[lit-ideas] Recycling -- and Nature (according to Amago)
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2004 22:33:04 EDT
In a previous post, Amago called 'plastic' synthetic (as opposed to
'artificial'). Now he refines Geary's analysis or search for a criterion of
naturalness versus 'unnaturalness' -- the idea of recycling.
In a message dated 8/30/2004 9:04:31 PM Eastern Standard Time,
aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
To the extent that plastics cannot return into the environment, decompose
and be reformed by nature into something else, they are in my opinion
unnatural.
----
Interesting. Recycling would be the criterion for 'naturalness'. Some quotes
from the OED on this interesting word -- first used in 1926. Cheers,
recycle: to reuse (a material) in an industrial process; to return to a
previous stage of a cyclic process.
1926 [implied in recycling vbl. n.].
1928 Jrnl. Inst. Petroleum Technologists XIV. 766
It is economically more advantageous to stop cracking in the first cycle
when coke formation begins and produce more gasoline by re-cycling those
fractions which do not form great quantities of coke during cracking.
1929 Proc. R. Soc. A. CXXIV. 43 It ought to be possible to obtain nearly
the theoretically possible yield by returning to the reaction chamber or â??
recyclingâ?? all the products formed except the gasoline.
1945 H D SMYTH Gen. Acct. Devel. Atomic Energy Mil. Purposes ix. 100
Any given sample of material is recycled many times.
1958 Times 17 Oct. 5/1 It is envisaged that plutonium produced in the
working of the reactor will later be recycled through it.
1964 N G CLARK Mod. Org. Chem. iv. 62 Using only a small volume of solvent,
which is continually re~cycled, it is possible to carry out the equivalent
of many hundreds of separate extractions.
1972 Sci. Amer. Oct. 69/1 Their new process is the first closed-loop,
spray-etching system that electrolytically reverses the chemical reaction of
etching. It continuously recycles cupric chloride and has reduced the cost of
etching wiring boards by over 90%.
1980 Times 7 Mar. 25/3 The uranium is recycled back to an enrichment plant
to make new thermal-reactor fuel, and the plutonium is stored.
1960 Aeroplane XCIX. 521/2 It has systems which reduce all organic waste to
a small amount of ash and recycle urine and waste water into drinkable
water.
1967 Technology Week 23 Jan. 34/3 It would allow us to economically desalt
sea and brackish water, recycle water from sewage.
1971 Sci. Amer. May 95/1 (Advt.), You bring us the cans and we'll recycle
them.
1971 New Yorker 16 Oct. 33 What you ecology-minded ladies don't realize is
that before a bottle can be recycled it has to be emptied.
1973 Guardian 22 Mar. 15/1 The Liberals of Kew..have been recycling paper,
and have managed to scrape a regular £25 a month.
1974 Listener 28 Feb. 278/1 Such a plant would recycle steel, aluminium,
zinc, lead and copper from scrap.
1979 China Now Mar./Apr. 31/3 The report covers all methods of recycling
organic materials.
1965 G K WILLIAMS Econ. Geol. N.Z. i. 2/2 These [beds of sediment] are of
considerable interest to economic geologists for through them much detrital
gold was recycled within and beyond the primary gold-bearing areas.
1970 Nature 17 Oct. 273/2 The annual discharge of dissolved sodium in rivers
is about 20 Ã? 107 tons, of which 9 Ã? 107 tons have been recycled from the
sea through the atmosphere.
1971 I G GASS et al. Understanding Earth iii. 68/2 Much of the ocean will be
recycled in the ocean-floor spreading process.
1973 Sci. Amer. Apr. 61/1 Stars continually recycle their material through
the interstellar medium.
1969 Guardian 12 May 1/5 (heading)
Bankers find way to recycle hot money.
1970 Nature 25 July 321/2 It is not possible to recycle the output of the
secondary schools without there being some intermediate opportunity for
broadening the intellectual experience of the young men and women concerned.
1973 Ibid. 2 Mar. 4/2 A further five [cases] may be the result of the virus
being recycled in swill.
1973 Black Panther 4 Aug. 7/3 Those workers finding themselves without
jobs..are re-cycled back to their former jobs at the reduced wages.
1974 Weekend Mag. (Montreal) 16 Mar. 2/2 The kids are appropriating the
Fifties, proving once more that fads (like garbage) can be recycled.
1974 Newsweek 7 Oct. 52/1 A new international banking system to recycle OPEC
funds into loans to the poorer nations.
1978 Washington Post 8 Aug. C4/5 Many juveniles, he adds, are repeat
offenders, â??recycledâ?? through the system.
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