"Melt this at home": keeping plastic bag waste ‬from getting into the ocean

Working with fellow National Geographic Emerging Explorer Jose Orteaga of Nicaragua, we are trying to come up with ideas for protecting marine life, like the endangered sea turtles, that you can do at home. Reducing the number of plastic bags that get into the ocean is one way, because turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish and get them lodged in their throats and die. By simply melting your plastic bags into compact lumps using a typical household deep fryer you can ensure they never get to the ocean.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• T.H. Culhane
• Solar CITIES
• Jose Orteaga
• Plastic recycling
• marine turtle conservation

[TheChipmunk2008]

Some stores here in the UK (Notably Sainsbury's supermarkets) have bag recycling bins. In places where these don't exist, this is a good solution.

Also, polythene burns with little or no smoke, so to dispose of poly waste while camping, the campfire IS an acceptable way of doing it.

I don't see why there are so many negative votes on this video, it's someone who cares and to me, people NEED to care!

[tculhane]

@TheChipmunk2008 Thanks so much for your kind and helpful comments. I don't understand the negativity either, but that is the nature of youtube; people seem to like to attack in this medium, as if we are supposed to be offering perfect solutions when all we are are concerned citizens posting things we have found interesting or helpful. It's nice to find somebody else who gets that, and who cares. Cheers to you and yours; may we make the world better bit by bit.

[100msw]

Dont be so stupid how will it not effect the oil,after you said that you lost all credibility. with your silly idea

[tculhane]

@100msw Sorry, I didn't properly explain -- obviously in the set up I was using, where the can of oil is contiguous with the fryer's oil via the holes in the can, there could be cross contamination. But what I normally have is a melting can that is isolated from the main body of cooking oil which is only used to regulate the temperature and keep it at the right heat for rapid melting without fumes. Then there is no effect on the cooking oil outside the melting can. Is that so silly? :)

[mienaikoe]

it's not so stupid if he can sell it. A shrunken plastic bag chunk is more valuable for buyers of recycled materials than the bags as-is.

[tculhane]

@mienaikoe Thank you for the kind and encouraging comments! People can be so nasty on youtube; it is nice when somebody like you sees and comments on the value of experiments in home plastics recycling. Volume reduction is indeed a great way to increase value as well as keep things from being blown or water carried into sensitive ecological areas.

[tculhane]

@iamaGod357 I think it is more stupid to contribute to the extinction of large charismatic marine mammals like sea turtles that have been on earth for tens of millions of years simply because we are too lazy to take care of our own wastes at home. The so-called "negative externalities" that you produce everytime you go shopping are causing great harm. Go see the film "The Age of Stupid" to understand what is truly stupid -- forfeiting our children's future out of callous indifference.

[DarvinCarvin]

@DarvinCarvin You could densify easier by baking in the oven 30 minutes at 300 °F, but the resulting material is not recoverable. There is equipment to turn the bags into pellets, but it is $ hundreds of thousands. The recycled hdpe resin has a value in pellet form of about 40 ¢ per lb. 91 bags per pound. Need to collect in a way that does not comingle other types of plastic that needs to be sorted, or dirt that needs to be washed. If you did that locally you might be able to make it pay.

[DarvinCarvin]

@tculhane

I appreciate your idealism, but also believe that what critics say is true. There are 1 billion hdpe grocery bags used each year in the U.S., and the idea that there could be a significant impact from melting at home is not credible.

I suggest you try to come up with a way to scale up and recover the value of the plastic, so that cities might process it. Familiarize yourself with the economics of current processes, and make it continuous rather than batch.

[pendragonshall]

Really? I'm not for any animal dying but only those of us that already properly dispose of plastic bags would do this. The trash you see in the oceans, beach's etc. That's still going to be there because those people won't do this.

[HolosNauta]

I do think he should've given some suggestion as to what to do once it's all melted.

Many people need directions or even an incentive to reuse waste.

(not saying I'm one of them... indeed at all) ;-)

[Sianda001]

Save the turtle and over heat the world 15 minutes at a time , just ban plastic bags or charge a large deposit for them

[rigidheddleweaving]

I cut them into strips and weave them into reusable shopping totes. It's called plarn (plastic yarn). :D

[TerrariaWeekly]

i used to be a smart person

but then i took alzheimer to the brain

now i fry bags while cooking.

[TerrariaWeekly]

@100msw So true

[johnybarcelona1]

Fucckk uu turtleman

[kelleyscrosses]

If you care about the environment then you wouldnt be wasting time, electricity and oil on doing dumb stuff. Dropping off plastic as a melt plant that repurposes into plastic boards and other building materials is a much more logical approach....