Perpetual Innovation

Category: recycling

  • Earth Day 2021 Quiz

    Earth Day 2021 Quiz (April 22, 2021)

        Test your knowledge of a few Earth related topics on Earth Day. Note that when you Google some of these topics, you can get rather wide ranges of answers. Make sure you are looking at the US (if that is the target region), rather current information, and rather reliable sources. Or, just wait a day to see what we think the correct answer should be. 

    Answers will be forthcoming today or tomorrow.

    1.  Plastics. Approximately what % of the US’s
    plastic gets recycled?

    a.  8-10%

    b.  14-15%

    c.  25-30%

    d.  45-50%

    2.  Plastics. Approximately what % of the US’s
    plastic makes its way into lakes, rivers, oceans?

    a.  0.5%

    b.  1%

    c.  3%

    d.  5%

    3.  Plastic in the environment (on land or in
    ocean). About how many years does it take to decompose a plastic bottle in the
    ocean?

    a.  Plastic decomposes in about 20 years.

    b.  Plastic decomposes in about 50 years.

    c.  Plastic decomposes in about 150 years.

    d.  Plastic doesn’t really decompose, but let’s
    go with 450 years.

    4.  Plastic in the oceans. Approximately how many
    years before the plastic in the oceans will exceed the fish? (by weight). 

    a.  Too last, plastic already exceeds fish in
    oceans (by weight).

    b.  2030. In 10 years, plastic should exceed fish
    (by weight).

    c.  2050. In 30 years, plastic should exceed fish
    (by weight).

    d.  2100. In 80 years, plastic should exceed fish
    (by weight).

    5.  Manatees in Florida are dying at an unusually
    high rate recently. What is the primary cause of deaths in 2021?

    a.  Boats

    b.  Cold

    c.  Disease

    d.  Starvation

    6.  The artic is melting enough that ships can
    now travel through the Arctic to the North during the summer and avoid the
    Panama Canal or longer routes? Approximately how long during the summer can
    ships now navigate through the Arctic?

    a) About 4 weeks of thaw sufficient to
    navigate in the summer.

    b) About 8 weeks of thaw sufficient to
    navigate in the summer.

    c)  About 3 months of thaw sufficient to
    navigate in the summer.

    d)  About 365 days a year.

    7.  About, what percentage of the US lakes,
    rivers and streams are polluted (according to US EPA)?  (Polluted, as in no swimming and you should
    not eat the fish, if there are any.)

    a.  4%-5%

    b.  10%-15%

    c.  25%-30%

    d.  40%-45%

    8.  Soil. The current “industrial” farming
    methods deplete the topsoil. No topsoil, little or no farm crops. At the
    current rate of topsoil depletion, how many years do we have before we “run
    out” of topsoil? [Ooops…. Things changed… problems with this question… Well, with the answers…]

    a.  About 20 years until the world’s topsoil will
    be effectively depleted.

    b.  About 30 years until the world’s topsoil will
    be effectively depleted.

    c.  About 60 years until the world’s topsoil will
    be effectively depleted.

    d.  About 100 years until the world’s topsoil
    will be effectively depleted.

    9.  Extinction. Out of about 8 million plant and
    animal species on earth, approximately how many are in threat of extinction?

    a.  100K, 1.2%

    b.  300K, 3.7%

    c.  500K, 6.2%

    d.  1M, 12.5%

    10.  Earths. Current estimates are that we
    significantly overuse the earth’s resources (overshoot the earth’s carrying
    capacity). We currently need part of another earth to be “sustainable”. But, if
    the rest of the world consumed at the same rate per person as we do in the US,
    how many earths do we need?

    a.  2 earths (+1)

    b.  3 earths (+2)

    c.  4 earths (+3)

    d.  5 earths (+4)

    11.  What is the depth of the oceans? (Plus, water
    expands when warmed about 0.000214 per +1C for seawater, so how much would sea
    levels rise based on a +1 degree Centigrade increase in global temperature that
    transferred throughout the oceans.)

    a.  Average ocean depth is 1,000ft (+1C temp
    increase = +2.6in increase in avg ocean level.)

    b.  Average ocean depth is 2,500ft (+1C temp
    increase = +6.4in increase in avg ocean level.)

    c.  Average ocean depth is 1.2 mile (+1C temp
    increase = +16.3in in increase avg ocean level.)

    d.  Average ocean depth is 2.3 miles (+1C temp
    increase = +31.2in increase in avg ocean level.) 

  • 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’

  • Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade by Adam Minter — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

    Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade by Adam Minter — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists: “Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade
    by Adam Minter”

    This is an interesting book on the story of Junk. Not to be confused with Lenard’s book on “The Story of Stuff”.

    Has anyone read this book and what do you think?

    ‘via Blog this’