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Plastic Trash Forming Into "Plastiglomerate" Rocks

Posted by samzenpus on from the earth-plus-plastic dept.

sciencehabit (1205606) writes 'Plastic may be with us a lot longer than we thought. In addition to clogging up landfills and becoming trapped in Arctic ice, some of it is turning into stone. Scientists say a new type of rock cobbled together from plastic, volcanic rock, beach sand, seashells, and corals has begun forming on the shores of Hawaii. The new material--which the researchers are calling a "plastiglomerate"--may be becoming so pervasive that it actually becomes part of the geologic record.'

29 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. UV by tekrat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Riddle me this batman... UV light breaks down plastic, I've witnessed it every time I restore a car, or an old computer. All the plastic becomes brittle, breaks down, and eventually crumbles to plastic dust... Why doesn't this happen to the plastic in the ocean -- and everywhere else?

    --
    If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
    1. Re: UV by GreyLurk · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The plastic dust is probably what makes up the Plastiglomerate

    2. Re:UV by bmo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      >microbes eating plastic

      You're not the only one to ask that question.

      http://www.goodreads.com/book/...

      I picked that book up in the 70s and the story sorta stuck with me. Worth the read.

      --
      BMO

    3. Re:UV by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Informative

      Riddle me this batman... UV light breaks down plastic, I've witnessed it every time I restore a car, or an old computer. All the plastic becomes brittle, breaks down, and eventually crumbles to plastic dust... Why doesn't this happen to the plastic in the ocean -- and everywhere else?

      Most of the plastic IS the dust - the big plastic garbage patch is made up of really tiny pellets after the big chunks have broken down.

      And what's happening looks like the plastic is breaking down and the pieces are starting to glob together forming some strange multi-material piece of plastic.

      Of course, once the dust gets small enough, the breakdown has to happen by UV only. In a big chunk, the plastic becomes brittle and the wave action helps break it down further, but once it's dust, it's too small for mechanical breakdown.

    4. Re:UV by TapeCutter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It does, eventually, all depends on the type of plastic and is heavily dependent on the time it takes antibacteial agents within the plastic to break down. It's been known for quite some time that there does not seem to be any surface anywhere on the planet that does not have some microscopic plastic dust sprinkled on it. What these guys have noticed is that recent formations of sandstone/mudstone(?) contain plastic dust. To paraphrase the great Carlin, "The Earth doesn't care, it just incorporates palstic into a new paradigm - The Earth plus plastic."

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    5. Re: UV by jandersen · · Score: 4, Informative

      This may be an interesting parallell to what happened during the Carboniferous era, when apparently plant matter didn't rot away until the fungi evolved the ability to break down lignin. As a matter of fact, there are a few fungi that are able to attack some kinds of plastic too.

    6. Re:UV by Stuarticus · · Score: 2, Funny

      I don't get it, metal rusts I've seen it on my car all the time, how can there be metal in rocks? You can't explain that.

      --
      If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
    7. Re: UV by shonangreg · · Score: 2

      You don't need continental drift to make sandstone. You get sandstone from accumulating sediments and the pressure and heat that accompanies the increasing depth of deposition. Continental drift can later raise these rocks to the surface where erosion begins to expose the sandstone, but the compression itself is not due to such.

  2. Don't Miss the Rush... by Stormy+Dragon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now is the time to start buying mining rights for all that valuable plastic ore.

  3. Our age will be known as... by guygo · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Plasticene.

    1. Re:Our age will be known as... by durrr · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think The Obscene will capture the spirit better.

    2. Re:Our age will be known as... by BigZee · · Score: 2
      I presume the next layer after this one will be shoes

      http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/w...

  4. George Carlin was Right! by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Earth wanted plastic.

    1. Re:George Carlin was Right! by retroworks · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Parent link George Carlin (Q:"Why are we here?" A:"Plastic, asshole.") routine was insightful. Reporting on environmental problems needs to better distinguish between serious harms like habitat loss and species extinction, resource conservation issues (one generation using everything up - like fresh water - disadvantaging later human generations), and what researchers call "fetishizing". The "fetish" is used when people are made to feel guilty about something (e.g. "waste") and continue to attach guilt and responsibility to the item based not on risk but on past human ownership. This can lead to regulations which disadvantage recycling (secondary copper smelters), secondary markets (e.g. used display devices and cell phones) disproportionately to the risk.

      There are some interesting academic papers on environmental fetishes and untended consequences of fixations based on previous human 'ownership' and 'guilt association'. Many environmentalists are scientists and are aware of the 'quasi-religion' of moral risk association, but are afraid to speak openly about it the same as the Renaissance's great thinkers were afraid to publicly pose their doubts about Christianity. The philosophers doubted much about sources of Christian ethics but were concerned about replacing it with anarchy. Scientific environmentalists have similar concerns about exposing "fetish" environmentalism without discrediting actual moral progress on stewardship.

