| From: Jon Koplik | 10/16/2019 12:36:42 AM | | | | | | NYT -- polystyrene (Styrofoam) decomposes in sunlight much faster than thought .................
Oct. 11, 2019
In the Sea, Not All Plastic Lasts Forever
Polystyrene, a common ocean pollutant, decomposes in sunlight much faster than thought, a new study finds.
By William J. Broad
A major component of ocean pollution is less devastating and more manageable than usually portrayed, according to a scientific team at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, Mass., and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Previous studies, including one last year by the United Nations Environment Program, have estimated that polystyrene, a ubiquitous plastic found in trash, could take thousands of years to degrade, making it nearly eternal. But in a new paper, five scientists found that sunlight can degrade polystyrene in centuries or even decades.
“Policymakers generally assume that polystyrene lasts forever,” Collin P. Ward, a marine chemist at Woods Hole and the study’s lead author said in a statement on Thursday. “That’s part of the justification for writing policy that bans it.” A main rationale for his team’s study, he added, “was to understand if polystyrene actually does last forever.”
Polystyrene, one form of which often carries the brand name Styrofoam, is used to manufacture single-use cups, straws, yogurt containers, disposable razors, plastic tableware, packing materials and many other everyday items, which are discarded daily by the ton. Much of it ends up in the ocean. A swirling mass of throwaway junk known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located between Hawaii and California, is estimated to occupy an area roughly twice the size of Texas.
Many nations, companies, citizen groups and ocean institutes, as well as United Nations programs, have worked hard to ban single-use items and better regulate their disposal.
“We’re not calling the concerns or the actions wrong,” Christopher M. Reddy, a marine chemist at Woods Hole and another author on the study, said in an interview. “We just have a new thread to add and we think it’s significant.”
The study was published Thursday in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters, a publication of the American Chemical Society, a scientific group based in Washington.
The research was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Frank and Lisina Hoch Endowed Fund at Woods Hole, the Stanley Watson Chair in Oceanography at Woods Hole and a graduate research fellowship from the National Science Foundation, a federal agency.
It’s common knowledge that sunlight can cause plastics to weather. “Just look at plastic playground toys, park benches, or lawn chairs, which can rapidly become sun-bleached,” Dr. Ward noted in the Woods Hole statement.
The new study demonstrated that sunlight does even more, breaking down polystyrene into basic chemical units of organic carbon, which dissolves in seawater, and trace amounts of carbon dioxide, at levels far too low to play a role in climate change. By the end of this process the plastic has effectively disappeared from the environment.
In the paper, the researchers described the study as “the first direct evidence” of how of sunlight can break down polystyrene in the environment into its basic chemical building blocks.
Previous studies focused largely on the degrading effect of microbes. That made sense, Dr. Reddy, said, because microbes can eat many forms of organic carbon. But, he added, the chemical structure of polystyrene -- particularly its backbone of large, ringed molecules -- made the plastic unappetizing to decomposing bacteria.
However, that same molecular backbone turned out to be “the perfect shape and size to catch certain frequencies of sunlight,” Dr. Reddy said. And the energy that is absorbed breaks the chemical bonds.
In the lab, the researchers tested five different samples of polystyrene to see if sunlight could tear them apart. The team submerged each sample in a sealed glass container of water and exposed it to light from a solar simulator, a special lamp that mimics the frequencies of sunlight. The scientists then studied the water for evidence of breakdown products.
With sophisticated tools of detection and analysis, Dr. Ward and his colleagues then traced the origin of the loose materials back to the polystyrene. “We used multiple methods, and they all pointed to the same outcome,” he said in the statement: sunlight can turn polystyrene from a solid material back into basic chemical units.
The study also found that additives to polystyrene, which can determine its color, flexibility and other physical features, can slow or speed decomposition.
In a joint interview, Dr. Ward and Dr. Reddy said that one remaining puzzle concerns the exact nature of the dissolved organic carbon, which is too small in size to form visible particles. “We feel confident we can figure it out,” Dr. Reddy said.
The research team included Cassia J. Armstrong and Julia H. Jackson of Woods Hole, and Anna N. Walsh of Woods Hole and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In the paper, the authors noted that the newly identified means of polystyrene breakdown “should be incorporated into global fate models” for plastics and help frame policy. None of the current inventories “account for degradation,” Dr. Ward noted.
In the interview, he and Dr. Reddy suggested that the new finding might eventually shed light on one of the outstanding mysteries of ocean pollution: that more than 99 percent of the plastic that should be identifiable is missing. Expeditions that have specifically looked for evidence of the calculated mass of plastic have repeatedly come up with surprisingly low returns.
In time, Dr. Ward said, the accelerating search for the breakdown products of polystyrene and other kinds of oceanic pollution may let scientists “balance the books.”
