We've solved our killer asteroid problem.
Donny Ferguson RetweetedLink to tweet
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Last edited Mon Dec 19, 2022, 01:46 PM - Edit history (1)
Surface area of the earth is:
5,490,000,000,000,000 square feet.
5.5 quintillion square feet.
Are EcoWatch trying to tell me Amazon created
4,392,000,000,000,000,000 square feet of plastic waste in one year?
Septillions of square feet iow?
Doubt it.
Even using the high estimate of 599 million pounds of Amazon plastic given by Oceania (per the article), that would mean that every square foot of plastic wrap would have to weigh ... lets see ...
Well ... 7,322,220,367 square feet of plastic wrap ... would weigh one pound.
Stuff's light, but I don't think it's quite THAT light 
Oh and that's not even counting the fact that every one of the 800 layers would have to, by definition, be larger than the previous one applied 
Besides, it's Emo Phillips. Ya have to give a break to Emo!
"Ya wanna double up?" "I said sure, and she KICKS me in the groin!"
But the EcoWatch article in the OP said:
"Amazon produced enough plastic packaging in 2021 to wrap the Earth more than 800 times in air pillows."
Hence my response. I've no doubt you could 'circle' the earth 800 times, with a strip that's some single digit number of feet wide. Maybe even in the low double digit numbers.
Covering and Wrapping are generally synonymous, and different from Circling.
Really this is just more of my typical bitching about shitty science reporters on the interwebs
Found a 50ft spool of 1 foot wide, 1/2 inch tall bubble wrap on amazon that weighs 14 oz.
By my calcs (50/14) = .28 oz. per square foot.
599,000,000 lbs of plastic = 9,584,000,000 oz. of plastic
9,584,000,000/.28 = 34,228,571,428 feet of bubble wrap at 1 foot wide.
Circumference of earth is 131,480,000 ft.
34,228,571,428 ft/131,480,000 ft = 260.33
So, roughly speaking you could circle the earth 260 times with a 1 foot strip of average bubble wrap ... and those are separate times, not stacking them atop each other of course. Though I have some hazy recollection that the length of each successive wrap (on top of the last) would increase it's overall length by a relatively tiny amount.
Plain plastic wrap I'm sure is no more than half the weigh, however, probably less. So I could see 800 times with a 1ft wide sheet of very thin, lightweight plastic wrap
At the center of the 14 oz. roll I was looking at, so just ignored it 
