User:Joep/Disposable land

(work in progress)

The machines that make plastic bags for potato chips, etc. can easily be adapted to create a long string of bags filled with air. When these strings are sealed together, you get a floating air bed in any size at extremely low cost ($0.009 / sqft, 400$/acre).

The bags would be made of polyethylen or polypropylene which is much stronger. The process is described here.

Uses

As tubes

Growing algae

As land

Soil would make it expensive. If the bags are not completely filled with air, a couple of layers may damp small waves.

Advantages

Price

Amtec has seal that costs about $5 / 100 m2, but we need twice that so it's about $100.000/km2, $400/acre, $0.009/sqft.

Breakwater

Acts as a breakwater, not sure how much this effect would be.

Disadvantages

Big waves

But easy to renew parts of the land.

Polutant

• Polyethylene

Biodegrading takes centuries, but according to Wikipedia Daniel Burd, a 16 year old Canadian discovered in May 2008 that Sphingomonas, a type of bacteria, can degrade over 40% of the weight of plastic bags in less than three months. "The applicability of this finding is still a matter for the future."

• Polypropylene can be recycled easily. Because it's one big plastic structure, it's probably easy to take it out the water, compress it and bring it to a recycling company.