
Wild bees are recycling plastic, study finds (2014) - Mz
http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/recycling/blogs/wild-bees-are-recycling-plastic-study-finds
======
codeshaman
The planet will be here a long long time after we're gone.. And it will heal
itself, it will cleanse itself, because that's what it does. It's a self
correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be
renewed and if it's true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will
simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm - the Earth plus Plastic.

The Earth doesn't share our prejudice towards plastic. Plastic came out of the
Earth. The Earth probably sees plastic as just another one of it's children.
Could be the only reason the Earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the
first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn't know how to make it. Needed
us..

Could be the answer to the age old philosophical question "Why are we here
?"..

Plastic, assholes!

:)

\---

George Carlin
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c)

~~~
TeMPOraL
The planet will be here, it will incorporate the plastic in some way, like it
does with everything. The issue was _never_ about the planet itself. Planets
don't have minds (that we know of) and don't care. They just are. It's only
us, humans, who care about how the planet looks like - because we can only
survive in a tiny band of possible planet states, and live comfortably in even
tinier band.

~~~
codeshaman
Yes. That's what the man says. "The planet is fine. We are fucked"

~~~
TeMPOraL
Sorry. Didn't realize at first you're quoting George Carlin. I'm watching the
video now. It's the first time I hear about him. I see now that
anthropomorphisation of planet is a part of humour.

Sadly, too many people think that way for serious - that the planet is
important for itself, that this particular state it's in ("blue marble") is
somehow meaningful for the planet itself, or valuable for reasons not related
to having humans on it.

~~~
kwhitefoot
> or valuable for reasons not related to having humans on it.

If there is life outside then it might value the blue marble.

And it is also possible that it could become valuable for non-human (AI?)
reasons later.

------
Aloha
While its undeniably sad that we litter so much in our environment - its very
very cool that nature is adapting in the way it is to our dirty habits - in
the same vein I'm expecting a species of something will evolve to eat and
biodegrade plastics, rubbers and other similar materials.

~~~
bitJericho
While great for the environment, this would be terrible for things we don't
want to degrade!

~~~
kaybe
It is also not a good strategy for the organisms involved since what we
produce, especially the organics, changes fast and we're about the only
source..

------
ivanca
This opens an interesting question, what if we could slightly modify plastic
to make it more useful to other species, maybe beavers, maybe bees, maybe
ants, maybe woodpeckers, maybe there is an specific trait that one (or many)
of this kind of animals seek for when using materials (or eating)

~~~
jacobolus
The better solution is to start using biodegradable plastic where necessary,
and avoiding plastic altogether where there are reasonable alternatives.

~~~
pflanze
Note that there are two kinds of "biodegradable" plastics. Vegetable based
plastics (which are definitely unproblematic when left in the environment) and
"OXO-biodegradable" plastics which are just normal plastics (like PE, PP, PS)
with additions that make them break down quicker than normally. If a bag feels
like a normal plastic bag then it will be one of the latter kind; vegetable
based plastics have a different feel to them (kind of rubbery), to my
understanding; since they are produced in a different way (by a different
industry), and more expensive, you rarely encounter them.

The Wikipedia article on OXO biodegradable plastics[1] seems to be heavily
edited by industry participants. Last I heard[2] was that OXO-biodegradable
plastics are basically cheating, as they leave the plastic in the wild, just
invisibly (perhaps even making things worse as then it can't be collected
anymore?). The Wikipedia article argues that the fragments will be decomposed
by organisms. I don't know which is true, but wanted to point out that there
are two kinds and you should be careful not to mix them up in discussions.

    
    
        [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxo_Biodegradable
        [2] from the film Addicted To Plastic [3] 
            or other places, not sure anymore
        [3] http://www.crypticmoth.com/plastic.php

~~~
pheroden
I don't see the issue even if the plastics are invisibly dispersed in the
wild. I use styrofoam in my potting soils, for a reason.

~~~
creshal
Not all plastics are safe for human ingestion, and if you disperse them in the
wild, that's where they end up sooner or later.

~~~
pheroden
Ah, I made the assumption that a vegetable oil based plastic would at worst
break down or go rancid. And tiny bits of rancid oil wouldn't be harmful.
However, if they're using other chemicals to produce these, then it's entirely
possible that they would be unsafe. My bad.

~~~
pflanze
I explicitly said that vegetable based plastics are _not_ a problem. What
we're worried about are the OXO plastics, which are _not_ vegetable, but
mineral oil based.

~~~
pheroden
I obviously misread your comment. My bad. Not a good day for commenting for
me.

------
zzalpha
Cue George Carlin quote in 3... 2...

~~~
Wingman4l7
How about a remix by melodysheep (John Boswell) instead?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FFgVayrWjs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FFgVayrWjs)

------
kaitai
Very interesting! and answers some questions in previous bee-centric
discussions re: wild bees.

------
Bud
This isn't recycling, though. The bees are using the material, not recycling
it.

~~~
ivanca
If a human uses wasted plastic is called recycling, don't know what would it
be any different for bees.

~~~
rz2k
Isn't re-use the slogan-compatible word? I'm not sure if the bees are
disqualifed if they use the plastic for a different use or how much physical
alteration matters.

~~~
hanniabu
Yeah, reuse it the proper word for both scenarios.

~~~
Noelkd
Reduce, reuse, recycle!

