Perpetual Innovation

Category: biodegradable

  • Biomagnification: Pollutants Found in Deep-Sea Animals

    Okay, we all know how biomagnification works. Pollutants including heavy metals such as mercury are absorbed at the bottom of the food chain, and then they are amplified all the way to the top of the food chain. at the top of the chain are such animals as sharks at sea and lions on land.
    In terms of mercury biomagnification (wikipedia) works like this. Organisms absorb mercury very efficiently, but it takes far longer to excrete. Algae absorb mercury from seawater readily, so even small amounts in the water are absorbed and retained. Fish eat the algae, bigger fish eat the smaller fish, and so on. At all levels the mercury is retained (in fatty tissues) at a far better rate then it is excreted. Ultimately it accumulates and amplifies in predator fish like swordfish and sharks as well as birds of prey like eagles and osprey.  And, of course, at the apex of the food chain is humans. A mother breast feeding would, of course, pass it on in concentration to her baby.
    See fish you should avoid eating (very much of) here.
    It turns out that we are building up pollutants at the bottom of the ocean at an ugly and alarming rate. This is emphatically demonstrated by a recent study in Nature. An easier short read is in the WSJ by Kincaid.  Animals at the bottom of the ocean (4 miles deep) had amazingly high concentrations of pollutants, 50 times more than one of the worst polluted rivers in the world (in China). The pollutants included chemicals that don’t naturally decay but have not been produced (much) in decades. These POPs should mostly be in landfills; they were largely used in electronics. But they will continue to reek havoc to the environment for centuries to come.
    With about 65% of POPs in landfills, there’s a huge amount out sloshing around in the environment, all the way from the North Pole to the Mariana Trench. Plus, as the landfills fail, as they always do, eventually, … That’s ugly… so very ugly…
    Sorry, no positive spin for this. Not enough lipstick to cover this ugly pig.

    Reference

    Jamieson,
    A. J., Malkocs, T., Piertney, S. B., Fujii, T., & Zhang, Z. (2017, February
    13). Bioaccumulation of persistent organic pollutants in the deepest ocean
    fauna. Nature Ecology & Evolution,
     1(51). doi:10.1038/s41559-016-0051 Retrieved
    from: http://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-016-0051

  • Garbage-patch tale as flimsy as a single-use plastic bag – SFGate

    Garbage-patch tale as flimsy as a single-use plastic bag – SFGate:


    So the GREAT Pacific Garbage Patch is not real… Or maybe not nearly as big as originally expected.


    Saunders does a great job of attaching the myth behind the original reports of “the size of Texas” and such.


    Great sources of info included.


    But now I’m really worried. The amount of plastic floating in the oceans amount to only (right, only) 7,000 to 35,000 Tons. But we know the amount of plastic produced each year, the % that gets recycle, the % that goes into a landfill and the paltry % that gets repurposed. That leaves a LOT of tons of plastic each year that go into the environment. If we estimate the amount that goes out the water systems into the oceans you get a LOT of plastics into the oceans. There’s a lot of large pieces but the small stuff is mysteriously missing.


    There’s bit of a mystery working that is well discussed here at the SFGate with four possible theories by Leslie Baehr. None of them look good. The plastic found represent only about 1% of the plastic pollution in the ocean according to one of the researchers Cózar said. More could be hiding below the surface. 

    “Indeed, the quantity of plastic floating in the ocean and its final destination are still unknown,” the researchers concluded.
    It may take hundreds or thousands of years for plastic to degrade. In the warm ocean with lots of sunlight, maybe only 1 year. See here on degrading and the short artgument as to whether plastics ever really biodegrade (although the degrade to smaller bits of the same).  Here’s a nice little biodegadable table by the NH for the National Park Service, talking about 20 years for plastic bags and 450 for plastic bottles to biodegrade.

    All that plastic is going somewhere. I was actually happier knowing where it was going… into the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Now we don’t know, what we don’t know. That’s worrisome! 


    Wikipedia of the Great_Pacific_garbage_patch and the 
    National Geographic on the Pacific Garbage Patch.
    Marine Debris at NOAA.
    Youtube from Oprah’s show where she did an EarthDay on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Several years ago (upload is 2011). Before this new study, obviously.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • New Garnier Fructis Pure Clean : Shampoo 2in1: 92% biodegradable! HUH!

    New Garnier Fructis Pure Clean : Shampoo and Conditioner:

    Here’s the add from Garnier below.

    AM I MISSING something. 92% biodegradable. What about the other 8%? !!!!

    Is this green marketing or bad humor?

    And shampoo is already, what 90% water?

    If this is good, it makes you wonder what the rest of the shampoo & conditioner world has to hold for the user, her hair and the environment.

    ·         Garnier commercial. Fructis shampoo, the strength to shine.
    NEW Pure Clean 2in1. New Pure Clean Clear 2in1 is a breakthrough innovation – the only shampoo and conditioner in a clear conditioning formula that is also 92% Biodegradable.
    ·         With no silicone, paraben or dye. Pure Clean Clear 2in1 provides a refreshing cleansing experience that does not weigh hare down and does not leave a heavy residue behind. Hare is 4 times healthier with weightless shine. Link to Ad.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • Get your Green Oil for free (G-Oil).

    There’s a really cool oil and cleaning product company that produces bio-oils and cleaning products from plant and animal byproducts. Animal fats seem to be a big part of the oil. It has a patent pending technology using nanotechnology that they describe as: “superior performing ULTIMATE BIODEGRADABLE* motor oil made with American grown base oils and the power of nanotechnology to reduce wear, lower friction and provide more horsepower while being safe for the environment.”

    Seems to be fully compliant with vehicle guidelines for oil, so you won’t void vehicle warranty or have other issues.

    You can get a refund coupon for the the oil required for an oil change at: http://www.getG.com/CAarAndDriver 
    Sold at Wal-Mart so it should be possible to have them use G-Oil if you don’t want to change your own oil.