Energy and Environment Group Project Is plastic pellet spill incident in HK waters solvable?
2012/2013 Sem 1 Class: 88-167-01-08 Cheung Hin Long(10548963) Cheung Chi Cheung(10549999) Mak Chi Kit Oscar(10550937)
Energy and Environment Project Is plastic pellet spill incident in HK waters solvable? Table of Content
1 Introduction……………………………………………………………3 2 Process……………………………………………………………………3 3 What is the plastic pellet…………………………………………4 4 Properties……………………………………………………………….5 5 Usage………………………………………………………………………5 6 Misconceptions……………………………………………………… 6 7 After photodegration………………………………………………7 8 The responsibility….…………………………………………………8 9 Suggestions……………………………………………………………..9 10 Secondly, PP is not digestible. No matter human beings or fish, even if we intake PP, our digestion system is not able to digest PP, we can only excrete them out of our body. The plastic pellets do not have immediate toxicity which means that polypropylene will not be absorbed by human and fishes so that is not harmful for human being; however, under the ultraviolet light and heat, polypropylene is easy to be photodegradation, after that when some aging plastic pellets enter into the food chain , it will impact our health. In conclusion, NO toxic substances will be transferred from the fish to human beings in that period of time. Combine the above two misconceptions, we can be sure that there will be no harm if we continue to intake any kind of fish in that period. But after the degradation process, toxic substances will be float all over the sea. This is why we emphasize the cleaning must start immediately and be efficient. 7. After photodegration As we know that plastics are white and circle, and the surfaces are smooth but if plastics have irradiated by the ultraviolet radiation, the plastics bonding will be broken then they will become yellow and coarse which is photodegration. After suffering photodegration, there will produce two matters which are PCB (A polychlorinated biphenyl is any of the 209 configurations of organochlorides with 2 to 10 chlorine atoms attached to biphenyl, which is a molecule composed of two benzene
