4 ms·

I may be naive but every time I hear about these efforts I wonder if the microbes might start degrading plastic things we don't want recycled just yet.

by djmips 8y ago

ars 8y ago
We manage with wood, we'll manage with plastic. Everything needs water, so it'll effectively always be about water management. Also, if necessary we can add poison to the plastic just for those things that really need it (underground pipes mainly I suspect). What the world really needs is a strong, light, cheap material that lasts, after water contact, at full strength, about 3 months, and degrades in a couple of years. I've always wondered if there way a cheap way to engineer cellulose or lignin into a material like this. But it's gotta be really cheap.
- WalterBright 8y ago
  Isn't it amazing that we can make a material that is simply too good? (I have some plastic toys from the 1960's that are too fragile to touch. My 1972 Dodge has some synthetic foam insulation under the dash that turns to powder when touched. Maybe we already have the needed technology, it is just forgotten.)
  - ItsMe000001 8y ago
    Are the long-chain molecules "disassembled", or did they just turn into billions of plastic nano-particles? Out of sight, out of mind? Something falling into tiny pieces isn't necessarily a good thing. For plastics, we want the actual molecules to degrade to something that can enter the usual organic circles of life (the biochemical pathways in various organisms).
    - Cthulhu_ 8y ago
      ^ this, I saw a video recently about it. Plastic does break down, but it turns into microplastics that find their way into and up through the food chain.
      - lindskogen 8y ago
        Might have been this one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS7IzU2VJIQ&t=0s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS7IzU2VJIQ&t=0s
  - chiefalchemist 8y ago
    > "Isn't it amazing that we can make a material that is simply too good?" Um. Is it? Whatever happened to: Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Also, good is subjective. What would be more accurate is: make a material that currently does not breakdown naturally. We know this. But we keep making it instead of reusing what we already have. Amazing? Or amazingly short-sighted?
- kardos 8y ago
  Wax paper?

I may be naive but every time I hear about these efforts I wonder if the microbes might start degrading plastic things we don't want recycled just yet.

by djmips 8y ago

I may be naive but every time I hear about these efforts I wonder if the microbes might start degrading plastic things we don't want recycled just yet.

ars 8y ago

We manage with wood, we'll manage with plastic. Everything needs water, so it'll effectively always be about water management. Also, if necessary we can add poison to the plastic just for those things that really need it (underground pipes mainly I suspect). What the world really needs is a strong, light, cheap material that lasts, after water contact, at full strength, about 3 months, and degrades in a couple of years. I've always wondered if there way a cheap way to engineer cellulose or lignin into a material like this. But it's gotta be really cheap.

WalterBright 8y ago
Isn't it amazing that we can make a material that is simply too good? (I have some plastic toys from the 1960's that are too fragile to touch. My 1972 Dodge has some synthetic foam insulation under the dash that turns to powder when touched. Maybe we already have the needed technology, it is just forgotten.)
- ItsMe000001 8y ago
  Are the long-chain molecules "disassembled", or did they just turn into billions of plastic nano-particles? Out of sight, out of mind? Something falling into tiny pieces isn't necessarily a good thing. For plastics, we want the actual molecules to degrade to something that can enter the usual organic circles of life (the biochemical pathways in various organisms).
  - Cthulhu_ 8y ago
    ^ this, I saw a video recently about it. Plastic does break down, but it turns into microplastics that find their way into and up through the food chain.
    - lindskogen 8y ago
      Might have been this one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS7IzU2VJIQ&t=0s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS7IzU2VJIQ&t=0s
- chiefalchemist 8y ago
  > "Isn't it amazing that we can make a material that is simply too good?" Um. Is it? Whatever happened to: Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Also, good is subjective. What would be more accurate is: make a material that currently does not breakdown naturally. We know this. But we keep making it instead of reusing what we already have. Amazing? Or amazingly short-sighted?
kardos 8y ago
Wax paper?