I Investigated the City Made of Trash...

[Lysergic]

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5f7oT0cNvA]

Was watching this earlier and was shocked when it said 1.2 million people per year die in India from respiratory illness from the filthy air.

Literal mountains of garbage.

He claims he got salmonella filming this.

The most feces I've ever seen chillin' in public.

[MissBeck]

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5f7oT0cNvA]

Was watching this earlier and was shocked when it said 1.2 million people per year die in India from respiratory illness from the filthy air.

Literal mountains of garbage.

He claims he got salmonella filming this.

The most feces I've ever seen chillin' in public.

Wow! You know, some people claim they live in a shit hole, but these people literally do! And this is normal to them! Makes you look around you and realise things aren't so bad where you are,

[DontTreadOnMe]

Wow! You know, some people claim they live in a shit hole, but these people literally do! And this is normal to them! Makes you look around you and realise things aren't so bad where you are,

Boy, ain't that the truth!!!

[putnam6]

---

Man, I was gonna order some Tandoori chicken or Seekh kebab... 

There has got to be a better way to not generate so much garbage, as well as just dumping it in land fills...

https://www.livescience.com/plastic-eating-bacteria

However, in 2016 Japanese scientists made a remarkable discovery that could help tackle the world's plastic problem, according to the journal Science. Scientists collected plastic bottles outside a recycling facility, and discovered that a species of bacteria was "eating" its way through them. Normally, bacteria spend their time absorbing dead organic matter, but Ideonella sakaiensis has developed a taste for a certain type of plastic called polyethylene terephthalate (PET).  

After analyzing the bacteria, the scientists found that it produced two digestive enzymes called hydrolyzing PET or PETase. When these enzymes interact with PET plastic it breaks down the long molecular chains into shorter chains (monomers) called terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol. These monomers are then broken down further to release energy for growth of the bacteria.

Following the discovery of plastic-eating bacteria, many genetic scientists have experimented with Ideonella sakaiensis to improve its efficiency. One such research venture has been to genetically engineer bacteria that are more efficient at enzyme production, such as E.coli, and turn them into PETase factories.

Although the discovery offers hope in the fight against mounting plastic, scientists caution that we are still years away from widespread commercial use. Similarly, PETase only decomposes PET plastic, there are six other plastic types that we are still unable to degrade using enzymes.

[TSK]

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5f7oT0cNvA]

Was watching this earlier and was shocked when it said 1.2 million people per year die in India from respiratory illness from the filthy air.

Literal mountains of garbage.

He claims he got salmonella filming this.

The most feces I've ever seen chillin' in public.

My mom would refuse to go there on business because of that. India only eradicated Polio from its country in the last decade.

[CoyoteAngels]

---

Man, I was gonna order some Tandoori chicken or Seekh kebab... 

There has got to be a better way to not generate so much garbage, as well as just dumping it in land fills...

https://www.livescience.com/plastic-eating-bacteria

However, in 2016 Japanese scientists made a remarkable discovery that could help tackle the world's plastic problem, according to the journal Science. Scientists collected plastic bottles outside a recycling facility, and discovered that a species of bacteria was "eating" its way through them. Normally, bacteria spend their time absorbing dead organic matter, but Ideonella sakaiensis has developed a taste for a certain type of plastic called polyethylene terephthalate (PET).  

After analyzing the bacteria, the scientists found that it produced two digestive enzymes called hydrolyzing PET or PETase. When these enzymes interact with PET plastic it breaks down the long molecular chains into shorter chains (monomers) called terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol. These monomers are then broken down further to release energy for growth of the bacteria.

Following the discovery of plastic-eating bacteria, many genetic scientists have experimented with Ideonella sakaiensis to improve its efficiency. One such research venture has been to genetically engineer bacteria that are more efficient at enzyme production, such as E.coli, and turn them into PETase factories.

Although the discovery offers hope in the fight against mounting plastic, scientists caution that we are still years away from widespread commercial use. Similarly, PETase only decomposes PET plastic, there are six other plastic types that we are still unable to degrade using enzymes.

Awesome gain of function!  Mixing plastic eating germs and ecoli.  What could possibly go wrong?

[Byrd]

There are several big problems associated with this, and all of them hinge on entire societies buying into the solution without resisting it.

Now... I don't know how long y'all have lived with humans, but I have experience with the species and getting all the members of a group to go along with something is problematic.  VERY problematic.

So, in no particular order, to clean it up you first have to:
* improve the caste system in India (it's really entrenched in the rural areas but cities aren't immune to it)
* make it so that "garbage" is not a situation that's shuffled off onto the poorest in the land -- and that wealthy countries don't dump their garbage into India and poor countries and tell them "here's some dollars.  Handle it."
* improve local recycling on all levels (we're cleaning out a house.  Took away 20 bags of clothes and there's still more... but what to do with used pillows?  And recycling electronics (found an old Palm Pilot)?  Lots of places make you pay to recycle electronics (Best Buy, I'm eyeballing you)
* promote the use of products with recycled components.
* find better ways to reduce packaging waste (this IS happening to some extent)

...and then improve education and health access for these people.  And sex education (birth control options) and empower women (give girls as much education as boys and change society to where girls are not some thing to be married off (or worse, sold or killed) like an undesirable commodity.

But this isn't an easy change and because it's huge and affects so many people with different ideas of how things should be, it's not going to come any time soon.

[jaded]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux8GZAtCN-M&t=639s

Fluffy goes to India. 
Serious topic but went Fluffy to balance out the ghastlyness.