Recycling plastics

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-07-03 08:47:04

About 11 million tonnes of plastic waste flows into the ocean each year, according to the UN

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-env … t-62013030

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-09-01 01:37:05

No plastic?

Lithuanians developed a takeaway food package that does not contain a single gram of plastic
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/963121

kbd512 · 2022-09-01 05:36:08

It sounds like they "re-invented" cardboard boxes. Whoopty-doo. We have plenty of that stuff, too. It's no better than plastic. Where is all their wood pulp coming from, or are we not supposed to ask that question while some of us are fixated on the "never-ending now"?

We put cardboard boxes in the oven fairly frequently. Keep it below Fahrenheit 451 and you're good to go. Turn it up to Fahrenheit 911 and suddenly you become a fat slob who belatedly realized that all the nonsense fed into your soft head, from people you mindlessly followed like a dog for most of your adult life, is in fact bad for the environment. I guess it's better late than never, but Mr. Hypocrite is still a world-class tool.

Save the planet by destroying it. What a concept. Why didn't I think of that? Apparently I was not blessed with the pompous self-righteous @$$hat gene that so many of these lemmings share. Buy a Tesla to save the planet. Everybody has to "do their part" to, you know, get a lot poorer and become more co-dependent on the cretins who fancy themselves our "betters". We make the highest quality BS known to man. George Carlin wasn't even close to kidding. I guess I can't be too upset with them. Most of these people were indoctrin... uh "educated" here, after all.

SpaceNut · 2022-09-01 21:53:39

As soon as it's got waxy coatings and pretty colors it's no longer recyclable....
Even a bio straw is useless before you can drink with it...

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-09-23 10:18:29

A Dutch NGO that has cleaned up 1/1000th of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, says its technology can scale up to eliminate it completely.

https://theoceancleanup.com/updates/fir … age-patch/

Mars_B4_Moon · 2022-10-26 05:18:36

Recycling plastic is practically impossible — and the problem is getting worse

https://www.npr.org/2022/10/24/11311310 … ting-worse

The vast majority of plastic that people put into recycling bins is headed to landfills, or worse, according to a report from Greenpeace on the state of plastic recycling in the U.S.

The report cites separate data published this May which revealed that the amount of plastic actually turned into new things has fallen to new lows of around 5%. That number is expected to drop further as more plastic is produced.

Greenpeace found that no plastic — not even soda bottles, one of the most prolific items thrown into recycling bins — meets the threshold to be called "recyclable" according to standards set by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation New Plastic Economy Initiative. Plastic must have a recycling rate of 30% to reach that standard; no plastic has ever been recycled and reused close to that rate.

"More plastic is being produced, and an even smaller percentage of it is being recycled," says Lisa Ramsden, senior plastic campaigner for Greenpeace USA. "The crisis just gets worse and worse, and without drastic change will continue to worsen as the industry plans to triple plastic production by 2050."

SpaceNut · 2022-10-26 20:03:07

Plastics are not like metals where heat is used to re-smelting it for remaking it into new product.
Plastics instead must be broken down by heat chemically for reuse.

kbd512 · 2022-10-27 02:51:21

Mars_B4_Moon,

This "Ellen MacArthur Foundation New Plastic Economy Initiative" is more word salad, but without the plastic wrapping to seal in their steaming load of BS, apparently.

As a real-world example, Lush Cosmetics employed upstream innovation to rethink its products to design out packaging waste. By designing cosmetics and personal care products like shampoo and soap in solid form, rather than liquid, Lush eliminated the need for bottles, containers, and tubes for many of its products. Since 2007, Lush has sold over 38 million naked shampoo bars globally, saving more than 90 million plastic shampoo bottles.

This is probably their one useful contribution to their notion of "circular economy", because women buy and waste so much unnecessary stuff in their quest to look like cartoon representations of real people, in order to "feel good" about themselves. They'll buy a bottle of something, one of 50 million different fairly meaningless "options" that they're given in the realm of skin or hair care "magic", use it a few times, they still look roughly the same afterwards, and then they move on to the next "hotness" in cosmetics or whatever, which turns out to be the same as the old "hotness". Rinse and repeat, dozens to hundreds of times per woman. At least they're not rubbing Mercury-based products into their skin anymore, so I guess I should be grateful for that. That said, this still doesn't stop them from buying more and more stuff that they have no real intention of completely consuming. That one aptly named brand, "Urban Decay", rather succinctly identifies the problem. These urbanized super-consumers literally created an entire globalized waste-producing industry out of their inability to recognize the silliness behind their "lifestyle choices". Why would they ever change when there's no incentive to do so?

A good example is Opendesk Furniture. By rethinking the traditional furniture retailer’s business model, Opendesk created a global company with localised production — it sells designs, rather than physical furniture. Opendesk is a global platform, collaborating with independent designers all over the world to create shareable, downloadable designs. The online platform connects customers to local professional makers, who make the furniture on demand. This means no extensive shipping, quicker lead times, and only a short last-mile delivery using reusable blanket wraps wherever possible and eliminating the need for plastic film and cardboard used in a traditional model for transport and storage.

Someone felt they needed to create online shareable furniture designs, so that yuppies could contact a nearby carpenter or wood working shop, in order to make a chair or desk for them?

