THE random nature of the reading material available in any waiting room is fascinating. This week it was a National Geographic article discussing the new type of rock material Plastiglomerate – discovered in 2006.
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Researchers have concluded that people inadvertently created the plastiglomerates after burning plastic debris, either accidentally or intentionally to try to destroy the plastic. Melted plastic trash then sometimes mixes with sediment and other organic debris to produce a new type of rock material.
How many of us have burnt plastic products to “get rid of it”? Plastics never break down to the point where they don’t exist. The total consumption of plastics in Australia in 2016-17 was staggering 3.5 million tonnes – how much plastiglomerate will that eventually make?
This new material, will forever remain in Earth’s rock record and could well become a geological marker for man’s impact on the planet. Notes might read thus: ‘In around 2010 humans were polluting the planet with plastic’. I’m not sure that that is a legacy that we really want.
Another snippet of information that I gained was that 208 previously non-existent minerals have been formed in just the last 250 years. Most are formed by chemical reactions between the natural world and human infrastructure.
In our patch of the world, Hilltops, we are aware that our historical attitude to waste must change. A new Waste Strategy for the Hilltops region is being developed to ensure that council can put in place long-term solutions to resource recovery, recycling and waste management.
As individuals, we have all been a part of the problem and must also become part of the solution.