Tests / Experiments

Being a Flotsam Diarist is more than just wandering the beach and picking up trash. It's trying to learn from that experience. What rots away, what persists, why? What makes the world the way it is?

As time has gone on, the list of Flotsam Diaries experiments has grown. This is a place to follow the trials & tribulations of a regular guy just trying to make sense of the world that lay at his feet.

Cigarette Filter Persistence
Cigarette butts aren't cotton. They're plastic, and they last for years. What does that mean for a filter in a marine/coastal environment? This set of experiments hoped to explain just that.

Bucket, seawater, cigarette, sand

Ashes to Ashes, Part I
Ashes to Ashes, Part II
Ashes to Ashes, Part III


Aluminum Can Disintegration
Beaches in Maine, including Bay View, are littered with scraps of aluminum cans. Many were clearly rotting away back to nothing. An early series of experiments hoped to find out why.

Plastic doesn't rot; aluminum does

Experimental Archaeology
Soda Can Experiment Update - The Plot Thickens
Soda Can Experiment Update II
Soda Can Experiment Update III
Soda Can Experiment Post-mortem


Ocean Acidification
Scientists predict rising CO2 levels mean an increasingly acidic ocean. It's already happening, in some places 50 years ahead of the previous direst predictions. So, in an acidic world, what will dissolve and what will persist?

Let the sizzling begin

Acidification and Disintegration - Part I
Acidification and Disintegration - Part II