Usually because many/most plastics are photodegradable and deteriorate in sunlight, polypropylene ropes are a good example of this, they need replacing after a few years, you can see them getting 'furry' after a while and eventually get friable and can crumble in your hands
Yes, that's very true, UV will knock it around big time, but when I looked into it, apparently it happens irrespective of UV exposure...the plastomers still come out.
Any particular MP, or all of them?
Yes, used to use them to tie down roofrack gear, but changed to proper rope when I learned about microplastics.
Context
a few of them in parliament as well
I thought that's what Dani meant...
A few?
Ha ha. Seeing as we were talking about Micro Plastics
This study found 2979 unique compounds present in and migrating from plastic.
I startedwith polyhives in 1977 as advised by the college advisor Bernard Mobus in Aberdeen. I bought two back then - German manufacture and have about 10 or 11 now of different manufacturers but all compatible. I still have the original two and their supers. I dropped one super once and gorilla glue stuck it back together, I have had not one disintegrate. A mouse got into one and chewed a wall and sorted it with a patch of plywood. If you are a bit heavy handed with the hive tool any dent can be cut out square with a Stanley blade and the cut out replace with a piece of wood stuck in with Gorilla glue. I had contemplated glueing a sliver of wood on the bottom of boxes should things get bad but have never needed to do it. However I do paint them every two years with dark brown masonry paint which I am convinced keeps the UV out. Cillitt Bang black mould remover to sterilise though I am going to try hypochlorite this year to see if it is cost effectrive. Don't worry about longevity it isn't an issue. As I said between 12 years and 46 years old now and in better condition than me.................
Oops! Fell asleep at the back.
By the time those boxes are ready to be recycled the facility to recycle will have arrived. Give the box 50 years at a minimum, but ask also what will determine the need to recycle a poly box? If dropped it will break and can be glued; if eaten by rodent it can be filled; if painted, the UV will not affect it.
The recycling doesn't really work like that because already many of those poly hives have probably been tipped into landfill for a variety of reasons ...say because a beekeeper has given up, died, moved interstate (can't move them out of Tasmania for biosecurity reasons), forgotten all about bees and can't be bothered anymore and so on. Out of all the polystyrene hives that have been made, how many do you imagine will actually exist here fifty years from now to be recycled? And who will pay for the facilities? We only have half a million people here and a largely primary industry based economy. Our emergency health system is in a bad way and there are lots of fiscal priorities. When I last took polystyrene to the tip I was advised that petrol tipped on it shrinks it down. In relation to recycling rates, a few years ago, Greenpeace estimations were that there is only 10 per cent nationwide recycling rate for packaging. The best way is not to buy it in the first place and then there is no issue about recycling. Upcycling is better. I've seen wooden pallets destined for the tip made up into beehive boxes here. That's excellent.
Apart from the fact that Poly hives have an almost indefinite life and disregarding the fact that Tasmania has a load of rich or lazy (possibly both) failing beekeepers that are discarding their redundant poly hives to landfill ....there's a lot of possibles and probables in your premise. I would be more worried about the vast amounts of single use polystyrene and plastic packaging that surround most white goods you buy these days ... that (as your whitegoods probably come from some distance away) are there to protect the product .... in their 10's of thousands. Stop worrrying about a few poly hives that are going to outlast you.The recycling doesn't really work like that because already many of those poly hives have probably been tipped into landfill for a variety of reasons ...say because a beekeeper has given up, died, moved interstate (can't move them out of Tasmania for biosecurity reasons), forgotten all about bees and can't be bothered anymore and so on. Out of all the polystyrene hives that have been made, how many do you imagine will actually exist here fifty years from now to be recycled? And who will pay for the facilities? We only have half a million people here and a largely primary industry based economy. Our emergency health system is in a bad way and there are lots of fiscal priorities. When I last took polystyrene to the tip I was advised that petrol tipped on it shrinks it down. In relation to recycling rates, a few years ago, Greenpeace estimations were that there is only 10 per cent nationwide recycling rate for packaging. The best way is not to buy it in the first place and then there is no issue about recycling. Upcycling is better. I've seen wooden pallets destined for the tip made up into beehive boxes here. That's excellent.
Plastic deteriorates without being in the sun. It doesn't matter if you paint it or not. The latest plastic thing to break here was the switch on my heat gun. Never seen the sun and shattered. Mind you, I bought it 25 years ago.
I agree with your sentiments Eric but cost often comes into the equation. The material cost for one of my complete hand made cedar hives is about £40 (Everyone knows labour for making hives is free
) and I expect them to last 20-25 years (some are still almost perfect after 8 years)
Is that all?
Is that all?
If a poly yields 15% more honey than wood, how long would the expensive Abelo tortoise take to catch up with the cheaper hare named Neil?
