
The sun/NASA
Alaskans who’ve watched the disintegration of a nylon tent pitched too long under an intense, sub-Arctic sun or witnessed a plastic cargo toboggan for their snowmachine or a dogsled destroyed by the sun’s ultraviolet rays ought to be able to empathize with the problem with which some museum curators are now struggling:
How to “save” plastic art.
No matter how most people might think of plastic as “indestructible,” it’s not. It will decay.
Sometimes the process takes longer than humans would prefer, but sometimes it is too fast.
“We know how to approach the restoration of paintings, books, and materials like wood, metals, and glass,” Anna Laganà, a research specialist at the Getty Conservation InstituteScience’s Sam Kean. “But for plastics, our knowledge is still limited.”
Store your gear
For Alaskans – some of whom seem unaware of the plastic-destroying abilities of ultraviolet rays – the protective solution is easy:
Keep the plastic stuff out of the sun.
“…You shouldn’t set up your tent in your backyard and forget about it, leaving it to bake in the sun all season long,” warns Mountain Safety Research (MSR). “UV rays break down nylon fiber, making it dry and brittle and reducing its tensile strength. When this happens, the fabric can rip at the seams and stress joints. Polyester offers a little more UV resistance over nylon fabrics, but any tent should be stored out of direct sunlight when not in use.”
MSR is a Seattle-based manufacturer of all sorts of outdoor gear.
UV exposure varies seasonally and daily depending on the angle at which the sun hits the earth, the amount of UV-blocking ozone in the upper atmosphere, and cloud cover.
But Seattle is also four times higher than Tampa, Fla., which scores a two for the day. As a general rule, southern areas get more UV than northern areas, but again there are all those variables, including the ozone layer which sometimes develops “holes” at the poles.
The ozone layer, about nine to 18 miles above the earth’s surface, was thought to be healing at the time after years of decay.
Ozone decay
The steady disappearance of ozone in the latter decades of the 20th century led to an international ban on the production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons with their high levels of ozone-destroying chlorine and bromine.
The ban came in 1987 and by the start of the new millennium the amount of chlorine and bromine in the atmosphere was in decline. It is now at about 90 percent of its peak, but scientists warned in June that the recovery of the ozone layer is not assured.
None of this has much to do with the problems the museums face, but might be worth the attention of Alaska recreationists.
“UHMW plastics have come a long ways in the past 30 years. The original plastics used in dogsleds could not handle UV rays and would break down quickly, creating weakening cracks. Handle bars, brushbows and toboggan beds would get weakened and crack due to UV exposure and then would later break on the trail. Newer plastic formulas have been created to survive exposure to UV light, but likely only for a bit longer than the old stuff. It is still a good idea to store your sled out of the intense sun. Especially in the northern latitudes where we get intense sun for long hours during summer. UV not only affects the plastics, but also the wood and finishes of wooden sleds.”
Creation and destruction – life and death -,are the nature of nature on the planet. Long before humans battled their way to the top of the evolutionary pyramid to begin creating and destroying things, nature had been hard at it for millions of years.
And the process continues – see SARS-CoV-2 (whether humans had some role or not, it remains a new creation) – and the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami of 2011.
Humans might place these events in purely human-derived categories of good and bad, but nature doesn’t. It justs rolls on with no interest in what we might think or what wonders we might think we have created.
The Institute was talking about museum exhibits and collections, but its observations apply to pretty much everything. At the end of the day, no matter what humans have done to nature, it still rules.
But the first one to outlive it is free to make an argument to the contrary.
Categories: Commentary, Outdoors
Having grown up with paper shotgun shells(tarnished remaining brass wasn’t as visible), I’m always dismayed when I bird hunt back east and see all the brightly colored plastic hulls littering the fields and woods…. Please pick ’em up.
man, you are old.
If the sun can degrade plastic just think what it can do to over exposed skin.
I prefer a boonie hat and long sleeves over chemical sunscreen unless I am in the hills.
Limit yourtyour in direct sunlight and drink plenty of fluids with lots of fresh fruit…our skin is the largest organ in the body and helps us expell waste.
Take care of your skin.
Good advice Steve..All I wear now is Columbia long sleeve SPF50 shirts now. Nice feel to them as well. Wish I knew when I was younger. Remember the “healthy” looking tan? Yep, that was me…argh.
The only problem with this advice is that sunlight on skin helps the body manufacture vitamin D. If you aren’t gonna get out in the sun, you gotta supplement it. There are some indications that higher levels of vitamin D help fight viruses, which is one of the reasons it is worse in the winter than the summer. Cheers –
The thing is you only need about 15 mins of direct sunlight to get all the vitamin D you need for the day…my above comment was meant for when you are outside for the whole day.
Between the ozone depletion and greenhouse effect, the sun’s rays are extremely powerful on long blue bird summer days in AK…
I also supplement Vitamin D3 & B12 on most days:)
I thought i plastic makes it into the ocean it becomes stabilized forever.