© 2019 The New York Times Company
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| From: Snowshoe | 10/21/2019 2:39:35 PM | | | | | | The Oyster Poachers of Connemara
getpocket.com
In Ireland, few things are black and white, especially the law—and the tales of men who break it to dive for treasure under cover of darkness.
Like many stories of Ireland, this one begins in a bar. It was after closing time one quiet night during the mid 1960s in Connemara, and in the corner of the pub, a group of lads talked in low voices while nursing their pints. The publican went about his business, wiping up the bar top and rearranging stools. Soon, the men had empty glasses, but made no moves towards leaving. They were waiting for something. When the headlights of a pick-up truck shone through the window, they scattered out into the night. This is the first oyster poaching memory V (as he wishes to be referred to in this article) can recall. The men in the bar were waiting for a buyer who agreed to meet under the cover of darkness. The product was oysters, dredged from a neglected bed about two miles offshore. A typical poaching expedition took place under the glow of moonlight with three men setting out in a currach, a wooden Irish rowboat. For two to three hours at a time, the men—fishermen, farmers, and laborers by day—collected oysters from the sandy sea floor, filling mesh bags to the brim. Making as little noise as possible, they rowed back to the coastline... |
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| From: Jon Koplik | 11/22/2019 1:21:50 AM | | | | | | WSJ -- Bumble Bee Foods LLC Files for Bankruptcy .................................................
Nov. 21, 2019
Bumble Bee Files for Bankruptcy With $925 Million Offer From Taiwan’s FCF
Taiwan seafood company FCF Fishery’s offer for canned tuna maker includes $275 million in cash
By Alexander Gladstone
Bumble Bee Foods LLC, one of the nation’s largest canned tuna providers, filed for bankruptcy protection Thursday with an agreement to sell its assets to Taiwan’s FCF Fishery Co. for roughly $925 million.
San Diego-based Bumble Bee, owned by London-based private-equity firm Lion Capital, said that a chapter 11 process will help facilitate the sale to FCF as well as “reduce its debt burden caused by recent and significant legal challenges.”
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Bumble Bee was preparing to file for bankruptcy within days as it faces mounting legal expenses stemming from its involvement in a conspiracy to fix prices on canned tuna.
Bumble Bee pleaded guilty in 2017 and agreed to pay a $25 million fine for having formed a cartel with its two main competitors, Chicken of the Sea International and StarKist Co. The Justice Department subsequently indicted former Bumble Bee Chief Executive Christopher Lischewski for his alleged role in the conspiracy. Mr. Lischewski, who pleaded not guilty, took a leave of absence from Bumble Bee last year and is on trial in California federal court.
Chief Financial Officer Kent McNeil said in a declaration filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., Thursday that the $25 million criminal fine from the DOJ, as well as civil litigation from Bumble Bee’s customers and related legal expenses, resulted in the company’s default on its term loan and ultimately its decision to file for bankruptcy.
In addition to the hit from the antitrust probe, the company is facing class-action lawsuits from consumers, distributors and retailers over the conspiracy. Other consumers suing Bumble Bee have said it wrongfully labeled its tuna as being produced through “dolphin-safe” fishing methods. Bumble Bee has said its labeling was justified.
Bumble Bee has 41% of the U.S. canned tuna market and roughly 13% of the U.S. share of sales of canned “light meat” tuna, according to Mr. McNeil. It also has about 40% of U.S. sardine sales. But the company’s earnings have been hurt by an industry-wide slowdown as young consumers increasingly prefer fresh food and gravitate toward newer and more upscale brands.
FCF’s stalking horse bid, which will be tested at a bankruptcy auction, includes $275 million cash and $638.6 million of debt. The Taiwanese company has also agreed to pay the remaining $17 million Bumble Bee owes to the Justice Department.
The canned tuna seller is entering bankruptcy with up to $280 million in bankruptcy financing, provided by its existing lenders, so it can continue operating in chapter 11 pending completion of the sale.
Bumble Bee’s roots date back more than a century when the Columbia River Packers Association began fishing for tuna off the Oregon coast and established the Bumble Bee tuna brand.
The company has hired law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, investment bank Houlihan Lokey Inc. and restructuring firm AlixPartners LLP to handle its chapter 11 case.
-- Josh Beckerman contributed to this article.
Write to Alexander Gladstone at alexander.gladstone@wsj.com
Copyright © 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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| To: Jon Koplik who wrote (1372) | 11/22/2019 12:41:21 PM | | From: Neeka | | | | That is just sad. I remember delivering fresh albacore tuna to the Bumblebee canning plant in Astoria. The old building is still there and has been converted to a restaurant and offices as well as a gift shop and museum.
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