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In Michigan every beverage receptacle with a bar code (I think) carries a $.10 deposit, charged on purchase, fully repaid upon recycling. That system has been operational for quite some time, 30 years or so. It has been wildly successful. Now there are no beverage containers visible anywhere. If someone casts one off as litter, someone else will find it and recycle it for revenue.

We give our cans and bottles to neighborhood kids who represent various causes, or just want a small source of cash. The upside for me is a cleaner environment and I no longer have to watch where I step when I walk into the lake as there are no rusty beer cans to cut me or give me tetanus.

In the 1980s, drinks in Denmark could only be sold in glass bottles (with a refundable deposit) - as a result of which youngsters would scour the hedgerows and beaches to recover bottles to supplement their pocket-money.

It used to be like that in ZA. You'd give your old bottles, tins, cardboard boxes, etc, to the homeless/beggars and they'd take them off to the recycling centres, go out and buy more grog in plastic or glass bottles which they would hang onto as if their lives depended on it, and so it would go on.

Apart from plastic supermarket packets, known as the Unofficial Bird of South Africa (see photo), which used to get caught up in overhead wires and fences and flap and make a noise in the wind, we never had a litter problem.

This all sounds very sensible taken from a First World perspective; https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... aincontent

Maybe some of these boffins should spend some time living in the Third World to give them an idea of how unrealistic their ideas are. For example, in our nearest village of Chanoga most people live in mud/breeze block huts with drop dead toilets and no water or electricity. The village does have a borehole which provides potable water which they have to collect in containers in order to transport it home. I am sure that I will not see piped water or sewerage being installed into each house in my lifetime. And even if you stop the use of plastic water bottles/containers, they will continue to recycle plastic bottles from other sources such as coca cola, orange squash, oil, petrol and granulated chlorine. We never need to worry about the lack of recycling plants here, we just give all our plastic rubbish to our staff.

Slight thread diversion, Mrs ex_A, but Mrs and I have been watching an amazing programme called 'Walking with Elephants' in the Okavango - did they come anywhere near Squiffy Pussy?

Boac wrote: ↑

Wed May 27, 2020 10:17 am

Slight thread diversion, Mrs ex_A, but Mrs and I have been watching an amazing programme called 'Walking with Elephants' in the Okavango - did they come anywhere near Squiffy Pussy?

Indeed they do! our lagoon is on their main route between the Delta and the Makadikadi salt pans. They usually travel at night, but sometimes we see them during the day.

Well, it seems the Greenies have got what they wanted.
Air travel mostly stopped, emissions greatly reduced, economic activity stifled etc, etc.

Now they've got what they wanted, it'll be interesting to see if they like it.

This is a Sky News article worth reading;https://news.sky.com/story/the-plastic- ... s-11997479

Warning to the squeamish; don't watch the video featuring the sick calf.

I have fallen in love with glass instead of plastic lately. It can be re-used easily and as far as beer is concerned it is cheaper in the glass than in aluminium can.

It seems that an apple a day isn't so good for you after all; https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech ... tuces.html

Despite being from the Daily Wail, this is an interesting article; https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech ... ought.html

Good to see scientists researching the extent of the problem of plastic pollution before finding an appropriate way of dealing with it.

The Unofficial Bird of the UK, which regularly transits during periods of high surface winds, regularly becomes entangled and perched in the overhead power lines of our modern hi-tech electric railway network.

It stays there surveying the scene until such times as a fast train becomes entangled with it and is brought to a helpless halt in the middle of nowhere.

The rail route is then paralysed until a diesel powered loco can approach, hook up to the useless expensive train set and haul it off to have the pantograph assembly inspected and possibly repaired.

Then the Network Rail “sparkies” have to travel to the “perch” site and remove the offending ‘birds wreckage’ and repair any damage caused.

A lot of these birds have been bred and raised in the farms upwind of the affected rail lines by the farmers who wrap their hay and silage drums in gigantic sealed packaging. The subsequent drums’ handling encourages free movement by the fledgling plastic birds and the rest is transport disruption which costs the economy blah blah you get the idea?

But there appears to be no concerted action by the Enviro police to discourage this agricultural v transport conflict so I look forwards to more delays on my frequent forays from northern eyrie southwards and return.

This is an interesting development; https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech ... lable.html

Mrs Ex-Ascot wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 22, 2020 7:32 am

This is an interesting development; https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech ... lable.html

Problem is that it has to be sorted from lesser materials.

This article shows that plastic rubbish gets everywhere, no matter how remote; https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech ... finds.html

It's depressing to note that the local fishermen who rely on fishing stocks for a sustainable living are littering the waters with plastic nets and floats.

This is interesting research; https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech ... essly.html

This is interesting; https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -the-ocean

Mrs Ex-A, those are certainly sobering and thought-provoking articles on plastic, the ‘good-guy’ enzyme story has been featured on e-MSM quite often recently in the UK.

A word of caution on the plastic-gobbling crittur, many years ago someone wrote a sci-fi book about a syndrome which attacked plastics, leading to all electrical devices short-circuiting and planes falling from the sky which was all jolly good Hollywood blockbuster material.

https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2018/0 ... rry-davis/

Let’s hope the proposed enzyme does not develop an appetite for wiring insulation or any of the many other plastics applications currently propping up the 21st Century World or the human overpopulation problem will fade into insignificance?

Sorry to upset anyone, I really must get out more and discover the world before it crumbles beneath my feet!

An interesting article from the groiniad; https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -pollution

My only thought is that the idea of a global treaty is all very well, but it will only work if every nation signs up and sticks to it. And how likely is that...........

I fear that it is already too late to deal with plastic in the environment.
It was a brilliant invention that has served us for decades but now is overwhelming the environment due to its indestructibility.