Bioplastic as carbon sink

1) Petroleum-derived plastic is an extremely stable form of carbon; it has essentially no decomposers.

2) Biomass-derived “plastic” does decompose, but only at high energy decomposing conditions, i.e. very hot regions in an industrial-scale compost pile (60 C).

This suggests to me that a way to dispose of plastic waste and simultaneously sink carbon in a semi-permanent form is to fuse it, preferably post-consumer, into large masses for use as building material (possibly coated in concrete), similarly to how much building is done on land-fill.

For traditional, petroleum-derived plastic, this simply avoids the problem of having lots of bits of it floating around killing marine life and strangling trees and whatnot, as well as returning it to the earth whence it came. However, for biomass-derived “plastic”, it could possibly be carbon-negative. It seems to me that it would be unlikely to biodegrade if placed in big blobs covered in concrete on the continental shelf or what-have-you. Instead, it would be a fairly stable form of solid-state carbon storage.

How stable, I’m not sure. That is an interesting question.

(Edited a minute later to add: In any case, we certainly shouldn’t be incinerating petroleum plastic! That’s a terrible idea. It’s much better off in a landfill.)

Adventures in accidental inoculation

What is the microbial culture used to make Zhenjiang black vinegar?

This has suddenly become an even more interesting question, because I just made three jars of a really excellent green-tomato pickle, and I think the flavour can be largely credited to my thoughtless incorporation of Communist Space Bugs. Procedure follows.

Day 1.

2 pounds each:

• green tomatoes, cut into matchsticks (mostly Roma)
• finely sliced red onions
• shredded carrot

Combine with about 1/2 cup salt in a big pot, and let it sit for a few hours. Then pour off the surplus liquid and add 1 generous quart of white vinegar (5% acidity), 1 T ground coriander, 2 T whole black mustard seeds, and some more salt; then simmer until the onions have gone soft. Turn off the heat, mix in 1/4 cup Zhenjiang black vinegar, and set it out somewhere at room temperature to ferment.

Day 3: In the evening, put it in the fridge.

Day 8 [note: these days may be less important, could probably reduce to 1 or 2 as for cabbage soup]:

Take it out of the fridge and taste it. Add another cup or two of white vinegar, about 1 T of fresh coarsely-ground black pepper, and more salt as necessary. Jar by boiling-water method; this makes almost exactly 3 quarts.