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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-39931042
An uninhabited island in the South Pacific is littered with the highest density of plastic waste anywhere in the world, according to a study.
Henderson Island, part of the UK's Pitcairn Islands group, has an estimated 37.7 million pieces of debris on its beaches. The island is near the centre of an ocean current, meaning it collects much rubbish from boats and South America.
Researchers hope people will "rethink their relationship with plastic".
The joint Australian and British study said the rubbish amounted to 671 items per square metre and a total of 17 tonnes.
http://m.pnas.org/content/early/2017/05/09/1619818114
Wikipedia has coverage of Henderson Island and notes:
Henderson Island (formerly also San Juan Bautista and Elizabeth Island) is an uninhabited island in the south Pacific Ocean. It is one of the world's last two raised coral atolls whose ecosystems remain relatively unaffected by human contact, except that they are now subject to tonnes of plastic pollution that collects there, as observed in 2017[3]. Ten of its 51 flowering plants, all four of its land birds and about a third of the identified insects and gastropods are endemic – a remarkable diversity given the island's size.[4]
Measuring 9.6 kilometres (6.0 mi) by 5.1 kilometres (3.2 mi), it has an area of 37.3 square kilometres (14.4 sq mi) and is located 193 kilometres (120 mi) northeast of Pitcairn Island.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday May 17 2017, @06:31PM (1 child)
17 tons of styrene costs about twenty thousand bucks at normal retail prices for fresh unrecycled monomer. Yes I know it varies a hell of a lot but it vaguely averages about a buck per kilo plus or minus 100% or so.
I have enough chemistry background that sometimes I'll watch cars on a railroad while waiting for the train to pass, and figure out how much each payload is worth. I figured out once that one of those car transporters loaded with obese SUVs was worth something like 20 times as much as a fully loaded styrene tanker. Someday as the economy declines people are going to start pirating railroads. Anyway...
Now given an infinite amount of energy (and, admittedly, capital...) 17 or so tons of hydrocarbon feedstock gives 17 tons of any organic chemical you'd like. The ratio isn't 1:1 because I'm assuming an infinite supply of free H and O atoms, and frankly infinite free Cl and Na.
Anyway my point is an advanced enough drug cartel could launch a drone and come back with 17 tons of ... product. Any product.
We can assume doing this in your basement or back yard will result in a lot of unwanted government attention. However "in the middle of nowhere" might be a nice location for a total synthesis of pure THC oil, perhaps.
So yes there is little point in processing 17 tons of plastic into perfect reusable styrene, but a tanker ship full of 17 tons of perfect synthetic hash oil would probably make the whole project profitable.
Its an interesting wedge against "war against some drugs" governments... you don't want drone ships full of synthetic pure THC oil returning from the sea, well then stop dumping plastic in the sea and the problem will kinda fix itself.
Another fascinating idea... if patented copyrighted anti-cancer drugs cost $100K per shot, if a foreign cartel launched a total synthesis ship at $100K/shot how much would 17 tons be worth, even if sold 90% off on the gray / black market...
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Wednesday May 17 2017, @08:36PM
Ultimately, I think RoI vs. feel good factor rears its ugly head again. I can't imagine a drug producer putting feel good factor ahead of any potential profit, especially one with the resources for an operation of that scale, whereas I'm sure there are plenty of people willing to pay way over the odds for recycled plastic goods made from garbage recovered from an effort to clean up an honest to $deity tropical island. Especially amongst those that like to be *seen* to have done or bought something because they feel it's some making kind of statement about who/what they want to be seen as.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!