Observances...

[Fred in Skirts]

(Oil companies have extraordinary dominance in the US. When I lived there, I was pestered to change the oil in my car every few weeks. Here in the UK, I change it once a year, so either American oil is crap quality or the oil companies are pulling a fast one and raking in the resulting profit. God knows where they are dumping all the used engine oil.)

Most if not all of the oil companies do not dump it out it is way too valuable. What they do is run it through a filter to get the solids out and then refine it again to be able to resell it to gullible people. I have run the same oil for over a year in my car and have had no problems at all except at the dealerships oil change department.
I use a good quality oil and it will last as long as you change the filter twice a year. I had a friend who ran the same oil for almost 3 years just by changing the filter twice a year and adding 1 qt of oil to replace what was lost to the filter change.

[phathack]

You change the oil based on Engine use. If the vehicle is not driven much there is no need to change the oll. With today's synthetic oil, you can get away with 7500 to 10,000 miles between changes. You need to consider the environment the vehicle is in as well as that will influence the oil use as well.

On the farm, on the irrigation wells, we would change the oil at the start of the irrigation season and run the engine all year long on that oil and those engines ran a lot of hours under heavy loads.

[Uncle Al]

OK - Another 'Observation'....
Too many people want to STOP DRILLING FOR OIL, to "Save the Planet".
Oil is refined for gasoline, to operate engines in our vehicles.
This is NOT THE ONLY PRODUCT created from 'Oil'.

Source: Ranken Energy Corporation
One 42-gallon barrel of oil creates 19.4 gallons of gasoline. The rest (over half) is used to make things like:

Solvents, Diesel fuel, Motor Oil, Bearing Grease, Ink, Floor Wax, Ballpoint Pens, Football Cleats, Upholstery,
Sweaters, Boats, Insecticides, Bicycle Tires, Sports Car Bodies, Nail Polish, Fishing lures, Dresses, Tires, Golf
Bags, Perfumes, Cassettes, Dishwasher parts, Tool Boxes, Shoe Polish, Medical supplies, computer parts - - etc.

The list goes on to over 100+ items made from Oil.

Without Oil, how would you give an I.V. to a patient
How would you create light weight clothing
How would you create air-tight storage for food

The concept that Fossil Fuels is bad for our planet, would eliminate a wide variety of
products we all use, and take for granted.

I'll go back under my rock now

Uncle Al

[Myopic Bookworm]

I’m willing to bet that you live in an area where there are few wind turbines. Where I live the moorland has been despoiled by them and the roadways built to access them. From the top of the hill on the eastern side of our valley I can see 60. The damage will outlive the turbines by many decades.

Where I grew up we had coal mines, strip mining and now fracking. The damage to the land is remarkable and long lasting . An amazing river was destroyed and remains destroyed due to mining waste now many years later.

If we want to argue what source of power causes the most long lasting destruction, in my opinion, we need to evaluate all of the merits and detractors of each. I believe we also need to realize that technology continues to evolve and the first iteration of things won’t be the last. With improvements in technology, we can hope to improve energy production with the least environmental impact.

Yup.

[Myopic Bookworm]

This is NOT THE ONLY PRODUCT created from 'Oil'.

Long before fossil fuel use became subject to such opposition, I thought that oil was so valuable for plastic and other chemical manufacturing that simply burning it was a criminal waste of resources.

[STEVIE]

This is NOT THE ONLY PRODUCT created from 'Oil'.

Long before fossil fuel use became subject to such opposition, I thought that oil was so valuable for plastic and other chemical manufacturing that simply burning it was a criminal waste of resources.

Yes, and in the course of my recent hospital stay, I have no idea how much oil it took to save my life.
Naturally, I am but one!
Steve.

[moonshadow]

Indeed, and I suspect the real conspiracy here doesn't relate so much to the oil industry by itself, but how they are in bed with the plastics industry.

There is so much pointless plastic waste that is slowly killing the oceans. We can't eliminate all plastic uses, but I can think if tons of alternatives where glass could be a replacement.

Remember glass soda bottles with steel caps? Glass milk bottles.

Glass is very recyclable, and if not for the countless oil subsidies from various governments, could easily compete with plastic.

[pelmut]

Glass is very recyclable, and if not for the countless oil subsidies from various governments, could easily compete with plastic.

Glass needs a lot of energy to recycle it, the furnaces run on oil or natural gas or coal gas, the vehicles to collect it also use fuel.  Sadly, there is no easy answer.

[Fred in Skirts]

Glass is very recyclable, and if not for the countless oil subsidies from various governments, could easily compete with plastic.

Glass needs a lot of energy to recycle it, the furnaces run on oil or natural gas or coal gas, the vehicles to collect it also use fuel. Sadly, there is no easy answer.

While both of the quotes above are correct, we have to remember that glass will not be a pollutant it lasts forever and even then it can still be recycled into something useful. Plastic on the other hand will always be a pollutant.
My personal preference for milk and sodas is glass, why for one reason, it is impermeable. Plastic on the other hand at least the kinds used for food storage will allow air and other things to pass through. Although it happens very slowly it happens.

[moonshadow]

Glass is very recyclable, and if not for the countless oil subsidies from various governments, could easily compete with plastic.

Glass needs a lot of energy to recycle it, the furnaces run on oil or natural gas or coal gas, the vehicles to collect it also use fuel.  Sadly, there is no easy answer.

Glass can be recycled in various ways, not always crushing down and reforming it. We could return back to the old "deposit" days where the actual glass bottles would simply be cleaned and reused. This could theoretically work with almost any glass application provided it wasn't damaged.

I've got glass jars all over the place, and I LOVE it when one of them has a standard size Mason jar rim.

With a cash incentive for people to return their used glass bottles (like the "good old days") in addition to more practical uses and reuses, I still believe that glass is a viable alternative.

Also... paper. What glass can't handle can be done with paper, such as with paper bags. Remember when cuts of meat used to come wrapped in paper?

Hell.. remember when cars were made from steel?

Plastic has its place, sure, but it doesn't need to be EVERYWHERE.

We've done it before... I've essentially described the world prior to the 1960s and people managed just fine.

[Coder]

There's a company that takes old glass bottles and turns them into glasses - cuts the tops off and rounds the edges, but reworks them in a way (with heat) that it's not just cutting the top off and rounding the edge - they reshape the bottles. I really think reuse is the way to go, with recycling the next step to take.

[Jim]

Plastic does not need to be made from petroleum. Here's one website promoting plastic made from hemp. https://hempplastic.com/

[moonshadow]

Plastic does not need to be made from petroleum. Here's one website promoting plastic made from hemp. https://hempplastic.com/

Made in the USA!

There ya go!

Innovation... now we're talkin'!

[bikesaurus]

I remember being taught the 3 R's, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. The order is important. Reducing what we consume is the most important, followed by reusing what we can. The last step should be to recycle. Not all materials can be recycled easily, and it tends to be an energy intensive process.

There is a lot of cool innovations with plant based plastics that are biodegrable and compostable. I like the hemp plastic idea that Jim posted, that's pretty neat.

[Coder]

I remember being taught the 3 R's, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

Sadly, I think that's been lost to time. I also think the first two are problematic in today's culture:

1) No one wants to reduce - it's just not a thing people are accustomed to.

2) Reuse might not be "green" to a lot of people because it uses more carbon: well, that's if you trust who does the analysis. It takes energy to clean, sanitize - and get something back to "standards" - and there's little profit in all of that, so companies have an incentive not to push reuse.