Re: Carbon sequestration

In article <47c6dc75$0$8412$db0fefd9@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Peter Fairbrother <zenadsl6186@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Reducing the amount of carbon released into the environment is todays
standard method of ameliorating carbon-caused global warming, but what
methods are available to the average joe or housewife (do we still have
housewives?) for sequestering the carbon already in the environment?



The first and easiest method is NOT to recycle plastic, in fact to use
as much plastic as possible and ensure it goes into landfill.

This is counter to everyday "wisdom" and may need some explanation.
World production of oil has peaked, or is just about to (opinions
differ), but in general the amount of oil which will be produced in
future is fixed, and in practice I don't think there is anything we can
do to change it.

So turn the oil into plastic rather than burn it, and then bury it where
it will hopefully last for several hundred years. This isn't really
storing up a problem for the future - in a few hundred years the carbon
crunch will be solved, one way or another.

Hmm, it takes a fair lot of energy to make it to start with. It also does
break down rather quicker than that, albeit mostly when exposed to
sunlight.



My next suggestion is to NOT recycle biowaste (biodegradeable waste).
This is more problematic, and depends partly on the participation of the
waste companies. If biowaste is recycled it gets composted and part of
the carbon is released to the atmosphere immediately, the compost is
then used and the rest of the carbon is released over about two or three
years.

However if biowaste is put into landfill it takes about 15 years to be
released - and if it is put into landfill in plastic bags, and if the
landfill company doesn't break up the bags, it stays there much longer.
If you have ever seen a landfill dump, the operators break up the
plastic bags - this is in order to get the waste to ferment quicker, it
isn't about helping the environment.

The more you bury it the more that it degrades to methane. While this can
be and is qgathered and burnt, it still releases CO2

That's 12 or more extra years worth of carbon tied up where it doesn't
hurt anything.
Up to.

A better solution would be to seal biowaste in deep mines, and just
leave it there, where in due time it will turn into coal or even oil -
but this is something the average Joe/housewife has no immediate control
of.



Recycling plastic and biowaste is about money - there's brass in that
muck - but it's NOT about the environment. If there was no money
involved, we wouldn't do it.

For energy reasons it is still good to recycle glass and metals however.


-- Peter Fairbrother

(Yes, I'm entirely serious. Yes, I'm a chemist.)
Better not to produce the plastic anyway. Water from great distances
should not be sold, let alone in plastic. Likewise stiop producing
Aluminium for cans.

--
Regards from Bob Seago: http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/rjseago/
.

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