Materials Permanence

Quiet citizens of the aquatic world are sending a message humanity and materials engineers need to hear: Bring materials reform by shifting design emphases from plastics (inexpensive, short life, energy x time loser, and 9 billion ton waste stream problem) to metals & glass (long life, infinite reuse & recycle, energy xtime winner). Plastics in the ocean kill 100 million marine animals annually AND pass toxins to others in the food chain. Let's use waste stream species salience to guide future materials substitution choices. The U.S. has become an extremely wasteful society. Over the course of a lifetime, we generate a waste stream between 500 and 1,000 time our own body weight. People responsibly composing tomorrow's Permanent Society might eliminate the whole concept of throw-away products and packaging. ALL materials are or should be rising in permanence and value in these consummate days. Is it not time to develop the Permanent House and Permanent Car? Why not eschew throw-away mentality and design for permanence with infinite re-use containers and packaging? Might the modern architects of long-chain, light-weight (floating), non-corroding polymers strike a better balance with today's strong lattice metals? More than paint is needed. Let's consider using substantial overlays of plastic (a vanishing petro-stream derivative) or rubber (a perpetual natural product of Nature) in concert with heavy core metals (plastic or rubber over steel or aluminum) to stop independent plastic from becoming floating waste, thereby composing a more enduring, valuable, composite product. Aluminum, steel, and glass materials are value leaders, somewhat like gold (it rarely enters any waste stream). Perhaps plastic or glass (ceramic) encapsulation of steel and aluminum can confer nearly limitless product life and keep floating plastics out of our rivers, lakes, and oceans. Fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) has been replacing wood in small watercraft. Perhaps steel or aluminum metals fabricated with substantial plastic encapsulation (MEP) can bring a new level of permanence and economy in cargo or passenger ship construction where FRP cannot go. The composite would be lighter, the heavy plastic barrier would shield from galvanic corrosion far better and more economically than repeated painting, and the marriage of metal with plastic leaves no floating killer waste.

#Plastic #Permanence