There is No "Away"

[forsyth]

In a lot of RPGs, WoW for instance, when you throw something away, it disappears from your inventory and the world, for good.

It's not like that in the real world. We're all here on the bottom of this thin ocean of air surrounding a ball of molten rock. You're breathing the same oxygen the dinosaurs did. The carbon in that burger you ate could be the same as Abe Lincoln ate.

So what happens when you throw something away? Most of the time, it gets driven off to somewhere, and then tossed on a pile with a lot of other things people didn't want or need any more. Eventually, it all gets covered with plastic and buried under dirt. It's still there. It doesn't disappear.

The Earth is largely a closed system. There is no "away" where we can just throw things and forget about them. Solid, liquid, or gas, it's still gonna be here with us.

Comments

[forsythferret.livejournal.com]

Plastic is long chains of carbon with hydrogen sprinkled around the outsides. Most living tissue is hydrocarbons too. The problem with plastic is the same as its benefit. Nothing digests it. Which is why it's good for keeping food separate from bugs, but makes it hang around forever once it gets "thrown away".

This guy has calibrated a microwave to zap the hydrocarbons and break them apart into, basically, methane and oil or diesel fuel, simple shorter hydrocarbons. Which can then either be burned, or be re-processed into new plastics. Doesn't do much about the carbon dioxide buildup from burning fossil fuels, since it releases the carbon trapped in the plastics. But if it was tweaked to work on, say, plant material... Though there's other ways of gasifying organic materials.

And here is an article about plastic made by bacteria, that can biodegrade after use.