3 ms·

> I'd like to see plastics restricted to areas where they have major advantages over wood, steel, etc. I suppose you could make a cheap laundry basket out of c

> I'd like to see plastics restricted to areas where they have major advantages over wood, steel, etc. I suppose you could make a cheap laundry basket out of chicken wire, but there would have to be some way to protect from rust caused by damp clothes.

mjhay 4y ago
Like I alluded to, some low-cost consumer products that aren't really meant to last forever (like a laundry basket) would be good candidates for bioplastics (some of which do fine with water).
- pvillano 4y ago
  Alternatively, make a laundry basket that is meant to last forever.
  - mjhay 4y ago
    That would be ideal, but a lot more difficult to market. Most people just don't care enough when they buy items like this, and/or they don't want to pay a premium because they'll probably be moving soon/etc. Crap, if people just spotaneously started buying qualty, durable things, and companies actually made them, that would go an enormous way to help the global environmental collapse.
13of40 4y ago
You can actually just look to what people were using before plastic became ubiquitous: wicker, cotton, burlap Unfortunately if you live in the US you're starting out at about $50 instead of $5. I think that's a little bit of a HCOL price point, though. I picked up a burlap shopping bag in India earlier this year for about the equivalent of five cents, that any store here would have charged a couple of bucks for.
- convolvatron 4y ago
  I'm still using the reed clothes baskets I bought 30 years ago...then they were around $10-20 ea
pvillano 4y ago
A plastic laundry basket can be made to last forever. That's the point of this post.
- SoftTalker 4y ago
  But they aren't. This guy got very lucky. Mine never last more than a few years. Most of them inevitably crack somewhere in less than a year. They are made so that you need to keep buying them. I probably buy 3 a year just to replace the ones that break.
  - moloch-hai 4y ago
    You are failing to drill out the ends of the cracks, as the author did, failing to glue, and failing to buy a better quality product, slightly more expensive, that would not demand you return to the dollar store so frequently. You have anyway lots of company. That should not be reassuring. (I use "you", here, to denote all readers in the same boat, not any particular individual.)
  - teg4n_ 4y ago
    what the heck are you doing to your laundry baskets that you break 3 a year??? I don’t think i’ve _ever_ broken a laundry basket.
  - quesera 4y ago
    Avoid hard plastics and square edges/sharp corners. Notice that the basket from the article has rounded edges, and rounded cutouts. The plastic appears to be thickish and should be very slightly flexible/rubbery (bending because the material is flexible, not merely because it is thin). These products should (and definitely can) last decades.
jessaustin 4y ago
Reed/grass baskets are really old technology. Like, prehistoric. There's no need for newfangled materials developed only in the last several thousand years.

mjhay 4y ago

Like I alluded to, some low-cost consumer products that aren't really meant to last forever (like a laundry basket) would be good candidates for bioplastics (some of which do fine with water).

pvillano 4y ago
Alternatively, make a laundry basket that is meant to last forever.
- mjhay 4y ago
  That would be ideal, but a lot more difficult to market. Most people just don't care enough when they buy items like this, and/or they don't want to pay a premium because they'll probably be moving soon/etc. Crap, if people just spotaneously started buying qualty, durable things, and companies actually made them, that would go an enormous way to help the global environmental collapse.

13of40 4y ago

You can actually just look to what people were using before plastic became ubiquitous: wicker, cotton, burlap Unfortunately if you live in the US you're starting out at about $50 instead of $5. I think that's a little bit of a HCOL price point, though. I picked up a burlap shopping bag in India earlier this year for about the equivalent of five cents, that any store here would have charged a couple of bucks for.

convolvatron 4y ago
I'm still using the reed clothes baskets I bought 30 years ago...then they were around $10-20 ea

pvillano 4y ago

A plastic laundry basket can be made to last forever. That's the point of this post.

SoftTalker 4y ago
But they aren't. This guy got very lucky. Mine never last more than a few years. Most of them inevitably crack somewhere in less than a year. They are made so that you need to keep buying them. I probably buy 3 a year just to replace the ones that break.
- moloch-hai 4y ago
  You are failing to drill out the ends of the cracks, as the author did, failing to glue, and failing to buy a better quality product, slightly more expensive, that would not demand you return to the dollar store so frequently. You have anyway lots of company. That should not be reassuring. (I use "you", here, to denote all readers in the same boat, not any particular individual.)
- teg4n_ 4y ago
  what the heck are you doing to your laundry baskets that you break 3 a year??? I don’t think i’ve _ever_ broken a laundry basket.
- quesera 4y ago
  Avoid hard plastics and square edges/sharp corners. Notice that the basket from the article has rounded edges, and rounded cutouts. The plastic appears to be thickish and should be very slightly flexible/rubbery (bending because the material is flexible, not merely because it is thin). These products should (and definitely can) last decades.

jessaustin 4y ago

Reed/grass baskets are really old technology. Like, prehistoric. There's no need for newfangled materials developed only in the last several thousand years.