# Plastic bag solution for ozone hole? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 12, 2000, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bag-solution-for-ozone-hole/32878 "2000-09-12T12:39:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2000, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bag-solution-for-ozone-hole/32878/1 "2000-09-12T12:39:56Z")
Inspired by Biffer Spice’s wild-arse [Shortcut solution to global warming?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=38029) thread, please rebut my imagined solution to the thinning of the ozone layer. IIRC ozone (O[sub]3[/sub]) can be created by passing an electric current through a plastic bag filled with O[sub]2[/sub]. It’s not stable and is damaging at seas level, but is stable and handy in the atmosphere. Why can’t we fill up a few large plastic bags, float them up to the troposphere (or where-ever), pass a current through them and release the gas? picmr ---
**Author:** ![Compact\_Disc\_Milk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Compact\_Disc\_Milk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Compact_Disc_Milk)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2000, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bag-solution-for-ozone-hole/32878/2 "2000-09-12T12:49:06Z")
i know who you are and i do not like you. in fact i cannot stand you. you need a slap. im going to slap you [LANGUAGE INAPPROPRIATE TO THE GENERAL QUESTIONS FORUM HAS BEEN EDITED OUT. – CKDextHavn] you need a right kick in the goolies. i want an apology -NOW! [Edited by CKDextHavn on 09-12-2000 at 07:51 AM] ---
**Author:** ![Adolph\_Peewee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Adolph\_Peewee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Adolph_Peewee)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2000, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bag-solution-for-ozone-hole/32878/3 "2000-09-12T13:06:55Z")
Probably because no one has an extension cord that long!! ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2000, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bag-solution-for-ozone-hole/32878/4 "2000-09-12T13:19:30Z")
the ozone ‘problem’ and the greenhouse ‘problem’ are 2 seperate issues. the only corrolation between the 2 that can be made is that some people claim that it is industrial society that created them both. the problem with your solution is that O3 is destroyed (in a lab setting, I am extrapolating to the ozone layer here) by florine (F) and after the O3 is destroyed the F lives on to kill again. maybe jets can be fitted with O3 generators and F scrubbers ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2000, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bag-solution-for-ozone-hole/32878/5 "2000-09-12T13:41:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by k2dave \* > \*\*the ozone ‘problem’ and the greenhouse ‘problem’ are 2 seperate issues. the only corrolation between the 2 that can be made is that some people claim that it is industrial society that created them both. > the problem with your solution is that O3 is destroyed (in a lab setting, I am extrapolating to the ozone layer here) by florine (F) and after the O3 is destroyed the F lives on to kill again. > maybe jets can be fitted with O3 generators and F scrubbers \*\* ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2000, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bag-solution-for-ozone-hole/32878/6 "2000-09-12T13:46:22Z")
Damn! Get rid of that @!#?@! “Clear Fields” button next to the Submit button! What I was trying to say: k2dave is right. The fluorine that gets up there from our pollution is like a bathtub drain, continuously draining the ozone. (Ozone is made naturally by ultraviolet light acting on O[sub]2[/sub].) We need to stop as much fluorine pollution as possible and basically wait for the stuff up there to either chemically combine with something heavy enough for it to fall to Earth, or mutate a la nitrogen-14 to carbon-14 (fluorine-19 to oxygen-19 ?) _Interesting Info:_ the ozone layer, at standard temperature and pressure, would only be about 3mm thick. So poking a hole in it wasn’t too difficult. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Ranma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@Ranma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranma)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2000, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bag-solution-for-ozone-hole/32878/7 "2000-09-12T14:52:00Z")
There is another way to create ozone. That is to bombard O2 with UV rays. In fact, right now, the Sun is actually rejuvenating the ozone layer. The Sun is in it’s peak acivity cycle, and is releasing a lot more UV rays, which should in theory be more dangerous to sunbathers, but in fact the Sun is releasing UV’s in the 200 nm(nanometers)wavelength, which are very efficient at breaking O2 in O-O particles, which then recombine with O2 particles to create O3(ozone). Each 11 years, at the peak of the solar cycle, our Sun rejuvenates up to 1-2% of the ozone layer globally. Now, I don’t know if it would be feasible with our level of technology, nor how much energy it would require… ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2000, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bag-solution-for-ozone-hole/32878/8 "2000-09-12T15:00:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ranma \* > \*\*There is another way to create ozone. That is to bombard O2 with UV rays. In fact, right now, the Sun is actually rejuvenating the ozone layer. The Sun is in it’s peak acivity cycle, and is releasing a lot more UV rays, which should in theory be more dangerous to sunbathers, but in fact the Sun is releasing UV’s in the 200 nm(nanometers)wavelength, which are very efficient at breaking O2 in O-O particles, which then recombine with O2 particles to create O3(ozone). Each 11 years, at the peak of the solar cycle, our Sun rejuvenates up to 1-2% of the > ozone layer globally. Now, I don’t know if it would be feasible with our level of technology, nor how much energy it would require… \*\* In my repost, I forgot to mention that it’s UV radiation that makes ozone out of O[SUB]2[/SUB]. But if the sun’s output of UV isn’t enough to fight the draining effect of fluorine, there’s no way that us puny Earthlings could send out enough UV to significantly add to the ozone layer. Getting rid of the fluorine is the only way. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2000, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bag-solution-for-ozone-hole/32878/9 "2000-09-13T00:33:28Z")
Reminds me of what Louis Black (of _The Daily Show_ fame) said during his comedy special: “We have men, we have rockets, we have Saran Wrap — **fix** it!!” Actually, I wouldn’t want to calculate the volume of ozone that would be needed to make an impact, but I suspect it’s far beyond what we could reasonably make.