In his description of a truly apt Presidential monument, Og offhandedly mentioned the Congressional cafeteria being filled in and a new one built elsewhere and for whatever reason, I decided to look into that.
Couldn't find a peep.* The top search-engine pages were instead clogged with Dire News of a Horrid Tragedy: when the GOP got control of the House, they tossed out Nancy Pelosi's pet "Green Initiative" mandating compressed cornstarch instead of polystyrene foam -- and never you mind that the "green" utensils tended to break. You might wonder why they did so; after all, they didn't convert the Capitol power plant back to coal from natural gas and if they've unscrewed all the cheap-to-operate CFL bulbs in favor good old Edison type, the media hasn't reported it. --Well, you see, the foam and plastic dinnerware is significantly cheaper than the flimsier Green version. (And they're not gonna make Ms. Pelosi take Amtrack or Grayhound now that she's no longer Speaker; so they've got to save somewhere).
Outraged Greenies fumed online (you can find multiple versions of the same malinformed rant), "How dare they! Foamed plastic is a menace! It's not even recyclable!"
Wrong; polystyrene recycles like nothing you've ever seen: it's a thermoplastic, not a thermosetting one, so just heat it up, it melts and you can make new stuff. Electronic hobbyists and model makers dissolve old coffee cups or foam packing "peanuts" in a strong solvent -- typically acetone or tolulene -- and end up with a liquid plastic, suitable for painting onto things or even simple molding. (It's a wonderful RF insulator.) There hasn't been a lot of pressure at the Green end to recycle the stuff; they seem to prefer bewailing how it will never, ever break down in a landfill, not in a million years. --Then let's keep it out of landfills and if you don't like making new CD cases or park benches (et 10^6 cetera) out of it, why not exploit its stability and use it to make building materials?
But the outrage and guilt trips were never about actual solutions; it's about dictating people's choices and burning up tax dollars on a feel-good pyre of self-inflated sanctimony.
I wonder if Congressthings are allowed to bring their own coffee cups to their cafeteria? Not that they would, of course; that would be too much like actual physical labor. Perhaps Ms. Pelosi could get herself a jet-powered coffee cup carrier? (Crew of six, burns a gallon a minute).
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* Update: Because it didn't happen! I misunderstood what Og wrote. Which only goes to show.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
11 comments:
All I know is they're all better than us commoners and deserve preferential treatment.
They're better insulated than most to weather the coming economic storm they've created.
You have now made me really curious to investigate potential uses for recycled polystyrene.
wv: plowar. For some reason I feel like that is not a potential use.
The Spudware utensils I've seen and used were much sturdier than the cheap polystyrene ones. The only user gripe was that the starch/soy stuff didn't fill the fork mold down to the ends of the tines: blunt forks.
Why 'green' utensils made from agricultural byproducts cost $46/1000 versus equivalent polystyrene costs $10/1000 is above my pay grade.
Not bio-degradable - yet. On a viable commercial scale. But last year a Canadian high-school student won an award for segregating and propogating bacteria strains that do indeed feed on (degrade) plastics such as the grocery bags so demonised in the past few years, reducing the time frame from hundreds of years to less than a decade. If this could be developed, perhaps as a spray just before covering a layer of trash in landfills...
Boy, I screwed the pooch on that one.
Replace "Like the congressional cafeteria" with "Such as the congressional cafeteria". I did not mean to imply that the cafeteria would be demolished, just that it would be an excellent place to install a bottomless pit.
Sorry for the confusion. Once upon a time, long ago, I was capable of operating the english language.
There are a lot of odd bits of infrastructure in DC that need rebuilding, Og, and some of them have received it; it was certainly a plausible assertion. Besides, I got a blog post from it: WIN!
In other news, I guess it's safe to assume that neither you nor Tam were near the stage collapse at the state fair...
Have I ever given the impression that I was likely to be found in the crowd at a Country & Western concert?
Tam-- I didn't know what flavor music they were playing, but yah, I should have thought of that.
The very idea of arguing in favor of one form or another of disposable utensils as being more environmentally conscientious makes my head hurt.
Oh, wait. You said Green. Nevermind then, carry on.
Potato starch knives won't even cut warm butter, the forks won't stab anything, and the spoons tend to dissolve in soup or hot beverages. Fail.
(Based on those in use at a certain local "soft drink factory.")
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