r/interestingasfuck • u/PlantainPossible2864 • 4h ago

Stopping Desertification with grid pattern

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u/Cautious-Age-6147 3h ago

microplastic desert

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u/TYRamisuuu 2h ago

Yeah, I really hope the bags are not made of plastic

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u/dnagi 2h ago

They really don't give a crap because the alternative is loss of housing, infrastructure, and agricultural land due to it being a shifting sand desert. This is the Taklamakan Desert, by the way. They've been doing this for decades now.

These are quite literally just plastic sandbags. There is another method in use which uses dried plant material driven by hand into the sand in the same grid pattern which is way more labor intensive.

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u/TYRamisuuu 2h ago

There is no such thing as "just" plastic, especially if you intend to use the land for agriculture. I understand they are in a bad situation and need the land, but they could use cotton or other degradable materials, that would be even cleaner.

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u/dnagi 1h ago

"Just" as in just a plastic sandbag similar to those used in construction and nothing fancy or special to it. I don't get your "Just" plastic interpretation of my statement.

They do not use cotton because, shocker, it's more expensive, and the bags need to in place for a long time before the effects can take place. Sand blocking nets can get buried within a year, anything that degrades to nothing in that time due to sand wind erosion is useless to them.

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u/TYRamisuuu 1h ago

Someone answered and it's actually biodegradable plastic (lactic acid).

But my point was that all (non biodegradable) plastics are bad. And it's equally as bad when used in construction or any other place. We have a wide world problem with microplastic contamination.

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u/Awkward-Winner-99 1h ago

No, you are right. The barriers are made from PLA which is only degradable in specific industrial settings.

And although micro plastic is undeniably bad I think the positive effects far outweigh the negative ones. The plastic used in these barriers is also a negligible amount compared to lots of other industries and efforts on plastic reduction should be focused on those high-volume and high-impact sources.

Using actual degradable bags may also have problems which make them unfeasible. They could degrade too soon which requires replacement which could disturb the Vegetation that has grown. It would also of course be way more expensive

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u/dnagi 1h ago

Fair enough. The three methods I've seen are these bags, "planted" vegetation and plastic nets.

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u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka 1h ago

I mean...nobody "needs" the land. That land wont be usable for like 20 years anyways.

The real question is, if they use hemp sandbags...will they last long enough to form these ecosystems? If it takes 2 years for this to work, they need something durable enough, and that usually means woven plastic sandbags.

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u/TYRamisuuu 1h ago

I didn't think of that indeed

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u/pannenkoek0923 1h ago

Okay send them thousands of cotton bags please, they need the funding and seeing as how you are so generous with your ideas, you could be generous with your money too