Plastic, Plastic, Plastic! Plastic EVERYWHERE! Plastic On The Sidewalk... And Plastic In Yo' Hair!

Out with the metal and in with the plastic!

The natural gas pipes that National Grid's contractor has been busy replacing on a few streets for the past several months are all made of plastic. 100% plastic.  I read somewhere online that National Grid expects their new plastic pipes to last for 80 years.  Of course, no one has tested plastic gas pipes for even 20 years, so we (including National Grid) can only hope that the plastic pipes being buried underground do at least as good a job as the metal pipes that have been around and well-tested for several decades, some for 100 years or more.

The New York State Department of Public Service is making all gas utilities in the state replace old metal pipes with plastic ones.  (The ongoing project, begun in August, was forced on National Grid.)  But while the State Of New York, like many states, is hoping to create a natural gas-free future, it would prefer to have plastic buried in the ground carrying the climate change gas it wants to eventually rid us of.  Hmmm....   

Aren't we also trying to create a planet for future generations without plastic stuff everywhere, especially where we can't see it?  Microplastics are everywhere now -- in our soil and water and, unsurprisingly, now accumulating in our bodies.  Shouldn't we be burying less of it, even if it's just for 80 years?

Plastics are our future (and possibly
one of our downfalls)

This is an 80-year test!

Speaking of plastic crap, last week while on a walk, my attention was drawn to a line of plastic storm water drain covers spanning the sidewalk along Front Street, two of which had come loose waiting to put someone in the hospital.  That line of covers, along with two others, were installed a few years ago when the sidewalk was redone, and now I am noticing them elsewhere around town.  Plastic on the sidewalk, ready to break or come loose, when it should be metal (or nothing at all -- when did these things become necessary?).  Cheap, ugly crap we walk on or trip over that lasts only a few years before being sent to a landfill.  The American way!

Are these thing code compliant?
Does it matter?