There’s one system (← clicky) that claims to get @ 775 liters (almost 205 US gallons) of crude per ton of plastic waste. Seems pretty good to a numpty like me. I didn’t see any mention of byproduct, though, and what its issues - or uses - might be.
Did you see the bird? It’s not filled with food waste, lawn waste, paper, glass, or shipwrecks. It’s filled with plastic. And that plastic will outlive the carcass and be easily ingested by another bird.
Hi Nanohedron
If the technology develops adequately, Plasma Gassification might be the way forward.
David
I have seen other similar things involving glass, aluminum, steel and the like. I am sure a few nests have been disrupted for logging for paper too. Sorry I don’t have pretty pictures of it all. Lawns are all a waste, the water and pesticides used in them don’t make for a picture, but they are a horrible throwback to British attempts to tame nature by destroying it. How much gas is burned just to grow a worthless crop like grass? Yes, I saw that picture of a bird and it wasn’t the first time. What is the point? So the photographer got their picture and probably didn’t even clean up the mess. In the grand scheme waste is the problem. Landfills just let us preserve our waste for future generations.
We should make disposable plates out of banana leaves and stuff like that.
Those outer leaves of the cabbage that no one really wants to eat… They’re pretty big, and sort of bowl-shaped. And they grow in more northerly climes, cutting down on the amount of fuel that has to be burned to get them to your average C&F’er. Lettuce is also worth considering, the cultivated varieties have some pretty big leaves.
On a vaguely related note (making containers out of vegetables), I’ve heard that prickly-pear pads can be de-thorned, dried, scooped out, and used for a pouch. Haven’t tried that, but next time I feel like getting a couple of fingers full of stickers I might.
There isn’t such a huge litter problem in my corner of the world, but what I hate the most is seeing new housing developments going up on the outskirts of the city. That was a beautiful hillside before you came along, Mr. Developer. Now it looks like a scab on the land, and our descendants will have to put up with it for centuries, long after the houses have fallen apart because of their crummy, cheapo construction. It won’t even be usable for farming because you scraped so much topsoil off it. All so you could make more money, so you could get more stuff, but it won’t make you content. I hope you’re happy, Mr. Developer. 
What bugs me the most is that there’s still plenty of places inside the city limits that could be built on, or built up, but no. No, they have to go build their ugly subdivisions outside the city because the land is so much cheaper there. Problem is, it can be 8 or 10 miles just to the nearest grocery store, forcing all the people who in that subdivision to burn that much extra gas just to live. Man, I’d love to take massive quantities of dynamite to those things…
(Edit: And I forgot about the homeowners’-association restrictions in these neighborhoods that require you to have a nice lawn, which just consumes that much more fossil fuel and generates that much more runoff.)
Sorry for the off-topic rant, just wanted to get it out of my system :-/
Maybe we should cover the world with hemp, and try that for a hundred years.
We’re versatile.
I don’t think I’ll last that long but I’m willing to give it a shot.
Uh…right. Let them eat shake.
Well that’s just great! I’m allergic to Cannabis. Now I have to go to the hospital 'cause I can’t breathe! Ack! Cough! Wheeze!
No doubt A-Musing would think of it as weeding you out. As it were.
Looks like some houses in France would not be the best fit for you then.
The hospital just told me to always stay up-wind of burning hemp homes, which I’m sure will be the fate of most of these places. The first time you tell a kid “No, it’s not that kind of hemp” they’re going to want to experiment to make sure you’re telling the truth.
This is a decent idea when you’re up against plastic disposable utensils and treated paper, styrofoam, or plastic cups. I haven’t gotten up the nerve to bring my own chopsticks to Asian restaurants, yet. There’s a green bring-yer-own-chopsticks movement in China and Japan, but I think the anti-disposable points are a bit muddy since, on the pro-disposable side, the disposable chopstick industry farms bamboo and fast-growing trees expressly for the purpose, provides jobs, and untreated wood or bamboo are as biodegradable as you could ask for. So to be honest, that one isn’t a huge priority for me.
This thread has inspired me, and the uses of the calabash are intriguing me right now.
Breakdown stainless steel sticks are very convenient, easily fit in a pocket in their own container, and are dishwasher safe, plus recyclable. And then there are lunch boxes:
Nice. All the same, I’m always drawn to the uses and aesthetics you can get out of plant species. Both steel and woody products have their good points, so one isn’t necessarily preferable to the other; the idea of growing and crafting your own pleases me somehow.
I get my best bamboo from Ohio which gets it from China. I also collect bamboo, via a permit, during the winter from federal lands where it is a noxious, non-native, rhizomally invasive, alien plant pest. Yeah, growing my own would be great. Sort of like my own terrestrial garbage patch. 
Did I mention bamboo in that regard? 
You can do some strange things with them.
Dude. With the right mold, you could make [your favorite public personality here] ocarinas.