Plastic

Plastics have been in the news a lot lately, with the relatively low oil prices and the boom in plastics manufacturing brought on fracking.Β πŸ›’οΈ A lot of the articles lately note that not only is plastic a non-renewable material, coming from the co-products of oil and gas production, it’s long chains of carbon atoms are often difficult to break down by bacteria and sunlight. Plastic is only easily broken down by heat and combustion, when the carbon molecules bond to oxygen to produce carbon dioxide and other byproducts.

In many ways, I would argue that plastic is environmentally superior to metals and glass for packaging.Β πŸ₯« Metal and glass does not break down in fire, there is no “natural” process to break it down in the environment, it must either be landfilled, buried, or brought back to industrial recycling. In many remote areas, metals and glass become litter that never leaves the land.Β  Glass in particular is notorious, as it can break, leaving dangerous materials that can cut people’s feet, damage tires and produce a long-term nuisance. Metal — especially cans made out of iron rust — but it often lasts a long time in the woods.

The toxicity of some plastics is a concern, more then plastic becoming litter in the environment.Β Chances are in the back country, on the farm dump, in the woods, plastic is not piling up. It’s getting burnt.πŸ”₯ It may not biodegrade by bacteria, but there is a natural process that breaks it down, namely fire, which leaves waste metals and glass untouched. Glass is just so much nastier in the sense it breaks, and doesn’t ever leave the woods unless somebody hauls it away to the landfill.

More needs to be done to reduce the toxicity of common wastes. Replacing PVC with HDPE is a big step forward. β™»I am glad to see things like soap bottles and charcoal lighter packing is no longer coming in vinyl, but instead safer plastics that produce fewer noxious chemicals when leached out to environment or burned. In urban areas, more needs to be done to recycle plastic — something that will get a boost when oil prices inevitably go back up.

Come 50 years from now, I doubt your going to find much in the way of plastics dumped in the woods. You might find metal (although less with the high value of scrap metal), glass, and certainly other things like discarded masonry and plumbing, but not plastic. β›° Plastic is lightweight packaging, and while it doesn’t biodegrade, it does combust and is unlikely to have the long-term pollution problems that alternative packaging is likely to have.

Old Farm Dump

Along Old Partridge Run Road

Hard to imagine a little over a decade ago you could drive this road, and indeed I spent many a nice summer afternoon parked along this road, reading with my feet in the creek. Now you can walk it or as I did today, ride a mountain bike on it, which probably isn't legal because it's no longer a road but I doubt anyone cares.

Taken on Monday October 9, 2023 at Partridge Run Game Management Area.

Brandon Rhyder – Haggard

I need to get out of the city, drive a country mile
Get back to my roots, before two worlds collide
I want sausage biscuit gravy, sweet tea from a jug
So jump into my pickup truck, and I’ll fire it up

We burn our trash out in the backyard in a barrel
We feed our dogs and cats our table scraps
We get our eggs straight from the hen house, and our water from a well
Dig our onions and our taters from the ground
Yippee yi yo, yippee yi yay, I’m feelin' kind of haggard today

I want to get out on the river, catch a mess of fish
Throw a big ol’ party, that you don’t want to miss
We’ll have washer pits and horseshoes, shine and chocolate pie
'Cause when I’m on the swing with her it makes me almost high

Reminds me of traveling in Western Pennsylvnia, smelling the cow shit, the burnt plastic in the burning barrels, the oil wells, the kerosene and coal smoke from the rural homes. Beautiful, wild country, even if it's been blasted away from the explosions of powder and the coal mining.