When plastic is long, it will convert into minerals
When plastic is long, it will convert into minerals
In the mid-20th century, no one knew what would happen to the 55 million tons of plastic that humans made, the Sao Paulo pages of Brazil reported on August 5. And then the vast majority of it becomes garbage. But recently, researchers have discovered that plastics can be converted into minerals.
Plastiglomerado is a blend of natural and artificial materials. When it melts, there will be sand, shells, boulders, basalt, coral, wood, etc., which make up a mix of stone and plastic. As the researchers report in GASToday, an oil and gas engineering magazine, plastics can have more endurance and can be turned into a geological sign.
The university of Plymouth and did not take part in the study of professor Richard Thompson said, "most of the traditional plastic is thin and easily broken, but it is going to describe is a kind of is still very strong in the process of aging."
Plastiglomerado is in long beach, California, in 2006 the Marine research institute of Marine research expert Charles? Moore discovered. He was studying plastic on the beach at the great island of Hawaii.
The beach was filled with garbage because of the impact of the water, and when the strange rock was covered with plastic, Charles took photographs and collected specimens. The importance of this discovery was only recognized in 2012. At that time, Patricia? Cochran was invited to a lecture in a Canadian university about the pollution caused by plastic. Curious about this, she went to the beach to collect a large sample of the samples with her colleagues.
According to Moore, if if is the lava of kilauea volcano can form plastiglomerados, so the lava is not enough to sustain a century on the beach. In conversations with local residents, Moore seems to have found the most plausible reason: campfire camp.
"Camp fire may devour the plastic, and the sand beach degradation of pollutants, this makes it almost impossible to find residual marks, thus forming a kind of geology," Dr Cochran said after the first-hand investigation. Local residents also often use incineration to process plastic, a common practice in developing countries. She believes in other parts of the world must also exist Plastiglomerado, people just haven't found it so no one reported.
Many scientists believe that the earth has entered a new geological age, and that human activity has left a lasting mark on its evolution and development.
"Plastic and Plastiglomerado may become a kind of fossil in the future, because they were in some way, buried in the geological layer for many years. Silent recording of the changes of the earth and humanity, "said experts at the university of leicester in England.
