German manufacturer Mann-Hummel says it intends to be the first automotive parts supplier to offer all-plastic oil pans for cars. These parts are a third lighter than their steel or aluminum counterparts, so their lightness would ostensibly contribute to a vehicle’s fuel mileage, and thereby help reduce carbon emissions. Significantly, Mann-Hummel claims its injection-molded pans can also include integrated components such as lifetime no-change oil filters. The plastic sumps are also anticipated to be less costly than their metal predecessors.
Now, I don't know about you, but I'm already surrounded by non-biodegradable plastic, and I'm not sure I want much more of it. Mann-Hummel plastic oil pans notwithstanding, our household already has its share of polyethylene bottles, Nylon toothbrushes, polypropylene food containers, polyurethane moldings, plastic bags, polycarbonate electronics enclosures, and those pesky plastic packaging peanuts that electrostatically stick to darned near everything in sight.
Where does all this plastic go when these products are no longer needed, or reach the end of their useful lifetimes?
Much of it winds up in our oceans. Scientists say about 90% of the waste in our planet's oceans is now plastic. A lot of it finds its way into the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a moniker that's been replaced by what some oceanographers call the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Bobbing on the waves in the patch, and below the surface, too, are myriad bottles, tubes, boxes, clumps of polystyrene food packaging, and plastic six-pack rings. As you might expect, the ubiquitous plastic bag comprises a goodly portion of this unearthly plastic brew. None other than the US Navy estimates there's a half-pound of plastic junk beneath the waves there for every 100 square meters of surface crud.
By some calculations, the Great Pacific Subtropical Gyre is a floating mass of manmade material that weighs some three million tons or more. Incredibly, there are about five such plasticized gyres in the oceans of the world, and they're not small. They range in size from the size of the state of Texas to the size of Africa.
Once Pristine BeachesThis refuse is trashing once pristine beaches, too. Researchers at the Marine Science Department at the University of Hawaii analyzed plastic debris from nine locations in the Hawaiian Archipelago. Buckets of sand were scooped for analysis from the surface of remote beaches in the archipelago. The Marine Science folks found that 28% of the bucket samples, by weight, were attributable to plants, shells, and sand. That left 72% from plastic. Marine organisms are ingesting the plastic – and dying.
Unbelievably, most of this plastic junk is the result of runoff from streams and rivers around the world, although if you've ever traveled by steamship you know refuse is tossed over the side on a daily basis. Regardless of where this stuff comes from, it's material that hasn't been on the face of the earth in its first five billion years of existence. Plastics only appeared in the past sixty years or so: a brief flash of geological time.
What will this mean for the earth's ecosystems? It's hard to say. According to senior research scientist Dr. Anthony Andrady, these materials remain polymers almost forever. "Polyethylene is not biodegraded in any practical time scale,” he says. “There’s no mechanism in the marine environment to biodegrade long plastic molecules. Virtually every bit of plastic manufactured in the world – more than a billion tons – remains somewhere in the environment. It will take hundreds of thousands of years to degrade."
While we may never be able to diminish the gyres, there’s hope we can mitigate the effects of new plastic processes and products. One organization that’s attempting to do something about the problem is the
Algalita Marine Research Foundation.
Other concerned organizations include the
American Chemistry Council and the
Indian Centre for Plastics in the Environment.
Does this preponderance of plastic portend environmental collapse? Can industry and consumers plan for a recyclable future? Think about that foam plastic coffee cup you’re holding, and that plastic oil pan on your new car. In the final analysis, it’s up to you.
Comments? Questions? Observations? Write me at
amm at en-genius dot net, or post your comments on our blog.
