Beach Cleaning

[dlochner]

Saw this article today on a project to clean beaches of micro plastics. Cool idea, a beach vacuum. Be sure to check out the video.

http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2...croplastic-removal-machine-arrives-on-hawaii/

 

[jwing]

One of the best bit of advice ever given to me: Before you commit to a project, hold the tool up to the area upon which you will use it.

Vacuuming a beach with a 5" nozzle is not practical, especially when the beach has to be manually cleaned of all bigger rubbish first. Maybe it can be scaled up, but I don't think that the vacuum idea will ever work in the world beyond a college project. I'd be looking at a way to scoop sand and debris into a separating device.

More importantly, the first step toward solving a problem is to minimize the problem.

 

[dlochner]

One of the best bit of advice ever given to me: Before you commit to a project, hold the tool up to the area upon which you will use it.

Vacuuming a beach with a 5" nozzle is not practical, especially when the beach has to be manually cleaned of all bigger rubbish first. Maybe it can be scaled up, but I don't think that the vacuum idea will ever work in the world beyond a college project. I'd be looking at a way to scoop sand and debris into a separating device.

More importantly, the first step toward solving a problem is to minimize the problem.

Keeping plastic out of the ocean is of course the best solution, but that doesn't address the plastic that is already there.

The beach in Hawai'i shown in this video is a small beach on the SW side of the Big Island. Due to the currents and wind conditions, it is a beach that collects an inordinate amount of plastic and debris. The beaches on the Big Island are often small coves surrounded by volcanic rock. For this type of beach, a machine of this size may be a workable solution. Of course trying to clean Daytona Beach with this device would be foolish, but a beach half the size of a football field? Perhaps not. If nothing else this is a good demonstration of a proof of concept, it works on a small scale. Can it scale up? Maybe, maybe not. It is a start.

 

[Leeward Rail]

More importantly, the first step toward solving a problem is to minimize the problem.

Just need some machine to suck up 70% of the humans.

 

[JamesG161]

After a festive weekend our coastal beaches are cleaned with this type equipment...
http://www.hbarber.com/Cleaners/SurfRake/ModelsOptions.html
but this issue is not so much plastic as is..

Broken Glass

If you live near a Mardi Gras celebration area, like New Orleans, the streets are washed clean within hours after a celebration. So are our beaches, in a similar manner.

They are even sorting the plastic , aluminum cans, glass, for recycling now.

Remember Entropy is on our side.
Jim...

 

[jssailem]

James... How is randomness - uncertainty on our side?
The chance of stepping in puke before the streets get swept?

 

[JamesG161]

Entropy is a description of return to stability, and has a value zero or increasing.
Thus, Iron goes back to Rust, naturally, and not the reverse, without the addition of energy.

The chance of stepping in puke

Is LUCK, versus getting puked upon.
_____

Plastics just deteriorates slowly. I try to slow down Entropy production on my boat's plastics.
But alas, The UV energy, from the Sun, works its power to help Entropy.

Try decomposing Mardi Gras beads fast.
Jim...

 

[jssailem]

Well sure... now I need to look this up. So much for Uncertainty

1. thermodynamics : a measure of the unavailable energy in a closed thermodynamic system that is also usually considered to be a measure of the system's disorder, that is a property of the system's state, and that varies directly with any reversible change in heat in the system and inversely with the temperature of the system broadly : the degree of disorder or uncertainty in a system

Damn Jim, I'm ok.
So disorder and randomness are not completely similar but the concept of Uncertainty was on like a sidewinder.

Or in recognition of spring: Like a Honey Bee making a bee line for a flower.

 

[Rick Webb]

There are enough bums aside from the homeless on the beaches in Hawaii that if you traded 5 pounds of trash for one beer the beaches would be spotless in no time at all.

 

[dlochner]

So disorder and randomness are not completely similar but the concept of Uncertainty was on like a sidewinder.

That would be the Heisenberg Principle. Basically it says you can never be certain where the electrons are.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle

As @JamesG161 points out, entropy is the tendency for all things to seek the lowest energy level. Like my home office, it takes energy to keep it neat and orderly, easier to just let things fall where they may. The energy my wife is putting into the system to get me to clean up is insufficient to overcome the tendency towards disorder.

 

[jssailem]

Nuance Dave.

 

[Rick Webb]

The energy my wife is putting into the system to get me to clean up is insufficient to overcome the tendency towards disorder.

Exactly the same issue with the folks living on the beach. The key is to introduce the right catalyst to influence change. For a particular element on the beach it might be beer. Your wife has other ways to influence your behavior. Women are wily creatures and use those tools to trap and deceive us frequently.

 

[JamesG161]

thermodynamics

I had to read your definition about 4 times and still didn't understand it.

This is from my Dictionary.
"the branch of physical science that deals with the relations between heat and other forms of energy (such as mechanical, electrical, or chemical energy), and, by extension, of the relationships between all forms of energy."
Emphasis added by me.
The Chemical part is where plastics "decompose" and increase Entropy!

______
I think Entropy as been associated with "Disorder".
Example:
Man takes sand and adds energy and mechanically forms a fragile drinking glass.
That glass is used to drink liquids and appears to be in a state of now Zero Entropy and stable.
Dishwasher safe!!

Then... whoops!
It falls to a concrete surface and breaks apart.
The glass was in a state of "order" and now becomes more "disordered".
But Entropy was increased, but in a minimum way.

So...
Plastics are stable Entropy, but seek to decompose and Make more Entropy!

Jim...


PS: The fragile glass did not fall and break back into sand particles from which it came. Thus broken glass is more of a problem than plastics.