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      Gently reply
    2. Re:George Carlin was Right! by lazybratsche · · Score: 2

      Do you have any links to those papers or related articles? I am intrigued, but I won't be searching for "environmental fetishes" on a work computer...

    3. Re:George Carlin was Right! by retroworks · · Score: 2

      Mostly it comes from Marx, "commodity fetishism" (see wikipedia). Using the same concept Marx used to describe how the labor added value of goods and commodities are unseen but known and measurable. Similarly, in regulating an object which is "waste" or "discard" differently from the same material mined and smelted attaches a fetish, ignoring hidden environmental and economic costs of production a waste or secondary commodity. I learned the concept from papers by Josh Lepawsky and Ramzy Kahhat on electronic scrap, but it goes back at least to 2003 http://oae.sagepub.com/content..., or more recently by Graham Pickren of Univ of Georgia 2013 "Political ecologies of electronic waste: uncertainty and legitimacy in the governance of e-waste geographies"

      --
      Gently reply
  5. I don't think they are rocks by Flozzin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How are these things rocks? We made them, then they melted. The grabbed onto rocks sure. But once you stick to a rock you become a rock? Rock's are minerals. I wasn't aware plastic is now considered a mineral? If I melt glass around a rock, can I call that a new type of rock? Or can I take super glue and glue some pebbles together and call that a new type of rock?

    --
    "Cowardice in a race, as in an individual, is the unpardonable sin." --Teddy Roosevelt
  6. Re:George Carlin called it by Flozzin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Get out of here. We are nature too. Just because we are self aware does not make us different. We evolved just like every other species. Beavers change their habitat too. Just we do it so much better. Self hating humans are the worst type. If you truly believe this then hopefully you made the choice to NOT have children.(as opposed to the forever alone basement dwellers where everyone else has made that choice for them)

    --
    "Cowardice in a race, as in an individual, is the unpardonable sin." --Teddy Roosevelt
  7. Re:Hey.... by aaron4801 · · Score: 2

    Carbon sequestration!

  8. And neither does anyone else... by Y.A.A.P. · · Score: 5, Informative

    Please, RTFA!

    The scientists in this article are classifying the characteristics of a new heterogeneous material, which is a necessity as the time for breakdown of this material may make it a significant part of the fossil record.

    The scientists are not saying it is a new form of rock. Only possibly the submitter or samzenpus are (mistakenly) saying this.

    To repeat: RTFA, no new rocks here!

    1. Re:And neither does anyone else... by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 2, Funny

      Please, RTFA!

      You must be new here.

      --
      "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
      --- Jerry Garcia
  9. Re:Only one picture - nfm by GigaplexNZ · · Score: 3, Informative

    The first link contained one picture with a subsequent link to a PDF containing more pictures. The second link contained multiple subsequent links which have multiple pictures.

  10. Re:Humans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wow, you are so wise. I wish the whole world could be as smart as you. That whole spaceship Earth thing, blew my mind! The way you've removed yourself, sort of transcended above the discussion like a celestial being looking whimsically down on an inferior race. I'm sure your coworkers appreciate your many (unsolicited) opinions on many topics.

  11. A new kind of by Tablizer · · Score: 2

    Horta

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  12. Like organic things in dinosaur era by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Does this mean that like organic things in dinosaur era which turned into petroleum in favorable conditions, these plasticrocks will turn to rock oil ?

  13. Re:Awesome! by jandersen · · Score: 2

    Yeah this is controversial and will piss off all the hippies, but I think it's awesome how humans are affecting the ecosystem of earth.

    There isn't anything strange or awesome about a species affecting the ecosystem of Earth - the oxygen content of our atmosphere is largely due to cyanobacteria and the like. Apparently there is little on this planet that isn't affected to a significant extent by life - even things like land erosion and plate techtonics.

  14. Typical AAAS tripe by bradley13 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Here's the key phrase out of the abstract: "...melted plastic during campfire burning... [increases] the potential for burial and subsequent preservation". Why? Because lumps of melted plastic stick to sand or rocks, and hence are more likely to not blow away, be degraded by UV or whatever.

    This is a topic for a scientific paper, and deem headline-worthy by the AAAS? I knew there was a reason I cancelled my membership a couple of decades ago...

    --
    Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
    1. Re:Typical AAAS tripe by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

      You sure you didn't cancel your membership to the AARP?

      This was posted in the proceedings of the Geological Society of America, Not the American Academy for the Advance of Science (AAAS).

      * For those of you fine Slashdotters not of the American persuasion, the AARP used to be called the American Association of Retired Persons, likely to differentiate itself from the AAA, the American Automobile Association. Now it appears to be just called AARP.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  15. Re:Awesome! by wagnerrp · · Score: 2

    The OP was talking about another petroleum cycle to produce fuel for another round of intelligent organism to use. Hopefully your retirement plans are finalized before that several hundred million year process has completed.