Porn proves perennial staying power

The 17th of August 2005 - 8:44AM

Pornography and glossy men's magazines buried at tips last longer than other magazines, new Australian research has found.
Scientist Fabiano Ximenes, 31, dug through two Sydney dumps to find out how long wood and paper products survive in landfill sites.
He found that magazines, newspapers and old bits of wood thrown away up to 46 years ago were in almost perfect condition, with pornography lasting the best of all.
He displayed a 1979 copy of the men's magazine Playboy which was in near mint condition, and said its thick wax coating could be the reason for its longevity.
"The best preserved was the pornography," Mr Ximenes said.
"It was a bit ironic."
The results of Mr Ximenes' trawlings could have serious implications for Australia's greenhouse policy.
The research, funded by the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting, suggests landfill sites may actually be emitting less greenhouse gasses than previously thought.
"The obvious implication is if products are not degrading in landfill, then Australia's natural greenhouse gas emissions are potentially much lower than once thought," Mr Ximenes said.

"Should Australia ever sign the Kyoto Protocol it would be easier to meet our targets from that knowledge."
With much higher carbon stores in wood and paper products than previously thought, there could also be effects for carbon trading schemes developing around the world, as wood products are currently not accounted for.
"This has generated a lot of international interest," Mr Ximenes said.
"The findings are not something we would expect and it has potentially very large implications from several angles, of the landfill perspective, the greenhouse perspective and the carbon trading perspective."
While previous research had tried to recreate landfill conditions in a laboratory to estimate emission rates, Mr Ximenes was the first to monitor the actual rate of degradation of wood products from a real landfill site.
He now hopes to repeat the same testing with his paper samples, but needs new funding.
The results of the wood testing show that only 3.5 per cent of the original carbon stores had been lost, compared with previous estimates of between 20 and 25 per cent.
With about 4.5 million tonnes of wood and paper going to landfill sites in Australia every year, this could mean an estimated reduction in our assumed greenhouse levels of one per cent, or 5.5 million tonnes a year, Mr Ximenes said.
But he said his research did not suggest that throwing out wood and paper was more environmentally friendly than recycling.
"From a philosophical perspective you always have to favour recycling because you don't want to create products that you can't do anything with at the end of their life," he said.
"But the reality is there is only so much you can recycle. We're never going to achieve 100 per cent recycling rates in Australia."
His research was presented as part of Fresh Science, a national program showcasing young scientists' work.
The best fresh scientist will win a trip to the United Kingdom to present their work to the Royal Institution.
© 2005 AAP

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Porn-proves-perennial-staying-power/2005/08/17/1123958091380.html



http://www.ebearweb.net

http://www.ebearweb.net/pictures.htm