My uncle is a sheep farmer in Ireland. He has hundreds of kilos of sheep's wool, maybe thousands, and the stuff is basically worthless. The sheep are raised for meat (which is a whole other issue) and have to be sheared every year for their own comfort. The wool isn't soft enough for sweaters but used to be sold to a company in England where it was used to make big industrial wool carpets. But prices are so low the sale wouldn't even cover the cost of shearing or transport. Even getting it for free I tried to find a way to get in converted into insulation (it's filthy and takes a lot of water and effort to clean properly) for my own use but I couldn't make it work. If anyone knows of a company that can clean and dry fleece in Ireland please do let me know!
A wonderful example of how complex the process of addressing a hotter planet can be. The world is a messy place that we increasingly attempt to understand in terms of sound bytes and antisocial media posts.
It takes more than first order thinking to understand the complexity of the environment and our impact upon it. Yet we rely on likes and up votes to inform our decisions. "Explain it in 15 seconds or less or I can't be bothered to pay attention to what you are saying." There seldom are simple solutions to complex problems.
All other issues aside, some cattle are now being fed a seaweed extract which significantly reduces their methane emissions (I don’t have the research on hand, but I believe it’s in the order of 80-90%). I wonder if it would be just as effective for sheep?
Revisiting decisions that were taken before any of us were alive may be amusing entertainment but it is a complete waste of time.
We are where we are.
PET is a phenomenally useful plastic, and with its ability to be recycled it's far more environmental friendly than some of the other options. Wishing PET to go away is not going to happen. We will undoubtedly be using large quantities of PET for the foreseeable future and certainly for the lifetimes of most of the people reading this comment.
This is where we are.
PET recycling is a thing, however due to contamination of the feed there are also many applications which require virgin PET. This isn't going to change. Therefore, it's critical we find ways of recycling contaminated PET.
You should've asked the architect who said he wouldn't use it because of the PET to choose one of three results. Because the recycle PET will be reused in a non-food application, it will be burnt, or it will be landfill!
Ask him which one of those destinations he thinks is the best for the environment.
"but some argue that using PET from bottles for uses other than bottles means that the bottle makers need more virgin PET,"
This is clearly incorrect. In the same way as using or not using wool as building insulation has no effect on the production of sheep for meat products.
My uncle is a sheep farmer in Ireland. He has hundreds of kilos of sheep's wool, maybe thousands, and the stuff is basically worthless. The sheep are raised for meat (which is a whole other issue) and have to be sheared every year for their own comfort. The wool isn't soft enough for sweaters but used to be sold to a company in England where it was used to make big industrial wool carpets. But prices are so low the sale wouldn't even cover the cost of shearing or transport. Even getting it for free I tried to find a way to get in converted into insulation (it's filthy and takes a lot of water and effort to clean properly) for my own use but I couldn't make it work. If anyone knows of a company that can clean and dry fleece in Ireland please do let me know!
A wonderful example of how complex the process of addressing a hotter planet can be. The world is a messy place that we increasingly attempt to understand in terms of sound bytes and antisocial media posts.
It takes more than first order thinking to understand the complexity of the environment and our impact upon it. Yet we rely on likes and up votes to inform our decisions. "Explain it in 15 seconds or less or I can't be bothered to pay attention to what you are saying." There seldom are simple solutions to complex problems.
All other issues aside, some cattle are now being fed a seaweed extract which significantly reduces their methane emissions (I don’t have the research on hand, but I believe it’s in the order of 80-90%). I wonder if it would be just as effective for sheep?
Revisiting decisions that were taken before any of us were alive may be amusing entertainment but it is a complete waste of time.
We are where we are.
PET is a phenomenally useful plastic, and with its ability to be recycled it's far more environmental friendly than some of the other options. Wishing PET to go away is not going to happen. We will undoubtedly be using large quantities of PET for the foreseeable future and certainly for the lifetimes of most of the people reading this comment.
This is where we are.
PET recycling is a thing, however due to contamination of the feed there are also many applications which require virgin PET. This isn't going to change. Therefore, it's critical we find ways of recycling contaminated PET.
You should've asked the architect who said he wouldn't use it because of the PET to choose one of three results. Because the recycle PET will be reused in a non-food application, it will be burnt, or it will be landfill!
Ask him which one of those destinations he thinks is the best for the environment.
"but some argue that using PET from bottles for uses other than bottles means that the bottle makers need more virgin PET,"
This is clearly incorrect. In the same way as using or not using wool as building insulation has no effect on the production of sheep for meat products.