On Sun, 22 Sep 2019 09:38:21 -0600, rbowman
wrote:

On 09/22/2019 04:53 AM, Cindy Hamilton wrote:
It's not just litter, though. We need an incentive to develop better
everything: more biodegradable plastics (perhaps from plant sources),
fuels and lubricants, the whole ball of wax.


With bee populations in decline, the wax thing might be a problem. Whale
oil isn't politically correct anymore.

While I agree with you there also has to be a greater degree of
something. I'm at loss for an appropriate word.

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On the face of it, that seems like a great idea. If you look at the
whole cycle of polylactic acid production from seeds to end products
does the idea hold up? After the oil embargo there were attempts to
produce thermoset molding compounds from furfural to replace
phenol-formaldehyde resins. There was limited success.

In either case while limited production is feasible, where does the
biomass come from? Phenol can also be produced from oil derived from
junipers and pinyon pine. Is it time to clear cut thousand of square
miles of the southwest? If you want to ramp up polylactic acid
production do you divert potatoes from food to plastic bags? Tom's of
Maine started a project to use unmarketable potatoes to make
biodegradable packaging peanuts. That might work for one very small
company in potato country but does it scale? How much land would need to
be diverted to potato production? What crops would it displace?

E15 fuel is a good example. The tariff wars might make corn growers
uneasy but if you want to really make them howl talk about reducing the
mandated use of alcohol. What happens when the Ogallala Aquifer comes up
dry?


You last point may be more relevant than any other thing people worry
about. We are going to run out of water long before we run out of oil.
People always say we will just desalinate sea water. That probably
works for drinking water but that is a fraction of a percent of the
water we use. Agriculture with reclaimed sea water is just ridiculous.