We don't have any plastic wrap or cardboard production that way, but now we need to make "reusable blankets".

Sure, I'll buy that.

Can I get Blatant Consumerist Tripe for 400, Alex?

Another example of an innovative business model eliminating transport packaging is Infarm — a hyperlocal production model for providing fresh produce, such as herbs and leafy greens. The produce is grown directly in-store in smart, modular ‘farms’. Infarm installs the farms and remotely controls and monitors each one through cloud-based technology. The hyperlocal supply chain strategy allows customers to buy just-harvested produce, which stays fresh for longer, meaning food waste is reduced as well as packaging being eliminated. There are already more than 900 farms in stores, restaurants, and distribution centres across Japan, the US, Canada, and Europe.

How much energy do these "hyperlocal farms" consume, and is the energy consumed by growing food in grocery stores some extreme multiple of the energy incorporated into the plastic packaging material?

More unsubstantiated Chicken Little nonsense from their website:

We have already exceeded the threshold of 1 degree Celsius global warming compared to pre-industrial levels, which has brought about increasingly frequent extreme weather events that are wreaking havoc in communities and ecosystems the world over. Putting the recent climate plans and pledges into action is a matter of utmost urgency.

I see these BS assertions about extreme weather events again and again and again. If you ask for evidence, they don't have any and cannot cite any scientific studies regarding extreme weather events worsening. These are assertions based on nothing, but treated as if they represented some "greater truth" that simply doesn't exist, never has, and probably never will. Our self-styled weather changers are some of the most profoundly anti-science people imaginable. They all do great impressions of parrots playing a game of telephone with each other, but nearly all of it is vapid group-think bouncing around inside an echo chamber.

Mars_B4_Moon · 2023-03-14 04:44:22

New disease in wild bird species caused by plastic pollution, study finds

https://www.thenationalnews.com/climate … udy-finds/

The disease is caused by small pieces of plastic that inflame the digestive tract, scarring tissue and making it difficult for birds to properly digest food and absorb vitamins, ultimately affecting their ability to survive, the research published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials suggested.

SpaceNut · 2023-03-15 17:32:08

we also know that micro plastics are in the world's Oceans as well.

Mars_B4_Moon · 2023-03-18 09:41:43

Scientists sound the alarm as plastic waste forms rocks off coast of Brazil: ‘New and terrifying’
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/huge-amounts- … 41769.html

Geologists in Brazil’s Trindade Island have made a ”terrifying” discovery: rocks made from plastic debris.

By the latest estimate, more than 170 trillion pieces is floating in the world’s oceans, according to new analysis from the 5 Gyres Institute. Every day around 8 million pieces of plastic make their way into our oceans. The amount of plastic trash that flows into the oceans every year is expected to nearly triple by 2040, and there could be more plastic than fishes in the ocean. Meanwhile, a 2022 OECD report found that production of plastic has doubled worldwide in the last 20 years, with only 9 per cent successfully recycled.

SpaceNut · 2023-03-18 12:51:38

One discovery was that these are showing signs of melting so where is the source of heat once in a cold ocean?

Mars_B4_Moon · 2023-04-01 15:38:38

I know we had a Plastic CO2 thread discussion, putting this post here for now

'Chemists use bacteria to convert CO2 into bioplastic'
https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/20 … ioplastic/

Mars_B4_Moon · 2023-06-29 08:59:20

New Zealand bans thin plastic fruit and vegetable bags in world first | The ban is expected to reduce the use of 150 million bags a year
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/n … 91015.html

Polyethylene is a polymer of ethylene, a non-toxic material and easily recycled. Europa has waters and Titan as hydrocarbons, it is expected the Moon or Mars colony needs Synthetic Materials the common plastics for many purposes. An autonomous Moon biosphere or Mars colony could survive if the raw substances available on Mars via In Situ resource utilization. The pick of Polyethylene is possible as an artificial synthetic material the most common plastic produced on Earth. This may be true on Mars as a possible resource as well.
Plastics Glass Transition Temperature is the point where a polymer experiences a significant change in properties. The polymer structure turns "rubbery" upon heating and "glassy" upon cooling.
https://web.archive.org/web/20151114045 … emperature
Amorphous polymers cannot be used above this temperature. Semi-crystalline polymers generally become brittle below this temperature. Glass transition covers a range of temperature. The reported glass transition temperature point is generally the middle temperature point of the range.

Mars_B4_Moon · 2023-08-03 06:51:00

Too much garbage and junk

Scientists Say Recycling Has Backfired Spectacularly
https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientist … -backfired

SpaceNut · 2023-08-13 14:49:06

We just found out these items aren’t recyclable - have you been making the same mistakes?

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#26 2022-07-03 08:47:04

Re: Recycling plastics

#27 2022-09-01 01:37:05

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#30 2022-09-23 10:18:29

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#31 2022-10-26 05:18:36

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#32 2022-10-26 20:03:07

Re: Recycling plastics

#33 2022-10-27 02:51:21

Re: Recycling plastics

#34 2023-03-14 04:44:22

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#35 2023-03-15 17:32:08

Re: Recycling plastics

#36 2023-03-18 09:41:43

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#37 2023-03-18 12:51:38

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#38 2023-04-01 15:38:38

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#39 2023-06-29 08:59:20

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