PLASTIC
Plastic (Polyethylene)
During my recent travels I drove along a highway in western Florida where some road construction was underway in the median strip.
It was a four-lane Interstate highway with the wide median strip the level of which was below the center of the highway lanes.
During the last decade it seems that no one is permitted to dig in their yard or anywhere else without driving some stakes into the ground and attaching sheets of black plastic. I am not certain who established this requirement but it appears that the purpose is to prevent rocks and water from going somewhere where they are not supposed to go.
It doesn’t matter that this thin plastic barrier permits water to flow under it or stones to roll through it and knock it down. What puzzles me is that the plastic must be installed higher than the level at which the work is being done.
I have yet to see stones or water to run uphill but nevertheless, that is where the plastic must be.
As though that wasn’t sufficient, hay bales seem now to be required along with the plastic sheet.
Getting back to my Florida trip, I saw miles and miles of black plastic along that particular stretch of highway. In some places it went through the woods and completely around the off ramps as far as 200 feet away from the actual digging site.
What I found particularly bizarre is that this construction area had a double row of black plastic separated by about 18 inches.
This made the cost of the pointless black plastic installation double what a single wall would have been.
At that point I was determined to find out what company has convinced highway departments that this nonsense was necessary to protect the environment.
What I found: Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) is one of the world’s 10 largest petrochemical manufacturers. The company is among the world’s market leaders in the production of polyethylene.
So, more US dollars flow out of the country not just for oil but for useless plastic that further fills our landfills and will probably still be intact long after the spent radioactive waste from our nuclear power plants has cooled down.
To quote Harry Golden’s book title: “Only In America”.
Which, by the way, is a good read along with his “For Two Cents Plain”
How does that insinuate that they had anything to do with the requirement? As a matter of fact, they don’t make plastic products…they sell the plastic to companies that make the plastic products, and they do not get involved in end use.
They most definitely had nothing to do with this “requirement” which is by the way, not a requirement.
Jason,
I thank you for both reading my Blog and your comment
First, Saudi Arabia is the major producer of the plastic and I did not say that they produced the ‘end-product’, plastic sheet.
The US is buying the plastic from the manufacturer of the plastic, Saudi Arabia. We are trying to limit our use of petroleum and petroleum products so we should discontinue use of this ineffective and unnecessary petrochemical product no matter where it comes from.
Second, if plastic sheet it is not a requirement on construction sites, then why is it being used?
My purpose in writing this article is to stop its use, whether it is a ‘requirement’ or a scheme for contractors to make more money on construction sites.
In short, money is being wasted that could be used for more significant and humanitarian causes at home.
Let’s just resign ourselves to the possibility that some artist is subtley insinuating his art into our environmental culture. Someday we’ll look back at this creation and begin to appreciate what a wonderful contribution this has been to our lives. Reminds me of that creep, er chap I mean, who covered the countryside of some lucky people with a white plastic sheet that extended for miles and miles and miles and…
John:
I’ve usually have a sharp mind and can, even during ridicules extremes, see some motivation that was the original cause of an action.
The “black plastic” fiasco has, I’m afraid, perplexed me ever since it was started. I’ve seen it in Arizona, in the driest desert, spread out like Christmas wrap along roads, developments and individual house construction and modifications. For the life of me I’ve been unable to deduce what the idiot who thought this up was thinking. It does nothing to stop water, dust, dirt, grass or anything else of any material substance. What’s really astounding is that it’s so ubiquitous! Sounds more like “Atlas Shrugged” all the time. Stupid things done for unclear motives by incompetent individuals and because they declare it’s the latest building code everyone else goes along like sheep.
Ell I be! Maybe we can melt it down back into oil! Yea that’s the ticket. Then we can get the gov to mandate (subsidize) black plastic fuel be used for everything. Then we can surely save the caribou and mosquitos from a terrible fate.