This short news report covers some cool new plastic production from bacteria and algae done by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology.
plastic
A Good Message Told Through Comedy
Comedy troupe Uncle Mom want you to cut the plastic that holds six packs. There are many reasons why it’s important to cut six pack rings, but for the real reason watch the video.
Thanks to Evan!
Plastiki Completes its Voyage
We looked at the Plastiki before when it set sail and now, a few months later the ship has completed its voyage.
The boat, carrying six crew, travelled through a waste-strewn area of the north Pacific and made stops in the Line Islands, Western Samoa and the French territory of New Caledonia before leaving for Australia.
The Plastiki’s bottles are lashed to pontoons and held together with recyclable plastic and glue made from cashew nut husks and sugarcane, while its sails are also made from recycled plastic.
The crew relied on renewable energy including solar panels, wind and propeller turbines and bicycle-powered electricity generators, and used water recycled from urine.
They were able to keep in touch with supporters via satellite through a website, blogs, and use of social-networking sites such as Twitter.
Plastic Boat Sets Sail to Plastic Patch
The Plastiki is a plastic boat that has set sail to raise awareness of the all the pollution from plastics that’s sitting in our oceans and it looks like they are off on an exciting trip!
The purpose, said expedition leader David de Rothschild, is to draw attention to the health of the oceans and to demonstrate the value of recycled plastic bottles. De Rothschild and his crew of five hope to sail to Australia, a voyage of about 11,000 nautical miles.
The Plastiki, named in honor of Norwegian explorer Thor Hyderdahl’s raft Kon Tiki, is a boat like no other in the world. Besides the hull of recycled plastic water and soda bottles, the vessel is made of a hardened plastic called PET.
The boat is a twin-hulled catamaran rigged as a ketch. It will rely on the wind for propulsion and has only a small auxiliary engine. No such boat has ever made an ocean passage before.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/20/BAIO1CILMT.DTL
You can take the Plastiki Pledge.
Fake Plastic Trees
I wonder if these fake plastic trees will look like the real thing. Researchers are advocating the use of fake trees that absorbs CO2 and turns the gas into something useful. I wonder if these fakes can be what we need all the time near highways and airports.
The “tree” uses plastic leaves that capture the carbon dioxide in a chamber. The carbon dioxide is then compressed into liquid form. The tree captures the carbon without the need for direct sunlight, which means that, unlike traditional trees, the synthetic trees can be stored in enclosed places such as barns, used anywhere, and transported from one site to another regardless of conditions.
Lackner says the captured CO2 could be used to create fuel for jet engines and cars, the two most common carbon emitters. In other cases, the CO2 could be used to enhance current production of vegetable produce.
I wonder if you’ll need a fake plastic watering can for these trees. I know that doing that would wear me out; if only I could be who the trees wanted.
The only reason I posted this is because when I read the article I couldn’t get this song out of my mind: