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There's this new thing - probably not a fad - to just add plastic strips to the concrete while its in the mixer. This is popular with people building with poly
by willvarfar 9y ago
There's this new thing - probably not a fad - to just add plastic strips to the concrete while its in the mixer. This is popular with people building with polystyrene block forms e.g. houses and pools as it saves oodles of effort, and with experiments to '3d print' concrete buildings.
I kinda expect it to take off.
- hvidgaard 9y agoIt poses a different kind of problem during recycling. With iron it's simple and easy to seperate. If you add plastic strips I imagine that it's quite a different story.
- willvarfar 9y agoCement production is already the very major polluter on a global scale: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cement#Environmental_and_social_impacts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cement#Environmental_and_socia... especially https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cement#/media/File:Global_Carbon_Emissions.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cement#/media/File:Global_Carb...
- hvidgaard 9y agoSurely, making the recycling process more complicated does not help.
- willvarfar 9y agoFirst, plastics are on a spectrum of bio-degradableness and I have no idea what plastics are used to strengthen concrete. Second, to recycling concrete you crush it. Crush it to powder and you can use it as aggregate in another batch of concrete. Leave it as big chunks and you can use it as fill. In this kind of recycling, the plastic can go with it just like any other. Personally I prefer to build with wood.