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I have a simple answer to plastic waste and climate

We should have a plastic recycler in everybodies home, like the waste disposal in USA, and just as we have boilers etc..

it would also be a killer bussiness idea for dragons den

Mark

ORIGINAL: mainsworthy

I have a simple answer to plastic waste and climate

We should have a plastic recycler in everybodies home, like the waste disposal in USA, and just as we have boilers etc..

it would also be a killer bussiness idea for dragons den

Mark

I don't know where you live. Where I live we have general recycling for every home, including plastic, that is collected every other week by the City. Garbage is collected the alternating week.

ORIGINAL: z1812

ORIGINAL: mainsworthy

I have a simple answer to plastic waste and climate

We should have a plastic recycler in everybodies home, like the waste disposal in USA, and just as we have boilers etc..

it would also be a killer bussiness idea for dragons den

Mark

I don't know where you live. Where I live we have general recycling for every home, including plastic, that is collected every other week by the City. Garbage is collected the alternating week.

70% of plastics go straight to the landfill. #1 and #2 are typically recycled. More of #5 gets recycled now. The rest is trash. ~70%. Maybe more depending on where you live. Some foreign countries take what's left and it ends up dumped along side roads and ravines. China used to take it but they stopped. The idea of recycled plastics is a myth promoted by the plastics industry to make you think they are being responsible. Bunch of bs. Maybe 9% of the plastic you 'recycle' is actually recycled. In the U.S. it actually takes more energy to pick up the recycling, sort it and then haul the stuff that doesn't get recycled off to the dump than if you just sent it all to the dump in the first place.

Here's a link to LiveScience to set you straight. https://www.livescience.com/how-much-pl ... cling.html

About the only thing you can be 100% sure of being recycled is clean cardboard. Not saying you shouldn't TRY to recycle (especially clean paper, clean cans and clean #1, 2 and 5 plastics). Just saying it's badly broken in many countries.

I just got an idea: make use of plastic "garbage" as print material for 3d printer to make wargame miniature models! I don't know how feasible idea this is, or if possible at all, but some food for thought. Likely would require decent understanding from user what types of plastics qualify, clean & dry them up good (plastic bottles if even applicable), and process it appropriately for the printer (plastic hail or whatever else). Again, I don't even know if plastic is even applicable for printing material. But would be neat for us wargamers if we could process our plastic cups, broken plastic bottles, and some other plastic stuff into plastic soldiers & tanks & buildings etc.

3d print filaments are engineered for ease of print, adhesion, and minimal toxicity. PLA or PETG (PETG is a close cousin to what soda bottles are made of) are both popular FDM materials. They extrude reliably for repeatable results. Adding oddball materials to the mix creates QC problems and failed prints. Even just trying to re-grind pure PLA and print it anew has been a pipe dream that more than a few companies have tried (and failed).

Other plastics are reinforced with fiberglass or composites and are 0% recyclable. Some plastics, after forming, are no longer able to be melted down into what they originally were. These too are 0% recyclable. Stuff like PVC, when heated, gives off some really nasty toxins that create further problems for 3d printing.

None of this says it can't be done, but there are some really big engineering hurdles to overcome.

As Lobster said above, the plastic industry had an image problem and added the "recycling" logo to non-recyclable product to alter the public perception.

if you had plastic boilers in every home, you could produce plastic bricks or other shapes as output to be used or sold, you could also have grade 2 plastic where the core could be compressed unrescyclable plastic held together by the good stuff, you could then use the bricks to build houses or car shells etc...

In the May 2003 Discover magazine, there is a discussion of a process to turn organic wate (including plastics) into the equivalent of #2 Diesel Fuel and with further refining, into gasoline, diesel, kerosene (jet fuel), carbon black, and methane which is used in the process. It takes about 15 BTUs into the process to get 100 BTUs of energy out. Problem solved for waste including what is flushed down the toilet.

https://www.discovermagazine.com/enviro ... g-into-oil

https://www.discovermagazine.com/enviro ... nto-oil-02

https://www.discovermagazine.com/techno ... nto-oil-03