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"""The next big question is whether manufacturers will use it and recycling plants will accept it. Because the new plastic’s byproducts are more valuable—and be
by dpflan 8y ago
"""The next big question is whether manufacturers will use it and recycling plants will accept it. Because the new plastic’s byproducts are more valuable—and because recycling plants likely wouldn’t need a total overhaul to process it, this sustainable plastic could one day shift the global economics of plastic recycling."""
One question is what is the price to create this new plastic, sure the output "recyclable" is more valuable because it's more broken down - so the process of decomposition towards usable components is improved.
- newswriter99 8y ago"One question is what is the price to create this new plastic" You actually hit the nail on the head better than I did. Virgin resin is cheaper than recycled plastic. Which means that manufacturers have an incentive to buy fresh plastic pellets over more-costly recycled material (which is usually of inferior quality anyway). That's why lots of products you see will say "made from X% recycled parts". A bottle that's 100% recycled just sucks compared to a fresh one. (edited for punctuation)
- TheSoftwareGuy 8y agoNot just price, but what are its other physical characteristics? how easily does it melt (will it melt if I leave it in my car during the day), is it rigid or flexible, etc. There are thousands, maybe millions of different plastics in existance because they all fill a different niche, and price is just one variable in those equations. Although I guess the point is to replace single use plastics, but that still represents a large variety of things.