# Plastic! Plastic! Plastic!



## bbqjoe (Feb 10, 2017)

What to do with it all?

We really try to watch what we bring home, but it's inevitable, I still end up with mounds of the stuff. We even bring our own thermal bags to the store.
There just isn't anything like trying to wrestle a walmart bag from a cholla cactus.

There are some bins 50 miles away that take glass, cans, cardboard, and plastic.
It's a pain in the butt to remember to take the bags of it with you.

What I think would be awesome is some sort of bin that it could all be tossed in, and heated efficiently somehow every now and then, just forming it into a big block I could take in once or twice a year. 

Of course temperature would be critical.

Kinda like the days of old when people had incinerators.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

All of my trash is converted from a solid form to gas...and a few ashes.

When the daughter was in Junior-high she gave me a rehearsed speech (Teacher induced) about how I'm polluting the earth by burning our trash. Daughter was rather smug about it too.

So I asked her, "Is it less polluting to pump oil out of the ground, pipe it to a refinery across nature, refined it, haul the product in diesel fume emitting trucks, process it into plastic garbage bags using electric generated by coal, haul the new garbage bags more diesel fume emitting trucks to the stores. More air pollution when I drive to the store to buy the garbage bag. Then I bag my trash and set in out by the road. Another diesel fume emitting truck picks up the bag, hauls it and dumps it into a hole dug by diesel fume emitting truck excavator. And when the hole is full it is covered by diesel fume emitting bulldozer.

Or is less polluting by eliminating all of that by burning our trash instead?"

Daughter gave me a strange look. Wish I was a bug on her classroom wall the next day when she told her teacher what dad had said!


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## bbqjoe (Feb 10, 2017)

I'm not sure about anyone else, but I absolutely hate the smell of burning/smoldering plastic.
Paper in general isn't bad, but trash just has its own distinct smell, and requires a very hot fire to consume completely.

There are ways to burn that minimize the hazards of setting your property on fire, but a good sudden wind like a dust devil can pose a real threat.

I do have a fair amount of clean burning trash, and I'm beginning to toy with the idea of melting the plastic in boiling water in a very large pot heated by that trash.


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## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

During the winter everything goes in the wood stove. In the summer it goes in the burn barrel.


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

We use most of the paper & cardboard in the garden & compost bin. We also keep a pile of it to attract worms & crickets for chicken food & fishing bait.

Plastic goes in the trash which is carried off to the dump. Unfortunately, we tend to generate a lot of trash. 

We do have a burn barrel (two, actually) to burn in as well.


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## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

tsrwivey said:


> We use most of the paper & cardboard in the garden & compost bin. We also keep a pile of it to attract worms & crickets for chicken food & fishing bait.
> 
> Plastic goes in the trash which is carried off to the dump. Unfortunately, we tend to generate a lot of trash.
> 
> We do have a burn barrel (two, actually) to burn in as well.


We tried the cardboard/paper in the garden but unless we keep it soggy wet it blows away. Our spring winds are regularly 20-50mph and it's so dry that once its out in the desert it will take years to decompose.


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## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

My garbage haulers will take all plastic where they sort it into different piles such as; plastic, glass, metal. If I had to, I could just burn it. There's no restriction here for burning except that it needs to be contained.


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

*We live in a plastic world!*

Plastic is a growing problem. You ever hear the young people talk about going green, being green? Honestly, it is just something that is being parroted by many without much real thought to what is really happening, how to solve the problem, and to get people to want to be involved.

$$$ Money is the big driver in most of what goes on today. Plastic is made from oil, so we HAVE to keep drilling, fracking, shipping, building pipelines, tankers,... To heck with our health, our environment, and healthier ways of living.

So much of our packaging is made from plastic. If you live and shop for groceries much, you will accumulate plastic fast. Today for my food: plastic carton for half and half for my coffee. Instant coffee in plastic container. Yogurt in a plastic container. It is not even noon. If I were more self-sufficient, I could eliminate the half and half carton and replace it with a canning jar for my milk and cream. Yogurt could also be kept in canning jars.

If I could take quart jars to the store to get milk, I would. Or, if the grocery stores would package most of the food we buy in reusable canning jars, the whole world would benefit, except those who live to be wealthy.

I have thought that if the people of the world could recycle our plastic into useable goods, it would save it from being littered all over our planet and could help many impoverished people. What if plastics were made into building blocks or bricks? What if people could be paid to recycle plastic, thus pushing the desire by those who don't care into recycling every piece of plastic. What if small factories could be built around the world to melt the plastic down and form it into usable building materials?

What I do know about plastic: the fumes from melting and melted plastic are noxious and toxic. Much plastic should not be used for packaging food. It gets into our food and causes cancers.


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## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

One of the funniest pictures I've seen recently was a guy holding a sign saying I don't need oil! I ride the bus! People have no idea of what plastic is made from or even a clue of what is made from oil.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Here in California a law was passed that we are now required to bring reusable bags to grocery stores. If you want plastic bags they charge 10¢ each. This includes Walmart and Target. Soon it will be expanded to all stores including Home Depot. 

It stinks because I don't always remember to grab my bags from the car.


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## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

Grimm said:


> Here in California a law was passed that we are now required to bring reusable bags to grocery stores. If you want plastic bags they charge 10¢ each. This includes Walmart and Target. Soon it will be expanded to all stores including Home Depot.
> 
> It stinks because I don't always remember to grab my bags from the car.


Some of the stores do that here. Our local grocery store still asks "paper or plastic" I always take paper.


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