake of Mankind, for Life itself, that Plastic residue MUST BE DESTROYED, and there is the rub-HOW? 

If we burn it, the smoke itself may become toxic. 

If we bomb it, the plastic will break down into small, minute pieces of plastic which will be deadly to marine life, and deadly as it becomes part of recycled rain. 

If we collect the plastic garbage, where will we put it? In the Sahara? 

Mankind must destroy it. 

How? 

Vaporize it. 

And how can Mankind do that? 

This Blogger believes it can be done by use of SOLAR FURNACES. 

“A solar furnace is a structure that uses concentrated solar power to produce high temperatures,…. Parabolic mirrors or heliostats concentrate light(insolation)) onto a focal point.The temperature at the focal point may reach 3,500 °C (6,330 °F).” 

Mankind has built solar furnaces before; a small one in California; the French built one in the early 1970s, and the Russians built a massive one in Uzbekistan in 1987. 

The United States Government has expertise in building Solar Furnaces at its National Renewal Energy Laboratory in Florida. 

NREL's High-Flux Solar Furnace (HFSF) is a 10-kW optical furnace for testing high-temperature processes or applications requiring high heating rates or solar concentration. The unique capability of the HFSF is that it can produce peak solar flux of 250 W/cm² or 2,500 suns with primary concentrator and higher fluxes with secondary concentrators. 

…..The primary concentrator consists of 25 hexagonal facets, 12.5 m² (135 ft²) overall. The mirrors are spherical mirrors ground to a 14.6 m (47.8 ft) radius of curvature. They are front-surface ultraviolet-enhanced aluminum with 84% solar-weighted reflectivity. The primary concentrator delivers power to the target (at the focal point) of about 10 kW at 1,000 W/m² direct normal irradiance. The target concentration point is located 7.01 m (23.0 ft) from the center facet. 

Several secondary concentrators are available to modify the focal point if the standard peak flux needs to be modified or spread out…NREL.” 

Mankind also knows that solar furnaces can vaporize things….6,000 birds were killed,  vaporized at  the California solar furnace…turned into wisps of white smoke, the wisps of white smoke being the only memory of their physicality….STREAMERS to the local workers. 

Mankind wants to turn the plastic garbage into  harmless streamers, with white wisps of smoke as the only memory of the plastic garbage threatening Mankind. 

This Blogger humbly suggest that America take the lead in developing …. solar furnaces, massive solar furnaces…..The solar furnace should be working every moment there is sunshine, vaporizing the old garbage and the new garbage. 

This Blogger has spoken to engineers and scientists; his plan is more than doable; it is feasible. 

Let us come together, and get our priorities right. The enemy is plastic garbage. Regardless of the cost,  the plastic garbage which imperils everything, must be vaporized post haste…..THE MAXEY CHRONICLES.” 

“Since plastic has been around only since the 1950s, there's no way of knowing exactly how long it will last in the ocean. If left alone, the plastic could remain there for decades, centuries or even longer. "Unless we begin to remove it, some would say it may remain there forever," Lebreton said.” 

Mankind has solar furnaces which can vaporize plastics; how can Mankind be defeated by plastics? Unless Mankind desires plastic infested babies.