Is it ethically bad to use a large amount of (recycled) plastic on your land?

Eldi_Dos

Some logging lorries have a system for increasing and decreasing tyre pressures to suit the terrain they are on, looks quite a impressive system.

I do not think the forestry industry is completely in the clear when it comes to introducing plastics into a otherwise pristine environment.The use of spiral tree guards when planting shelter belts of native trees is one area that comes to mind were there has been a change of policy in recent years.

FreeBear

LightFlare said:

GervisLooper said:

At the start I had thought to only use sustainable material like wood or stone which would decompose back to the land.

Hate to be the one that says it - but I don’t think stone is either sustainable or decomposes.

The destruction of whole mountains for something that has taken millions of years to develop... One only has to take a look at the slate mines of Wales & Cumbria and then think about what once was.

Eldi_Dos

I quite often use a park and ride near us as I do not like taking car into town and city centres.When I look north from the park and ride there is a lovely view of a hill and it seems a timeless vista,but if you had stood on the same spot forty five years ago you would not have seen it for there was a hill in between, that hill was used as the base for the motorway that we all travel up and down nowadays.
I must admit to the untrained eye I cannot see any evidence of a hill once having been there.

casper_gutman

FreeBear said:

LightFlare said:

GervisLooper said:

At the start I had thought to only use sustainable material like wood or stone which would decompose back to the land.

Hate to be the one that says it - but I don’t think stone is either sustainable or decomposes.

The destruction of whole mountains for something that has taken millions of years to develop... One only has to take a look at the slate mines of Wales & Cumbria and then think about what once was.

The issues caused by quarrying are at least localised, and disused quarries aren't afflicted by the chemical pollution that affects metal ore mining sites so are taken over by wildlife relatively quickly.

An important issue that people often don't consider with the use of stone is the emissions associated with transport. These are a really high proportion of the climate impact for stone/aggregates. If large projects like road, rail, new nuclear power etc. can use site-won aggregates for as much as possible of their requirements (e.g., by designing so that material excavated from one area is re-used nearby) then this can make a really significant difference to carbon emissions. It complicates the planning of works though, as you really want to avoid double handling the material or having to store massive quantities on site.

In smaller domestic-scale projects, the best we can often do is to buy locally-quarried gravel. Whatever is cheapest at your local builder's merchant will often be the one to go for! Don't buy tonnes of Cotswold sandstone gravel if you live in Aberdeen, or use slate for groundcover in East Anglia. Stick to the local stuff. It'll look more in keeping anyway.

ETA: If you can obtain rubble from local demolition that happens to be available when you need it, this is usually a very good option environmentally. Just check it doesn't contain a hazardous materials like asbestos, or excessive amounts of gypsum plaster/plasterboard that should be recovered for reuse.

Section62

FreeBear said:

LightFlare said:

GervisLooper said:

At the start I had thought to only use sustainable material like wood or stone which would decompose back to the land.

Hate to be the one that says it - but I don’t think stone is either sustainable or decomposes.

The destruction of whole mountains for something that has taken millions of years to develop... One only has to take a look at the slate mines of Wales & Cumbria and then think about what once was.

Fill the holes up with domestic and commercial waste, cover the top with soil and grass, nobody will ever know what happened.

Strictly stone does decompose, although the geologists and engineers call it 'weathering'.  It just takes a very long time (in the absence of acid rain and other nasties) for it to happen.  The big rocks will one day be silts and clays.

Also one day, geologists will excavate GervisLooper's land and wonder which ice age resulted in the deposition of an isolated strata of granite pebbles above the clays and organic material.  Hopefully the whole of MSE will have been archived so in 100,000 years the true answer will still be here for them to read.

FreeBear

Section62 said:

FreeBear said:

LightFlare said:

GervisLooper said:

At the start I had thought to only use sustainable material like wood or stone which would decompose back to the land.

Hate to be the one that says it - but I don’t think stone is either sustainable or decomposes.

The destruction of whole mountains for something that has taken millions of years to develop... One only has to take a look at the slate mines of Wales & Cumbria and then think about what once was.

Fill the holes up with domestic and commercial waste, cover the top with soil and grass, nobody will ever know what happened.

Just look up Blaenavon Viaduct - Built in 1790, and buried under waste, it was rediscovered by Time Team in 2001.

Eldi_Dos

If geologists ever dig up GL's patch in the far distant future lets hope they don't find a layer of plastic residue and compare it to a modern equivalent of K-Pg boundry.

GervisLooper

Section62 said:

Also one day, geologists will excavate GervisLooper's land and wonder which ice age resulted in the deposition of an isolated strata of granite pebbles above the clays and organic material.  Hopefully the whole of MSE will have been archived so in 100,000 years the true answer will still be here for them to read.

Seems my original question of plastic has gotten lost in the shuffle!

Eldi_Dos

Section62 said:

FreeBear said:

LightFlare said:

GervisLooper said:

At the start I had thought to only use sustainable material like wood or stone which would decompose back to the land.

Hate to be the one that says it - but I don’t think stone is either sustainable or decomposes.

The destruction of whole mountains for something that has taken millions of years to develop... One only has to take a look at the slate mines of Wales & Cumbria and then think about what once was.

Also one day, geologists will excavate GervisLooper's land and wonder which ice age resulted in the deposition of an isolated strata of granite pebbles above the clays and organic material.  Hopefully the whole of MSE will have been archived so in 100,000 years the true answer will still be here for them to read.

I have always been fascinated that when they were tunneling one of the tube lines in south London,that after going through clay they hit a patch of rock debris (scree ?) and were able to work out from that how far south one of ice fields had got.