10 ms·
It depends if fully reclaiming it as plastic is the goal. That's the current model, but there are other routes available. Two options that don't quite work ye
by regularfry 6y ago
It depends if fully reclaiming it as plastic is the goal. That's the current model, but there are other routes available. Two options that don't quite work yet (but have moderately promising potential) are either to break the plastic down to useful precursors with enzymes, or pyrolise it down to biochar.
To my knowledge, the enzyme approach has shown a modicum of promise in labs but is still impractical, while making biochar is really, really easy. We just need a market for it. Unfortunately, the very group of people who could make the biggest use of it (and are most likely to) are blocked by policy: you can't have an Organic label on your farm produce if you put biochar in the soil.
- bloaf 6y agoIf you want to do anything at meaningful scale, it's unlikely anyone is going to make biochar. If the big oil companies really feel pressured by a need to recycle plastic, they'll just look for a way to stick it into one of their existing facilities, maybe a coker. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_coker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_coker
- hosh 6y agoHuh, I've always considered organics as biochar inputs. Thanks for pointing out that plastics can be used that way. Have you seen any work done about addressing release of toxins when burning plastic?
- maxerickson 6y agoIt's obviously not biochar though. It might be similarly useful, but the bio in bio char is about the material coming from plants.
- neltnerb 6y agoSo I am largely complaining about how confusing it is. Intentionally so. (a) no, most plastics won't get broken down to precursors with enzymes. a few it will work with, like that company recovering resins from carbon fiber. or PLA even theoretically. but most of them are a free radical polymerization that I just don't think you're going to be able to meaningfully reverse. (b) making biochar sounds fine. better than the landfill. I'd be most worried about chemicals like fluorine and sulfur making it into the soil.